Jean Mrachko speaks with News Nation about the Michigan Alternate Route to Certification program
The M-ARC program offers career-changers a path to become teachers in just four months.
News Nation and its affiliate, Morning in America, are the latest outlets to report on SOE’s M-ARC program.
David Adler is one of 40 students who graduated from the initial cohort of M-ARC students. For Adler, the program offered an opportunity to pivot from his career in the food service industry to become an elementary school teacher.
After four months of coursework and classroom training, Adler was granted initial teaching certification. He began a job teaching in an elementary school in Ann Arbor. Over the next three years, however, his education with M-ARC will continue.
“They hold that teaching certificate, that interim teaching certificate, while they’re teaching for three years while we continue to work with them in their classroom environment,” said Jean Mrachko, M-ARC’s associate director. “So they’ll continue to get that instructional coaching from our field instructors throughout those three years and they will continue to do course work on teaching and pedagogy throughout those three years as well as building a professional portfolio.”
