Supporting the Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of Rural Educators with MiCAREER
Over the last few years, various newspapers and think tanks have warned of “a school personnel crisis” and “crazy” workforce conditions for districts in Michigan and nationwide (AEI; WNEM 5; Macomb Daily). Anecdotally, based on available employment data, and according to copious research efforts, many of which have been documented in previous editions of the In Focus newsletter, e.g., in the October 2023, April 2024, January 2025, and May 2025 Emerging Research, Michigan entities have struggled to sustainably and continuously fill their classrooms with certified, experienced teachers and support staff. Recently, while extensive local, state, and federal interventions have helped change the contours of this labor market issue, it has not gone away entirely. In fact, in many ways, its complexity has evolved. For instance, a January 2025 report by the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) noted that while “Michigan’s teacher workforce is seeing small signs of growth...it remains less stable than before the...pandemic” and districts are struggling with the reality that “new teachers, less experienced teachers, [and] not fully certified teachers make up a bigger part of the workforce than before” (MLive).
Further, not all districts are experiencing these labor market challenges identically. Representatively, “many districts in rural areas [have been more] susceptible to severe teacher shortages due to their smaller size and a limited supply of new teachers and credentialing institutions in their local area” (MEA; EPIC). Previously, the Michigan Department of Education has affirmed this finding, saying in a 2024 press release that “our rural school districts have faced an exacerbated shortage of certified teachers.” Moreover, these particular workforce challenges and the unique nature of rural districts have been discussed in the article “Rural Communities Need Better State Education Policies,” which was featured in the January 2022 Emerging Research, and the report “Educational Opportunities and Community Development In Rural Michigan: A Roadmap For State Policy,” which was included in the September 2022 Emerging Research – both by Dr. David Arsen, MSU Professor Emeritus of Education Policy and K-12 Educational Administration, and some of his colleagues.
In response to this reality in Michigan writ large and many rural communities especially, state leaders established the Michigan Consortium for Addressing Rural Education Expansion and Retention (MiCAREER) Resource Hub via “a $15 million state grant [in Michigan’s FY 2024 budget] that runs through the end of September 2028” to “help prospective rural educators achieve their teaching credentials and gain early career experience at little to no cost” and to “connect teachers with rural school districts across Michigan to fill classroom vacancies in high-need communities” (WNEM 5; MDE). The project is broad-based and simultaneously works with “aspiring educators nearing completion of a teacher preparation program, school staff employed with temporary teaching certifications, and veteran teachers pursuing new credentials” (WNEM 5). Importantly, the MiCAREER Resource Hub offers these “certification and ongoing professional learning opportunities at no cost” to educators (CMU; WILX 10).
To achieve these goals in every pocket of Michigan, during the last year, MiCAREER’s work has included “collaborating with Central Michigan University, Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan State University, Eastern Michigan University, and Northern Michigan University” (WNEM 5; MEA). While MiCAREER’s work with MSU’s College of Education has involved a variety of actors, one of its partners in East Lansing has been the Office of K-12 Outreach. From spring to fall 2025, K-12 Outreach was fortunate enough to be thought of to support some of the recruitment, marketing, network and rapport-building, and professional learning elements of this initiative. It did so via various in-person and virtual “Grow Your Roots with MiCAREER” recruitment events, along with an August 2025 Summer Retreat in Alpena, Michigan, that was titled “Rural Reimagined: R&R for Michigan Educators.”
Concerning these recruitment events, which were jointly hosted by MiCAREER leaders and K-12 Outreach facilitators, the face-to-face gatherings occurred in June 2025 near Midland and Grand Rapids, Michigan. With that, for more isolated educators or folks who could not travel to the in-person programs, there was a series of virtual sessions from July to September that K-12 Outreach aided MiCAREER organizers to disseminate, develop, and hold. Generally speaking, these events prioritized helping attendees develop a better sense of their “why” for serving as a rural educator, understand everything available to them through the MiCAREER Resource Hub, and identify ways to establish connections within their rural community as an educator. Furthermore, the programs offered attendees the chance to get to know the MiCAREER and K-12 Outreach teams, should they have any questions about the program or certification; hear a presentation about the nitty-gritty details of the MiCAREER grant; and connect with similarly-positioned prospective or current educators in their region and across Michigan.
Additionally, the Office of K-12 Outreach was invited to help facilitate MiCAREER’s August 2025 Summer Retreat for educators already in the program on August 4th and 5th in Alpena, Michigan. During this programming, MSU facilitators supported goals like helping attendees intentionally plan and prepare for instruction using curricular resources, cultivate instructional strategies that support cognitive engagement and student voice in the classroom, generate strategies to build relational trust with and among students to support a positive classroom culture, and deepen their network with other rural educators. To help achieve these goals, the first day of the retreat included community-building activities from MiCAREER leaders and K-12 Outreach facilitators, presentations by experienced practitioners on planning and pedagogical best practices, activities focused on establishing a positive classroom culture, and various opportunities for individual and collective reflection and meaning-making. Then, on day two of the retreat, the program attendees shared their experiences with one another to inspire the group and disseminate best practices for supporting rural students, heard from the Michigan Education Association (MEA) about the resources they provide for educators, networked with like-minded peers, and engaged in cross-institution round table discussions. Throughout the retreat, the MiCAREER and K-12 Outreach planners emphasized bringing together different organizations, including K-12 districts, education associations, and colleges and universities, and igniting participants’ fire for learning. The hope was that with these new professional linkages and added inspiration, retreatants would be inspired to continue their growth in their home districts to help address rural educator shortages in Michigan.
Reflecting on the entire MiCAREER effort so far, including events supported by the Office of K-12 Outreach but also going beyond these offerings, Dr. Kathryn Dirkin, MiCAREER Director of Partnerships and Programming, commented that as of this month, “over two hundred applicants are in the [MiCAREER] system” (WNEM 5). Envisioning the future, Central Michigan University, which houses MiCAREER, has had leaders comment that they have an “expectation for continued growth” (CMU). Relatedly, program leaders have noted they believe that this initiative can support “thousands of students in its early years” by helping recruit, retain, and advance rural educators (WILX 10). The Office of K-12 Outreach is grateful for the chance to support such an important project and excited to see the MiCAREER Resource Hub continue its essential work over the next few years.
