Nevada State University (NS) in Henderson, Nevada, near Las Vegas, is steadfastly committed to building a larger and more diversified teacher workforce in the state through its Teacher Academy Pipeline Project (TAPP). This initiative offers concurrent enrollment opportunities, known more commonly as dual-credit courses, to cultivate students’ interest in the teaching profession.
TAPP, also referred to as the Teacher Academy program, partners with high schools that have teaching and training career technical education programs through which students can access introductory education courses, as well as general education courses. TAPP ensures that students earning dual credits can transfer those credits to a postsecondary institution where they can pursue careers in education and increase the number of local, culturally responsive teachers who serve within the community. The Teacher Academy program, created through the university’s School of Education, has 10 TAPP partners selected because of their diverse student and faculty demographics.
NS has a team dedicated to TAPP who provide additional support to the students and work closely with the stakeholders at the high schools. Current NS undergraduates who experienced TAPP serve as near-peer student mentors for the high school students. The university staff member’s engagement with high school leaders and staff members reinforces this strong partnership. Through TAPP, NS conducts campus tours during which high school students learn about what it’s like to go to the university and the constellation of academic opportunities available to them.
To help students succeed in their degree journeys, Nevada State’s TAPP provides several benefits. The credits earned in high school can shorten students’ enrollment periods and reduce their student loans. The Teachers Academy program offers scholarships and intensive college preparation workshops. TAPP allows students to reflect on their lived experience and explore how they can leverage their unique identity as an asset to make lasting, positive changes in their community through teaching. Students also gain early professional identity formation and belongingness in the TAPP community, which has been shown to help with persistence and graduation from college. And, upon graduation, the students are prepared to immediately secure a teaching position.
Through the Teacher Academy program, NS reinforces pathways to degree attainment that align skills and knowledge gained with workforce needs and opportunities. The majority of the NS population consists of students of color and first-generation students. Nearly 75% of these students stay in southern Nevada. TAPP offers students an affordable means to empower their social and economic mobility that not only cultivates their professional identities but also supports the future of their local communities.
The Methodology
TAPP started in 2017 when Nevada State University’s School of Education was keen to find ways to address the growing teacher shortages in the state and the university’s relatively flat undergraduate enrollment in the education program. NS leveraged data about the demographics and enrollment of high schools in the state as well as the regional teacher hiring rate. Using that information, the university identified schools with which it would partner for its Teacher Academy program. Through these partnerships, NS determined TAPP would have the greatest impact in growing teachers for the region and, in turn, helping high school students consider a university education.
The Teacher Academy program connects with and supports students in high school and at NS in the following ways:
- Phase One: TAPP student mentors and staff members present the Teacher Academy program to students in ninth and 10th grades in order to spark an interest in higher education as early as possible. Students are encouraged to be mindful of their coursework and try to maintain a B or higher in each class. They are also required to attend Future Educator’s Days where they connect with TAPP student mentors. On average, more than 90 presentations are held per quarter at local high schools in the fall and spring.
- Phase Two: TAPP focuses on enrolling students in 11th and 12th grades in the dual-credit courses that give students a much deeper understanding of preparing for the university experience and understanding other careers in education. Students are introduced to the NS School of Education faculty during Scholars’ Day. This on-campus visit allows students an opportunity connect with the TAPP student mentors and speak with potential faculty members, should they enroll at the NS School of Education as undergraduates.
- Phase Three: TAPP’s work and partnership with the high schools does not end once TAPP students graduate. Nevada State’s School of Education has a transition program that includes a summer bridge program for students. Once students commit to pursuing their undergraduate education at NS, the focus of TAPP is enrolling them in the university’s Summer Bridge program. During this three-day program, students learn how to access on-campus resources and seek support. That way, once classes start and they’re officially NS undergraduate students, they’re already familiar with the staff and different offices that can support them.
- Phase Four: After the summer bridge program, students receive practice services from an NS academic success coordinator such as support with their entrance and teacher licensure exams. In Nevada, aspiring teachers may need assistance to pass the licensure exam and other subject assessment tests, so NS provides mentorship and support to navigate complex state requirements.
One of the key elements that contributes to TAPP’s success is the university’s investment in student mentors. In addition to training, the mentors work with the high school students by learning about funds of knowledge, community cultural wealth, the importance of diversifying the workforce, and tapping into their “why” for becoming student mentors through discussions and testimonials. Student mentors also have played an important role in influencing curriculum design for TAPP by sharing their personal experiences and needs as high school students from predominantly low-income communities of color with current TAPP instructors.
Nevada State University was hesitant about starting TAPP due to the amount of infrastructure and resources required. However, the university’s commitment to addressing the alarming teacher shortages in Nevada compelled it to take a leap of faith and start the Teacher Academy program. NS secured funding for TAPP from The Rogers Foundation, a charitable organization that supports educational initiatives. TAPP has not only been a huge success, but it became the impetus and catalyst for expanding concurrent enrollment at NS, which has seen unprecedented student enrollment and expansion.
The Impact
While NS is committed to the success of concurrent enrollment students in high school, the goal of dual enrollment is for high school students to pursue higher education and succeed at even higher rates once enrolled at the university. Retention and persistence rates, credit accumulation rates, and GPA for NS students who participated in TAPP as high school students are higher than rates for the general student population who did not participate in a concurrent enrollment program. The majority of dual-enrollment students are first-generation, and approximately 50% are Pell-eligible. They are students who historically were marginalized in higher education, but they are now attending and are doing exceptionally well after participating in TAPP.
There has been a consistent increase in TAPP high school students enrolling at NS every year since the program’s inception.
As illustrated by the data below, the rate of enrollment growth has been encouraging for a relatively young program, climbing from just 18 students enrolled at NS in fall 2018 to 131 students in fall 2023 (the most recent fall for which complete numbers are available):
- Fall 2018: 18 enrolled majors (all programs)
- Fall 2019: 31
- Fall 2020: 50
- Fall 2021: 55
- Fall 2022: 106
- Fall 2023: 131
Some of the students listed above enroll in other programs, but the increase in those who pursue a degree in education has risen considerably, rising from seven education majors in fall 2018 to 85 in fall 2023. Moreover, these students have achieved above average success rates in their journey at NS. As shown in the data below, for only education-related majors at the university who participated in TAPP, persistence rates have been substantially higher than the already respectable rates for non-TAPP students, which typically sit at 78 to 79%:
- Fall 2021: 40 were enrolled, and persistence into the next fall was 85%.
- Fall 2022: 61 were enrolled, and persistence into the next fall was 85.2%.
- Fall 2023: 85 were enrolled, and the persistence rate is in progress.
Nevada State met with the principals and leadership at nearly every high school partner to discuss why they believe TAPP is successful. Many of them independently said the Teacher Academy program gives the participating students a sense of belonging in a safe environment where they can consider pursing a postsecondary education.
Key Takeaways
Higher education institutions interested in starting a similar dual-enrollment program should start small and think big. Nevada State University leveraged a small piece of a donor gift to start TAPP. However, that modest start did not limit the university’s ambitions to change lives and have a state-level impact. TAPP’s success has largely been due to the commitment of the university’s high school partners and school district leaders. NS offers the following additional recommendations:
- Secure buy-in and support from the administration.
- Anticipate and prepare for institutional pushback, unless the program syncs with the larger institutional mission.
- Align programming with institutional strategic planning and the institution’s value proposition.
- Be a strong, earnest, and committed partner to local high schools by supporting the staff members, dual-enrollment instructors, leaders, and students.
TAPP is essentially a model that could be used in other professional domains to help diversify the workforce by supporting students’ motivation for degree attainment and providing robust, cost-effective educational pathways. This approach has the potential to transform communities by offering opportunities for more Black, Latinx, low-income, and first-generation students to successfully complete college degrees and prepare for in-demand careers with great community impact.
“In fall 2018, I became a TAPP student at East Career and Technical Academy in the teaching and training program. It was the first time that my classmates and I—the majority of us being Latinx—received any sort of meaningful college guidance geared toward us. For me, it was also the first time I ever engaged in a presentation given by a woman of color who also spoke Spanish. This was the first of many glimpses of inclusivity and diversity I experienced through TAPP.
“As I engaged with the TAPP site coordinators, it became apparent to me that they genuinely cared for my classmates and me as individuals. During their presentations, they made sure they knew us all by our names. When they spoke to us, it was with respect and interest. Because the environment they created every time they stepped into my classroom was a welcoming one, I was more inclined to ask questions, specifically regarding college.
“… The idea of taking college-level courses in high school scared me, but because TAPP had exposed me to a lot of higher education concepts—and I knew I had a support system with them—I signed up for every dual-credit course I could.
“… In May 2022, my high school and TAPP student journey came to an end. I graduated with high honors and an advanced diploma with an emphasis in teaching and training. … TAPP gave me college access and understanding that I would have never dreamed of, specifically as a first-generation college student. They guided me, supported me, and, most importantly, empowered me. It’s also worth mentioning that because of TAPP, I graduated high school with 37 college credits on my transcript, the equivalent to an entire year of college completed. “… In fall 2022, I officially became an HSI/TAPP mentor. The incredible people who had once made college accessible to me are now my colleagues. … TAPP is not just about giving presentations or assisting in college applications; it’s about giving all students a pathway to college and encouraging them to go into the world and change our education system into one that’s deserving of them and everyone who will follow in their footsteps.”
Lesly Arias, former TAPP student, NS
As a first-generation president, “when I look at these students I say, these students are me. This was my lived experience. I’ve only chosen to serve the leadership of organizations that have profound access missions that believe that this idea of the new majority is here. It’s not something that’s coming. It is here right now. And I use that to talk about it. I say as a little black girl from the south side of Chicago, I’m not supposed to be sitting here. My very existence defies a whole series of things that one would’ve thought would’ve happened. But I’m here because I had a family that believed in education, although they didn’t know pathfinding, they didn’t know how to get me there, but they believed in education. I’d like to think that I had a certain amount of guts and brains and a combination to let me see it through. I wanted to have a different opportunity. And when I’m able to sit down with a student and talk about my lived experience and how I defied the odds to be here, they inevitably see, I believe, an opportunity for themselves to be deeply enmeshed in this image.”
Dr. DeRionne Pollard, president, NS