Apr. 23—GRAND FORKS — More than a dozen Grand Forks Public Schools teachers are set to return to the classroom this fall with degrees purpose-built for the district’s needs.
Fourteen current teachers are set to collect their master’s diplomas from UND this spring under a first-ever partnership between the university and the school district.
The program aims to build a pipeline of “teacher-leaders” who can fill out leadership roles across district schools amid a broader crisis of teacher retention in North Dakota and the nation.
A new cohort of 10 GFPS teachers is set to start in the program this fall.
“(The program was) really to give Grand Forks Public Schools the opportunity to tell us where their areas of need were, and for us to say, ‘OK, let’s build in this array of paths for teachers to come and get their master’s degree with us,'” said Laura Link, an associate professor who directs the master’s of science in teaching and leadership program.
North Dakota has outsize demand for teachers amid a broader crisis in the profession. In February, ahead of the 2025-26 school year, the state Educational Standards and Practice Board declared a “critical shortage” of teachers in all content areas, and has made identical proclamations several times in recent years.
GFPS Superintendent Terry Brenner, who worked with Link on the program and taught one of the college courses, says teachers are graduating with specializations including instructional coaching, special education, and middle/secondary education.
All of those specializations correspond to demand in the district, particularly for principals.
The district has openings for the top job at two elementary schools, Winship and Century, after a shakeup of building leadership and the resignation of Century Principal David Saxberg earlier this month.
“We want our teachers to be highly skilled. We want to grow our bench in leadership,” Brenner said. “The pool for principal and assistant principal applicants has become pretty small in recent years, but because at least four (program participants) are getting their principal’s certification, they’re going to be part of that deep bench that we’re growing.”
Beside principals, Brenner says he expects to see teachers coming out of the program to become department heads and fill other leadership roles.
“Some of them don’t really aspire to leave the classroom. They want to develop their skill set, and that’s terrific as well,” he said. “What they’re modeling for the students in their classroom is learning never stops.”
As part of their degree program, the master’s candidates also researched issues they’d encountered as teachers in the district.
At recent ceremony, teachers presented on topics like student absenteeism, elementary learning, and, funny enough, teacher retention.
Becca Lord, a Central High School instructional coach in the principalship track, found teachers rated safety and a respectful relationship with building leadership as key to keeping them in the district.
Kylie Sorenson, a second-grade teacher at Kelly Elementary, said she studied enrichment opportunities using her students, offering high-performing math students opportunities to try out more complex addition problems and working with lower-performing students to correct their mistakes.
Her second-graders were “super excited” to participate in enrichment, and rated it one their favorite parts of the day, she noted.
As part of the program, master’s candidates had tuition on their first and last courses waived by the university, equivalent to a 20% discount on tuition, per Link and Brenner.
The school district also contributed $100 per teacher, per course, to pay for curriculum materials like textbooks.
Master’s degree holders are also generally paid more than bachelor’s holders in Grand Forks under the district’s teacher negotiated agreement.
In exchange, program participants are expected to work in the district for a minimum of three years after receiving their degrees.
North Dakota United President Nick Archuleta called the master’s program an “exemplar” of how to support and mentor teachers.
The statewide teachers union has been a vocal proponent of finding new ways to recruit and retain North Dakota teachers.
“Programs like this one and others across the country that allow teachers to take on leadership without leaving the classroom, and then getting compensation for it, is an excellent way to keep the best teachers in teaching,” Archuleta said.