Melvin Caballero was once a boy picking coffee fields with his 10 siblings in Honduras while dreaming of an opportunity to pursue his passion to become an educator. Against the odds, he hitchhiked to America alone, found a family to sponsor him in Boston, graduated from high school and college, and went to work for his alma mater, Boston International High School, as a paraprofessional.

Now, Caballero is on his way to becoming a licensed teacher through the Boston Public Schools’ Teacher Pipeline programs.

For substitute teachers, paraprofessionals, or even career changers aspiring to become licensed educators in Massachusetts, a Pipeline Program could be the answer. Established in 2018, they aim to increase the diversity of teaching staff across the district and license more educators to teach English as a second language or work with students with moderate disabilities.

“We’re a very multilingual district,” said Rashaun Martin, managing director of recruitment, cultivation and diversity programs at BPS. “If we have people who are licensed and teaching English as a second language, and working with those students, that’s highly beneficial. And as the district moves along with its inclusive education model, we also want as many educators as possible to be licensed in [special education].”

The BPS Teacher Pipeline consists of three programs:

•The Bilingual Educators/Accelerated Community to Teaching Program offers coaching and classes to prepare participants for provisional licensing tests. Despite the name, prospective candidates do not need to be bilingual.

•The BPS Teaching Fellowship, for which Caballero is a candidate, enables participants to obtain more advanced licenses to teach ESL and moderately disabled students.

•The Bilingual Inclusive Education Teacher Residency, a four-to-five-year program that aims to convert bilingual paraeducators or career changers into permanent BPS teachers of record with an endorsement in bilingual education and a master’s in inclusive education. BPS is offering the program for the first time for the 2025-26 school year.

BPS data show that nearly one in two students speaks a language other than English at home. Roughly half of BPS staff are white, compared to 14.2 percent of students. The large proportion of multilingual, diverse students should be reflected in the teacher workforce, Martin said.

This year, the BE/ACTT program has 44 enrolled candidates, 26 of whom are bilingual. There are 38 full-time teachers in the teaching fellowship, 70 percent of whom are educators of color. 

“We’re always in the business of trying to recruit educators into the district,” Martin said. “The future of our teaching force may be sitting right here in the community.”

When Caballero entered the country, his family helped connect him with another household in Boston that would sponsor and support him with a few conditions. One of them was for him to get a formal education.

Caballero attended Boston International High School in Dorchester, a Boston Public School that “embraces immigrant English learners and their families,” learning English as he worked toward a high school diploma. After graduating in 2012, he earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Bridgewater State University.

“Nobody in my family had achieved anything greater than sixth grade, and I wanted to become a role model not only for my brothers but for my nephews and my family to see that education is a good thing,” Caballero said.

In 2020, he joined the team at his alma mater as a paraprofessional. He teaches ninth-grade science and classes for students like his young self, who began high school as English learners with limited previous formal education. He began training for an initial license in ESL this year through the Fellowship program as a BPS teacher of record for multilingual students.

“I wanted to become more involved in ESL and helping students who, just like me, came to the States not knowing the language,” Caballero said.

“Having an ESL license will definitely give me the opportunity to work either as an ESL teacher or supporting an ESL classroom.”

The BE/ACTT is the first-year program within the Teacher Pipeline that provides coursework and counseling to support aspiring teachers. Through the free, 12-month program, candidates are prepped to take the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure and earn a Sheltered English Immersion Endorsement, which teaches them to incorporate English learning into their classes for English language learners.

All Massachusetts teachers are required to pass the MTELs in their chosen subject areas to become licensed. A few subjects include bilingual education, early childhood education, and secondary math and science.

Both Caballero and Henderson Elementary School teacher Phibe Pham-Smallwood, who has completed the BE/ACTT program and Teaching Fellowship, praised the counseling support and mentorship they have received, which they both believe helped them to improve as teachers.

“[My practitioner] comes to my classroom, she visits and she observes my lessons, and after she gives me feedback on how I am doing, what areas I could get better in, and I feel that has been a huge part,” Caballero said. “It has been a great experience to have somebody who has more experience and more knowledge sharing that with me and guiding me.”

Caballero and Pham-Smallwood also said that the MTEL classes were essential as bilingual individuals who previously struggled with the reading and writing portions of the exams. 

“I passed my [communication and literacy MTEL] because they saw what I needed help in. They prepped me for it,” Pham-Smallwood said. “That program was out there to prepare me, not only for my classroom, but for me to succeed.”

As the child of immigrant parents, Pham-Smallwood was inspired by her mother, a Vietnam refugee who could not access a formal education when she was younger. Like Caballero, Pham-Smallwood is a BPS alumna and now teaches 4th grade at the Henderson Inclusion School. The classroom she works in is a mix of general and special education students, and she focuses on accommodating special education needs to the curriculum. She obtained her licenses through the BE/ACTT program and the Teaching Fellowship.

The Teaching Fellowship is a free, accelerated one-year program for teachers of record to become licensed to teach ESL or special education.

“Even as adults, we’re still learning like the students are learning, and you don’t want to give up,” Pham-Smallwood said. “What I want, I just got to push harder.”

Pham-Smallwood grew up in Dorchester and South Boston. Even though she didn’t attend the school she works at now, she said the pipeline helps promote a teaching force that understands the areas students grow up in.

“We’re from here, we live in the city, and they’re looking for teachers who understand the kids, and that’s what the pipeline is really focused on,” Pham-Smallwood said. “Teachers who are authentic with themselves and with the community.”

Whether they’re currently paraprofessionals, recent education degree graduates, or even people working in office cubicles, Martin said he believed there are future teachers in the community who need the opportunity that the Teacher Pipeline Programs offer.

“A lot of people out there would make great teachers. They just may not know how to go about it,” Martin said. ‘This is a really great way for us to be able to support people in that process.”

The Teacher Pipeline Programs are now accepting applications until April 11, which can be found at teachboston.org.

This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.