In the News: Buffalo State and BOCES’ New Visions Education Pathways Academy Featured in Buffalo News

Buffalo State University’s New Visions Education Pathways Academy, a collaboration with Erie 1 BOCES that allows high school students to explore careers in education while earning college credit, was featured in the Buffalo News on September 9.

The article, “BOCES Looks to Students to Combat Looming Teacher Shortage,” by Barbara O’Brien, interviewed Emily Gollwitzer, a Buffalo State childhood education major with a middle school extension in mathematics, and a graduate of the first Education Pathways cohort. 

During her senior year of high school, Gollwitzer attended Education Pathways classes in the mornings at Buffalo State, then returned to her high school in the afternoon. Thanks to the 17 college credits she earned while still in high school, Gollwitzer was able to bypass her freshman academic year at Buffalo State.

“It’s my second year right now, but I’m actually in my junior year of college,” Gollwitzer said, “which is really awesome that I was able to get past the whole year.”

The Education Pathways program is one of BOCES’ initiatives to encourage more students to go into education to combat the current teacher shortage. According to the article, New York State will need 180,000 new teachers over the next 10 years. Enrollment in teacher preparation programs has declined 53 percent since 2009, and one-third of current teachers will be eligible for retirement in the next five years, the article said. 

Erie 1 BOCES was also recently awarded a $3.1 million Empire State Teacher Residency Program grant, which will support 104 teacher residents through a collaborative partnership with 21 Western New York school districts. BOCES will work with Buffalo State and other local higher education institutions to implement this program, which will fully or partially fund master’s degrees for teacher residents while they gain experience by spending a year in a school.