Partnership can put students on teaching path

NWACC enters into agreement with Reach University

BENTONVILLE — Northwest Arkansas Community College has entered into an agreement that allows its graduates to transfer all of their associate degree credits into Reach University’s liberal studies degree program as a pathway to earning a teaching credential.

Graduates from 30 degree programs are eligible for the transfer plan. They would work for a regional education provider while earning a bachelor of arts degree from Reach University. Students would have the option of seeking a teaching credential after that, according to a joint news release from the schools.

Northwest Arkansas Community College President Dennis Rittle and Reach University President Joe Ross signed the agreement in a brief ceremony at Burns Hall on April 3.

“This is an opportunity to build bridges,” Rittle said.

Program participants seeking a teaching career would pursue a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies, with a concentration in education science. The associate degree holders must work approximately 15 hours a week at a local school in a setting that includes opportunities for observation, mentoring and coaching. The students will be paid during the bachelor’s degree process and take on zero student loan debt from Reach University, according to the release.

It’s a job-embedded program. The associate degree holder would typically have a classified job such as a classroom aide, bus driver or administrative assistant, according to the release, with half the learning toward the bachelor’s degree coming from work experience and the rest from rigorous online learning. Oxford-style seminars are part of the program, with seminars led by nationally recognized faculty, many based in Arkansas, according to the release.

“At NWACC, it is our greatest priority to meet and exceed the needs of our students, employer partners and broader community,” Rittle said in the news release. “We are very pleased to be partnering with Reach University to offer our students another amazing option to continue their education.”

Reach University is a nonprofit based in Oakland, Calif. The maximum outof-pocket expense for the Reach University program is $900 a year, and most students pay $75 a month, Ross said.

The degree program is designed to prepare graduates to step up in the place they work and the community they live in to become a teacher, Ross said.

The liberal studies bachelor’s degree can be applied to other fields aside from teaching, he said.

“Collaborative partnerships are at the core of Reach’s job-embedded undergraduate degree,” Ross said in the news release. “It’s only in partnership with forward-thinking employers and fellow institutions of higher education that we can create barrier-free, post-secondary and career opportunities in every community throughout the state.”

The program also offers opportunities for high school students in the Rogers School District, Superintendent Jeff Perry said. The district wants to identify juniors and seniors with the passion and skills for teaching and who want to stay in the community, he said. Building a staff that reflects the diversity in the schools — teachers with bilingual ability, for example — is also a priority, he said.

“We can put them on this track, and they can be successful,” Perry said. “One of the things we really loved about Reach University is the online component.”

Students can take courses concurrently or on the Northwest Arkansas Community College campus, get an associate degree, work for the district and then be put with a master teacher, Perry said.

The program could involve paraprofessionals and others working in the school system, he said. There would be major tuition discounts for high school students and many classes would be free, which is something the district already does.

“The partnership makes it easier and more practical,” Perry said of the Reach agreement. “We could do this without the partnership, but this makes it more feasible.”

Reach University is an online college operating across Alabama, Arkansas, California and Louisiana, according to the university. It operates in all the education service cooperatives in Arkansas, serving more than 300 teacher candidates and working in 110 districts, according to the university.

Graduates of the bachelor’s program can complete their teaching credential through an alternative certification program, according to Reach University. The alternative certification offers a nontraditional route that might allow a candidate to teach while finishing requirements for the teaching credential, according to Reach University.