The AZ HSI Consortium is pleased to announce the Northern Arizona University West Valley (WV) Pathways to Teaching Grow Your Own (GYO) Partnership as an AZ HSI Evidence Based Practice. After careful review from colleagues across the state of AZ, the Northern Arizona University West Valley (WV) Pathways to Teaching Grow Your Own (GYO) Partnership was shown to be an effective program in moving the needle towards greater college access, persistence, retention, transfer, and degree attainment for Latinx students in Arizona.
Please read below to learn more about the West Valley (WV) Pathways to Teaching Grow Your Own (GYO) Partnership at Northern Arizona University.
Overview of Institution
Northern Arizona University (NAU) was founded in 1899 as a Teachers College. The main campus is located in Flagstaff, Arizona. NAU offers degrees in 20+ locations to 28,000 students statewide, online, and at the Flagstaff main campus. Almost half of NAU’s students, 46%, are the first in their family to attend college. In 2021, NAU became a Hispanic-Serving Institution and ranks 12th in the nation for awarding bachelor’s degrees in education to Hispanic students and 36th for master’s degrees in education. “NAU aims to be the nation’s preeminent engine of opportunity, vehicle of economic mobility, and driver of social impact by delivering equitable postsecondary value in Arizona and beyond” (NAU 2025 Elevating Excellence: A Bold and Boundless Future for All, 2022). NAU is leveraging the state funded Arizona Teachers Academy Scholarship to recruit prospective students statewide who are interested in becoming certified teachers for their communities through innovative initiatives and online delivery of undergraduate Elementary and Special and Elementary degree programs, graduate Elementary, Special Education, and Secondary Science, and a post baccalaureate Physical Education program.
NAU is committed to fostering equitable postsecondary education and economic mobility for diverse communities in Arizona and beyond. This commitment is deeply integrated into NAU's HSI Roadmap, which outlines its vision to support academic excellence, student success, community engagement, and sustainable stewardship specifically for Hispanic/Latine communities.
NAU’s HSI Roadmap advances academic excellence by creating an inclusive educational environment that values research, teaching, and service focused on Hispanic/Latine issues. The university empowers Hispanic/Latine graduates through culturally relevant coursework, professional networks, and mentorship, ensuring they are well-prepared to thrive globally. To further support Hispanic/Latine student success, NAU has leveraged initiatives such as the Arizona Teachers Academy Scholarship to attract and retain students who are dedicated to serving Arizona communities as certified teachers.
Through meaningful partnerships, NAU engages Hispanic/Latine families, connecting with high schools and community organizations across the state. Events such as the annual Encuentro celebration strengthens NAU’s HSI mission by fostering an understanding of Hispanic/Latine heritage among students, faculty, and staff.
Ultimately, NAU strives to sustain a campus culture that embraces HSI designation through inclusive hiring, culturally informed curriculum development, and the removal of barriers to student access and retention. This vision for sustained engagement and diversity aligns NAU’s mission with its HSI Roadmap, guiding its journey as a catalyst for social impact, economic growth, and educational equity.
Overview of Program
Arizona is experiencing a severe teacher shortage and in 2021 its turnover rate for teachers was 19%, more than double the national average (8%) (Gomez, 2023). For the 2024-2025 school year, 25.4% of the Arizona teacher positions remained unfilled in September, and an additional 52.2% of these “vacancies were filled by individuals who do not meet the state’s standard certification requirements” (Arizona School Personnel Administrators Association, 2024, p. 2). GYO is a strategy for developing a pipeline of new, certified teachers from the local community for school districts (National Center for Grow Your Own, n.d.). The literature indicates the value of recruiting prospective teacher candidates from school districts’ paraprofessional staff and community members (Fallona & Johnson, 2019; Simicou et al., 2021). Partnerships are typically established between districts, and a university/college offering teacher certification programs.
In 2022, Northern Arizona University (NAU), in collaboration with six Phoenix Arizona West Valley school districts (i.e., Buckeye, Littleton, Pendergast, Tolleson, and Union Elementary School Districts and Saddle Mountain Unified School District), co-constructed a Grow Your Own (GYO) partnership to address the severe teacher shortage in this region. In Arizona, the shortage has led to hiring non-degreed individuals as teachers of record. The teachers of record hired on an Arizona Department of Education (ADE) Emergency Substitute Certificate (ESC), requiring only a high school diploma or passing scores on General Education Development exams is growing. During Academic Year (AY) 2023-2024, it reached a high of over 50 ESC teachers at one NAU partner school district and other partner districts reported hiring over 15 ESC teachers for positions. Additionally, ADE (2023) reports over 500 of the teachers working at Title I schools in these districts have an emergency teaching certificate or are teaching out of their credentialed field. These West Valley GYO partner school districts serve 65% to 96% racially and ethnically diverse K-12 students with 57% to 82% identifying as Hispanic/Latine students.
NAU is delivering state approved undergraduate and graduate teacher certification degree programs through this GYO partnership for school district employees and West Valley residents. Elementary and Special and Elementary undergraduate programs offer teacher preparation coursework through a combination of in-person classes at a local, convenient school district site and asynchronous and synchronous online delivered classes. Graduate teacher certification programs in Elementary Education, Secondary Science Teaching, K-12 Special Education Mild Moderate Disabilities, and Early Childhood Special Education and a post-baccalaureate program in K-12 Physical Education are delivered online. Reducing financial, university application, and degree program curricula barriers are main goals for the implementation of this GYO model. The development of this partnership also represents NAU’s and the partner school districts’ commitment to be a vehicle of economic mobility and a driver of social impact for their communities by broadening local opportunities for equitable postsecondary education. In October 2022, this new partnership received the WESTMARC Quality of Life Enhancement Education Award (see Daily Independent news story, https://www.yourvalley.net/stories/westmarc-best-of-west-2022-winners-a…).
Areas program seeks to make an impact and how
Enrollment: The WV GYO initiative seeks to provide local access to accredited degree programs leading to teacher certification. Recruitment of students focuses on school district employees and community members interested in a teaching position at one of the partner school districts. Enrollment in the degree programs is being tracked. The first cohort of 13 students began prerequisite or teacher preparation coursework in Spring 2023. The program is experiencing significant growth and as of Fall 2024, we have 63 enrolled students.
Retention: The first group of students from the WV GYO will be graduating in Fall 2024. In Fall 2023, 13 undergraduate students began teacher preparation course work. As of Fall 2024, 11 of these 13 students remain enrolled and are either enrolled in student teaching (the final course for the degree program) this fall or plan to enroll in student teaching in Spring 2025. This represents a retention rate of over 80%. For graduate students in the WV GYO program, the data indicates a retention rate of over 70% for enrolled students AY 2023-2024 to Fall 2024.
Graduate School: The WV GYO initiative is providing access to graduate as well as undergraduate teacher certification degree programs. This decision was intentional in order to serve the varying needs of prospective students from the communities. In Fall 2023, the program enrollment included 7 graduate students. In Fall 2024, the graduate program enrollment grew to 16 graduate students. This data represents a 64% growth in graduate enrollment. Additionally, over 30% of the graduate students are pursuing a Special Education degree program, a critical area of need for most school districts in Arizona and nationally.
Career Readiness: The WV GYO school district partners are also promoting the GYO program offerings as a career track to a certified teaching position for existing staff and new hires employed in non-certified positions such as paraprofessionals, instructional assistants, and other support staff as well as individuals serving as a teacher of record but who do not hold a standard teaching certificate. The majority of students are employed by a partner school district. Additionally, the degree programs require three practicum courses and full-time student teaching with mentoring support. Undergraduate teacher preparation courses are being taught by qualified school district partner teachers and administrations, who are able to focus on current, relevant content and pedagogical skills.
How does this program center servingness?
Given the early stages of the NAU WV GYO initiative, the focus to date has been on developing structures for serving including equity-minded leadership practices and actively working in partnership with school districts to meet the needs of their community (Garcia, 2019). Additionally, the initiative has focused on academic outcomes aligned to servingness such as “persistence, graduation, transfer, course completion,...and labor market outcomes” (Garcia, 2019, p. 3) by listening to stakeholders and students to actively addressing barriers through the following policy changes:
-Providing NAU WV GYO undergraduate students access to complete all necessary General Studies and Teacher Preparation prerequisites through NAU via online courses
--Change allowed GYO students to access a state scholarship covering tuition and fees for up to four years rather than the typical 2 years for transfer students (Equity: increased access to financial aid/scholarship)
--Change allowed GYO student to access the same courses, level of courses, and credit hours for courses for Teacher Preparation prerequisites as Flagstaff main campus students (Equity: access to 100 level Math courses rather than 200 level Math courses offered by community colleges; access to one 4 credit hour English course rather than taking two, 3 credit hour courses at the community college)
-Delivering an accelerated summer offering of Term 3 undergraduate teacher preparation courses in the West Valley allowing students to enroll in student teaching one semester early impacting persistence, graduation, and labor market outcomes.
NAU WV GYO partnership with Phoenix-area school districts embodies Gina Garcia's framework of HSI “servingness” by addressing both the critical teacher shortage and the need for equitable pathways for Hispanic/Latine students. By offering state-approved certification programs that are financially accessible and locally available, NAU’s GYO initiative goes beyond education access to promote economic mobility within racially and ethnically diverse communities, where 57-82% of students identify as Hispanic/Latine. This project not only supports local education but aligns with Garcia’s vision for HSIs to engage in meaningful, community-centered impact that enhances social mobility, and responds to the unique needs of the Hispanic/Latine population.
For list of References, see here.