The State of K–12 Teacher Degree Apprenticeship

Earlier this year, New America published Mapping the Landscape of Degree Apprenticeship: Expanding a Promising Model for Mobility, the first-ever national survey of degree apprenticeship. The report identified where these programs exist, what they look like, and what makes them high quality. Of about 600 programs nationwide, one-third are in education. The top occupation for degree apprenticeship is preschool, elementary, middle, secondary, and special education teacher, with three times as many programs as the second most common occupation, registered nurse.⁸ As of summer 2025, when our scan was conducted, we found 157 teacher degree apprenticeships in 44 states plus Washington, DC, shown in Figure 1.

The teacher degree apprenticeship model first emerged in 2021 and 2022 with programs in New York and Tennessee, and other states soon followed.⁹ At the same time, the Biden administration championed teacher apprenticeships as a strategy for combatting teacher shortages, diversifying the educator workforce, and strengthening teacher preparation through evidence-based practices like robust clinical training paired with strong mentorship.¹⁰ Many states that won Biden-era Department of Labor grants for apprenticeship directed some or all of that funding toward teacher apprenticeship programs.¹¹ While not all of these are necessarily degree apprenticeship programs, many are. 

While Mapping the Landscape of Degree Apprenticeship identified programs, we did not count participants in these programs. To better understand teacher degree apprenticeship participants, we turned to federal data on K–12 teacher apprentices nationwide. These data aren’t a perfect match with the programs we analyze in this report. Most, but not all, teacher apprenticeships are degree apprenticeships, because not every teacher apprenticeship program culminates in a degree. Some programs allow high school students to earn dual credit, for example, while others offer individuals who already have a bachelor’s degree a path to teacher certification. Unfortunately, we cannot break down the federal data by degree apprenticeships versus nondegree apprenticeships in teaching. The young field of degree apprenticeship lacks detailed data, including on K–12 teacher degree apprenticeship programs.¹²

The federal data are still worth considering, however, because the vast majority of apprentices seem to be in degree apprenticeships.¹³ Teaching jobs require a bachelor’s degree, and at least 63 percent of apprentices do not have one (see Figure 4), indicating they are likely pursuing this degree via apprenticeship. 

According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor, there are 6,275 active K–12 teacher apprentices.¹⁴ Nevada has the largest number of K–12 teacher apprentices (1,194). A handful of states do not yet have any active teacher apprentices. Teacher apprentices are more racially and ethnically diverse than the K–12 teacher workforce, with 18 percent of apprentices self-identifying as Black and 19 percent self-identifying as Latino, compared to 6 percent and 9 percent of K–12 teachers, respectively (see Figure 2).¹⁵ These data suggest that teacher degree apprenticeship may be a potential tool for closing the student-teacher demographic mismatch and increasing access for groups currently underrepresented in teaching. But so far, these programs are not promoting greater gender diversity in the teaching profession—the majority of teacher apprentices are female (78 percent), similar to the K–12 teacher workforce.¹⁶

Most teacher apprentices (75 percent) are nontraditional students, meaning they are between the ages of 25 and 54 (see Figure 3), may have dependents, and are working full or part time while attending college. Around two-thirds of K–12 teacher apprentices have not yet earned a bachelor’s degree (see Figure 4). The less than 1 percent with no high school diploma are likely high school students in youth apprenticeship programs.