SAISD: Paraprofessional Apprenticeship

Sylvia Rojas knew she wanted to be a teacher when she was six or seven, back when she and her cousins pretended to teach each other. She’s a teaching pre-apprentice at San Antonio ISD (SAISD), and this video for City of San Antonio Workforce Development looks at the district’s registered paraprofessional apprenticeship. We filmed in an SAISD classroom. It’s one of our Apprenticeship Building America videos for local employers.

Her mother, Anayeli Rojas, tells part of the story in Spanish: “Yo creo que desde ahí empezó su pasión por enseñar.” (I think that’s where her passion for teaching began.)

District staff explain the two problems the program set out to solve: teacher vacancies during a national teacher shortage, and new teachers who need to be effective from day one. The city, one of the district’s partners, helped make sure the pre-apprenticeship roles were the right ones and that the program meets all federal requirements. One pre-apprentice, now 18, started student teaching at 16 and says those three years teach you things “that I know other teachers wish that they had.” As the district puts it, “SAISD has a commitment to growing our own.”

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