The Michigan Consortium for Addressing Rural Education Expansion and Retention (MiCAREER) is asking to connect with MASSP members, offering a vital resource to help fill vacant teaching and administrative positions, particularly within rural school districts. Funded through a Michigan Department of Education (MDE) grant, MiCAREER provides no cost pathways to credentials. This collaboration network actively partners with districts, ISDs, and ESDs to assist in recruiting efforts.
MiCAREER helps districts staff critical roles by seeking candidates who fit specific needs, such as individuals who have worked successfully under temporary credentials (like long-term substitutes), paraprofessionals with bachelor’s degrees seeking initial certification, or veteran educators looking to add specialized credentials (like Special Education or ESL certification) to fulfill district demands.
The program focuses on support and efficiency, offering customized pathways toward credential attainment. Candidates benefit from mentors while they are in their programs. Pathways can often be shortened by demonstrating prior learning competencies, potentially reducing secondary add-on certifications (with content area expertise) to just 1 clinical credit, or Special Education add-on pathways to 9 credits.
MiCAREER, which includes participating universities like CMU, MSU, SVSU, NMU, and EMU, offers extensive online certifications, including Math, ELA, Integrated Science, various Special Education endorsements, and some administration programs. To leverage this grant-funded opportunity for addressing your district’s credentialing needs, visit the MiCAREER website at micareer.net. MASSP is in the fight with other entities like the MiCareer Rural Education grant to end the educator drought in the state, and our hope is to help support administrative candidates that obtain their credential through this grant by providing active mentorship and coaching once in a position.