This post was originally published on this site.
A coalition of 104 education organizations has called on Congress to immediately reverse the Department of Education’s recent cancellation of several major teacher preparation grant programs, a move that has disrupted educator pipelines across the country and threatens to worsen the national teacher shortage crisis.
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and the National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR), joined by 102 other education groups, sent a letter to congressional leadership expressing “deep concern” over the termination of three critical federal programs: Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED), Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP), and the Teacher and School Leader Incentive Program (TSL).
“Every child in our nation deserves access to highly prepared educators, and it is essential that every educator be prepared in a manner that equips them for modern classrooms,” said Dr. Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, AACTE president and CEO. “The cancellation of these grants hinders active solutions to addressing the educator workforce and improving student outcomes in PK-12 schools.”
The cancellations come at a time when many communities are experiencing severe teacher shortages while students remain approximately half a grade level behind pre-pandemic achievement levels in reading and math. The affected programs specifically addressed critical shortage areas including science, mathematics, career and technical education, early childhood education, special education, and instruction for English language learners.
The Department of Education has not fully disclosed how many programs have been terminated, but the coalition reports that all SEED grants and most TQP grants have been canceled. These terminations have affected educational institutions across the country, including large research universities, small private colleges, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and alternative teacher preparation pathways.
What makes the situation particularly problematic is the timing of these cancellations, which occurred in the middle of the academic year. Students who are only months away from becoming fully licensed teachers have suddenly lost scholarships and paid internships that made their career path possible.
“There’s a ripple effect that must be addressed now,” said Dr. Kathlene Campbell, NCTR CEO. “While the cancellation of the grants impacts students and teacher residents currently in a teacher preparation program who are uncertain on how they can continue in the program without financial support, it also impacts prospective students and teacher residents who now may have second thoughts about entering a teacher prep program.”
The impacts are being felt nationwide. In Louisiana, approximately $23 million in investments designed to build a pipeline of quality teachers for high-need schools was canceled, affecting multiple programs that would have provided over 550 teachers to New Orleans schools by 2025. Michigan lost TQP grants focused on addressing teacher shortages and improving literacy instruction. In Tennessee, SEED grant cancellations halted work in rural areas designed to enhance instructional leadership in STEM, literacy, and computational thinking, affecting approximately 3,200 K-12 students in districts already devastated by Hurricane Helene.
The coalition pointed to research showing that teacher preparation quality directly impacts both teacher retention and student outcomes. Teachers prepared through high-quality programs that include pre-service student teaching and integrated coursework are less than half as likely to leave the profession compared to those entering through pathways lacking these elements.
One study cited from Texas found that ninth-grade students with teachers from high-quality preparation programs gained more than two months of additional learning compared to students whose teachers lacked such preparation.
Rather than accepting these abrupt cancellations, the coalition is calling for expanded investment in teacher preparation. Their letter urges Congress to “instruct the Acting Secretary of Education to immediately reverse the cancellation of TQP, TSL, and SEED grants.”
The letter was addressed to bipartisan leadership in Congress, including chairs and ranking members of key committees with jurisdiction over education funding.
The coalition includes a wide range of stakeholders from across the education sector, including professional associations, universities, school districts, advocacy groups, and community organizations committed to strengthening the educator workforce.
The organizations argue that instead of abruptly canceling grants, the federal government should be “doubling down on investments to ensure students have access to a highly qualified educator workforce.”