While walking his dog, the chemistry teacher saw a dishwasher across the street.
It was parked on the curb. It needed a hose and electrical line. It was abandoned. Free.
Blake Betteridge was unsure it worked. He only knew he needed one in his chemistry classroom at Desert View High School.
Once he got the dishwasher loaded into his room, he found a space, fixed it, and could finally wash the beakers, cylinders and test tubes his students use.
Betteridge, 39, is one of several Sunnyside Unified School District teachers whose professional development is funded, allowing them to earn special certification to teach dual enrollment courses.
Ultimately, there’s a student benefit: earning credit toward an associates’ or bachelor’s degree. That support through professional development can also keep teachers in the classroom.
In Arizona, teachers leave their schools at double the national average rate of 7%, according to the Center for the Future of Arizona. Professional development is one way school districts can stand out with customized workshops and programs to grow teachers and keep them beyond that three-to-five year drop-out window.
“I had to duct tape the drain hose to the sink,” he said. “And they plumbed the dishwasher for me. It’s been really nice.”
Investing in the professional growth of new teachers is good for them professionally and personally. It also makes sense financially for school districts.
About this series
The teacher retention series is a partnership between Arizona Luminaria education reporter Shannon Conner and 13 News education reporter Isabela Lisco. The project includes 13 newsrooms from around the state, collaborating with the Arizona Local News Foundation. The collection of stories explores Arizona’s teacher retention crises through the voices of Tucson-area educators and how they navigate it with classroom preparation, professional development, and supplementing their careers with second jobs. Watch and read the complete series to hear from teachers, administrators, advocates and experts.
Professional development can mean teacher investment like the dual enrollment certification, a training program or providing deep backgrounding on a district’s culture.
The alternative of teacher turnover is costly: Estimates range from $9,000 to $21,000 per teacher depending on the district, according to the American College of Education. Districts can reduce turnover, save money and improve student achievement when teachers have comprehensive professional training.
Betteridge remains at Desert View because of it, he says.
Sunnyside investment pays off
Subsidizing dual enrollment training for teachers is just one element of professional development the Sunnyside District offers. So far, it’s invested in seven teachers paying — $6,000 each toward their teaching certifications.
It pays off for the students, too. With about 12,000 students districtwide, Sunnyside is offering 25 new sections of dual enrollment courses. Arizona students are twice as likely to enroll in a post-secondary school if they’ve had some experience with dual enrollment, the district says.
Taking dual enrollment classes means students are earning high school and community college credit at the same time. Last May, five graduates in the Sunnyside District earned their associate degrees from Pima Community College the day before they graduated from high school.
“I think the path for teachers to earn more money or have more voice has often been to go into administration,” said NJ Utter, who retired over the summer as Sunnyside’s student services coordinator. “But we’ve been committed for a long time now to make sure teachers have a voice and opportunities to earn additional money without having to leave the classrooms to do so.”
For Betteridge and others, working on their certification rekindled a spark. As a chemistry teacher, it encourages him to teach better, to reach more. Students get that vibe and respond.
“We really look at what’s going on in the world that we can relate to what we’re learning in class,” he said.
“They had to go through this whole process of ‘I need to develop my question and then my hypothesis’ and so it was really, really interesting to watch their wheels turn,” said Betteridge, who’s been with the district for his entire 15-year career. “We’ve done things like: ‘should we build a nuclear power plant in Tucson?’ Then they start thinking about, ‘Oh, well, we don’t have a lot of water.’”
Utter says Sunnyside is building a sustainable model. Because Pima Community College requires most adjuncts to have a master’s degree in their subject area — which many public school teachers don’t have — the district partnered with the college and the University of Arizona to expand dual enrollment for students.
“I’d love to think we can show the impact for our students. And that information will continue to be a tool for our leadership to encourage more of that at the state level so that it becomes a regular part of funding for our students,” Utter said. “What does it mean for a district to be able to keep those highly ambitious teachers is what we’re talking about right? To keep them in the district.”
TUSD grows its own with Academy
Teacher retention and addressing the teaching shortage was the motivation for starting Tucson Unified School District’s Teacher Development Academy in 2023.
The academy is a free two-year program to earn elementary teacher certification, through night classes and summer instruction. Students receive a teacher’s salary plus benefits. In exchange, they must work in a TUSD school for at least two years.
“When we have teachers that are natural teachers but just can’t afford to go back to school or have the time to go back to college, that’s what TDA does,” said Alicia Nourse, Teacher Development Academy program manager “It’s a very competitive program.”
Nourse said the third TDA cohort is currently underway; the first two each started with 25 participants and had a 90% retention rate.
“I honestly feel that one of the key components to TDA — and making it so strong — is that the courses that we actually get in the TDA are specific to our demographic and TUSD,” Nourse said.
Teacher-in-training Henry Payne says that insight into district culture attracted him to the program.
As a former behavioral specialist and teacher’s assistant in TUSD, Payne said an assistant principal lauded his skills and encouraged him to apply.
“I was always kind of hesitant about going into teaching, because I was obviously a student at one point, and I saw how much stress that job took in. But after the year I’ve been through, it’s been manageable. I’ve done it,” said Payne, who’s currently in a fourth grade class at Vesey Elementary.
“You have to accept you’re going to be overwhelmed if it’s your first year. Doubly so when you’re doing the training program at the same time,” he said. “A lot of what you’re going to see is curriculum that you might not be familiar with or it’s being taught in ways that differ from how you learned as a kid. But there’s tons of resources that can help bring you up to speed.
“I never felt like I was kind of drowning alone.”
Nourse says students range from career backgrounds in finance to criminal justice and everything in between, including stay-at-home moms who always wanted to be teachers. All have the required bachelor’s degrees. And the program allows them to do both, if they want.
“We’ve actually encountered some research about these grow-your-own programs that the percentage of students that then teach after certification is higher than those, for example, who just do it after their bachelor’s or do it as a bachelor’s program and then maybe don’t even finish their certification process,” she said.
The program retains and recruits teachers from the Tucson community, Norse said. “I think that’s the most powerful thing that we can possibly do.”
Isabela Lisco is a Report for America corpsmember covering education solutions for 13 News. Her position is made possible through funding from Report for America and the Arizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
Shannon Conner is the education solutions reporter for Arizona Luminaria supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation.
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