We package braided funding, WGU's School of Education, and the operational back office into a turnkey grow-your-own offer — so rural districts can turn paraprofessionals and classified staff into credentialed teachers, without standing up the infrastructure alone.
Out-of-town hires leave faster. Vacancies in SPED, STEM, elementary, bilingual, and CTE compound year over year. Long-term subs eat budget and instructional capacity. The retention math is brutal in any district — in a rural one, it's existential.
The candidates are already in the building — paraprofessionals, classified staff, and community members who know the kids by name. What's missing is the infrastructure to credential them locally, fund the pathway, document competencies, and report on outcomes the state and your funders need.
A no- or low-cost grow-your-own offer for a rural district that can't recruit its way out of the shortage. Built once, run anywhere. Four pieces, packaged together — the academic and credentialing side is solved on day one.
CTE, WIOA, SAEF, and Title II, layered with state GYO dollars and philanthropic funds where they exist. The dollars stay braided — and the next grant cycle is easier than the last one.
WGU's School of Education as the national academic anchor, paired with a pre-built implementation kit. Roles, coursework, clinical structure, and competencies all defined on day one — with state EPP partners added only where licensure requires.
Apprenticeship documentation that meets registered-apprenticeship standards. Candidate progress, clinical hours, mentor check-ins, milestones, and measurable skill gains — without your HR team operating the back office.
State, federal, and intermediary reporting in one place. MSG exports, completion rollups, and partner-ready dashboards that hold up under audit and renewal — and make the next legislative cycle a layup.
A nationally scaled, competency-based university with the largest US teacher preparation footprint, paired with Craft's apprenticeship infrastructure. You bring the district, the mentors, and the candidates you already have on staff — we bring the coursework, the funding stack, the documentation, and the reporting. One conversation, not five.
Have your own RTI provider? We can still support you.
Create pathways for people already rooted in the district — paraprofessionals, classified staff, instructional aides, and community members who want to teach where they live.
Rural districts have access to funding streams, but the dollars are hard to braid and sustain. We align workforce, education, apprenticeship, and grant reporting so programs are easier to fund and easier to renew.
We package the program structure, documentation, reporting workflows, and partner coordination needed to launch and manage pathways — without your HR team building it all in-house.
Data infrastructure for candidate progress, clinical experience, competencies, milestones, completions, and retention outcomes — in one place, ready for state, federal, and intermediary reporting.
Boards, legislators, and communities need to see what changed. We turn program activity into clear evidence: who entered, who progressed, who certified, who placed — and who stayed.
Every new pathway should land on a kit, not a one-off lift for your HR director. That's the bar we hold ourselves to.
Start where your vacancy hurt is worst — usually SPED, secondary STEM, or elementary. Most rural districts begin with one or two and expand as the retention story compounds.
A rural superintendent could, in theory, braid SAEF, Title II, WIOA, and CTE on their own. In practice, they cannot. We align the streams, document the use of funds, and produce the reporting each one demands — so the dollars you braid this year stay braided next year.
The next teacher may already be in your building. Craft helps build the pathway that gets them in front of a classroom.— From the Craft rural workforce field guide
Tell us about your hardest-to-fill licensure area and the paras and classified staff you already have on payroll. We'll come back with a draft pathway, a funding map, and what the first 90 days look like.