A new agreement between the University of Mary Washington, Germanna Community College and Stafford County Public Schools gives students who want to become teachers the opportunity to secure college credits while still in high school. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

The University of Mary Washington has signed an agreement with Germanna Community College and Stafford County Public Schools to make it easier for local students to become educators and help ease the state’s teacher shortage.

Streamlining the path from high school to college, the memorandum of understanding, signed last month by UMW President Troy Paino and Germanna President Janet Gullickson, was finalized last week with the signature of Stafford County Schools Superintendent Scott Kizner.

The agreement creates dual enrollment and workforce programs to pave the way for future educators, offering pathways in education and early childhood education to participants in Stafford Schools’ Teachers for Tomorrow (TfT) initiative. The state-recognized high school curriculum has been lauded as a successful “grow your own” teacher program. UMW holds a similar partnership with Spotsylvania County Public Schools, said UMW College of Education (COE) Dean Pete Kelly.

“As a COE at a public university, we have a responsibility to help address the chronic teacher shortage in our area schools and in Virginia,” Kelly said. “We worked together to align coursework and curriculum to ensure students have the learning experiences they need to be successful in the COE at UMW, and in their work as teachers after graduation. We also worked to make sure students get credit for the courses they take.” Read more.