Effective coalitions in redesigning teacher education

Abstract

A diverse stakeholder partnership led to the development of a Pre‐Elementary Education program through its collaboration among faculty, academic advisement, and administration across higher education institutions. Housed at an institution that serves a minority population, this collaboration led to offering an Associate of Arts degree that is fully (2 + 2) transferrable to three key transfer universities. This collaboration also created a credit hour transfer pathway to a prominent Research I institution utilizing a Mellon grant partnership between the two institutions. These collaborations are significant because pre‐education is a transfer degree and requires completion of a bachelor's degree program to meet state certification requirements. This partnership emerged in 2021–2022 at a prominent Midwestern community college. This article resports on the process of building the Pre‐Elementary Associate of Arts degree. The student population is considered minority status, being first‐generation, lower socio‐economic, coming from black and brown communities, and Middle Eastern North African descent. The lessons learned are that forging collaboration among academic advisement, faculty, and administration leads to a more successful student experience through the creation of a highly transferrable program.