The TIP of the Iceberg: Accelerated Program Helping Teachers Chip Away at Shortage

The social, emotional, and intellectual rigors of high school can be draining. But when Freya de Conde M’18 tells a William Allen High School student she gets it, it’s not just a line.

De Conde, an Allentown native and William Allen alumna, returned to the district in 2024 as a supervisor of instruction, and she credits the Teacher Intern Certification Program at DeSales University with helping to propel her to the head of the class.

Teaching wasn’t always de Conde’s planned career path. While many of her family members were teachers, it wasn’t something she seriously considered for herself until the tail end of her time at the University of Pittsburgh, where she was pursuing a degree in English and sociology. She taught karate and taekwondo on the side to help pay her tuition, and during those classes, she felt inspired: “I like working with kids, so maybe this is a pathway.”

After graduation, de Conde joined Teach for America, a nonprofit that helps newly graduated college students get their teacher certification with an immersive, hands-on model. The experience took her to St. Louis, Missouri, where she received a crash course on educational instruction and classroom management. When circumstances required de Conde to move back home, she was eager to continue her Master of Education studies. “DeSales was so accommodating in helping me navigate that,” she says.

The TIP program was introduced in Pennsylvania as an alternative pathway for professionals by putting them on the fast track to full Instructional 1 Certification. Students with a bachelor’s degree in another discipline can earn as they learn and hold full-time professional teaching positions for up to three years once the Intern Certification is issued.

DeSales was an early adopter of the program, and de Conde joined the inaugural class in 2016. “The TIP program really provides opportunities for those hands-on moments to work with kids and work with other teachers,” she says. “Traditional educational programs don’t provide as much experience in that way.”

The TIP program is one remedy the Pennsylvania Department of Education has proposed to combat the state’s teacher shortage crisis. According to data from the DoE, teacher certifications in the state plummeted after 2012 and 2013, when more than 16,000 new teachers were certified. Between 2022 and 2023, less than 5,600 certifications were issued. According to the nonprofit Teach Plus, the state needs at least 15,000 new teachers to fill current and future projected vacancies.

The shortage worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, when, according to the National Education Association, 300,000 public school teachers across the country left their jobs. De Conde was teaching English at Salisbury High School in Allentown during that time, and, like so many of her colleagues, had to grapple with the disruptions brought to typical classroom instruction.

Although the pandemic may be over, the full scope of its impact on students and teachers has yet to be defined. “I think COVID created this window into education that didn’t exist before,” de Conde says. “It allowed us to consider what is and isn’t working in education. But with every period of change, there are always growing pains. As we try to support the needs of students, how do we also support our own personal needs?”

Today, de Conde works on curriculum and professional development for schools and teachers in the Allentown School District. Returning to the district that shaped her as a student has long been a priority. “I’m really happy to be back there and returning to my community in that way,” she says.

In addition to her administrative role, de Conde has also returned to DeSales as an adjunct education instructor. She continues to pursue her Doctor of Education, another goal that she admits once seemed out of reach.  

“There were points that I wasn’t sure what my future would look like,” she says. But she believes her younger self, who once walked the halls of William Allen as a student, would be proud of the adult who walks those same halls now as an administrator. “I always wanted to help people, and teaching was the avenue it ended up taking, and I’m really happy it did.”