• Pre-Educator Pathway

    Who Can Participate? 
    The Pre-Educator pathway is available only to LRSD juniors and seniors. The Pre-Educator pathway requires college-level coursework.  To enroll in the Pre-Educator pathway, students must have a minimum 2.5 GPA and a 19 ACT Reading score or 253 Accuplacer Next Gen Reading score. 

    What is the Cost?
    Concurrent courses are $100 each. Students can utilize the AR Concurrent Challenge Scholarship to fund the concurrent courses through UA-Little Rock. This means students do not have to pay for the courses. The [9.0] college credits are required courses in education degrees and are transferrable to other colleges.

    How do I become a Certified Teaching Assistant?
    To address the state and national teaching shortage, Arkansas has launched a Teacher Residency Model that allows school districts to hire students--who earn the Certified Teaching Assistant credential--as paraprofessionals. Students can start working immediately after graduating. 

    • Work as a teaching assistant: earn a salary and gain valuable teaching experience.
    • Pay for college, and get paid while attending college!
    • Accrue retirement benefits that allow you to retire early!

    To earn the Certified Teaching Assistant (CTA) credential, students must complete three requirements:

    1. Complete the sequence of three college courses in the pathway, earning [9.0] college credits;
    2. Complete the minimum 80 hours of field experience embedded in coursework throughout the pathway;
    3. Pass the Certified Teaching Assistant exam.