At Passage Preparation™, our mission is rooted in a simple but powerful idea: the support for aspiring teachers deserves a high standard for entry and everyone deserves the support to meet that standard.
I’ve spent the better part of my career working in and around teacher licensure, from the state policy level to hands-on coaching of candidates, and I’ve seen firsthand how complicated the path to any kind of certification can be. I’ve met passionate, intelligent, hard-working future teachers who were told “no” by a test score, even when everything else about them said “yes.” And here’s what I’ve learned: we don’t lack talent in education—we lack support for aspiring educators.
We need a system that believes in aspiring teachers as much as we expect them to believe in their students. The teacher shortage isn’t just a workforce issue, it’s a call to action. When nearly 75% of public schools report difficulty filling teaching positions, and when recruitment and retention top every list of district concerns, the path forward must include removing unnecessary friction from the pipeline and looking for ways to provide meaningful support to those in it.
That’s why I’m thrilled to share a partnership that speaks directly to lessening that friction: Passage Preparation is officially partnering with the National Center for Grow Your Own (NCGYO). This collaboration is about much more than test prep. It’s about building a more inclusive, sustainable, and community-rooted teacher pipeline—one where talent is cultivated, not filtered out.
NCGYO has become a national leader in helping communities “grow their own” educators by creating pathways into the profession for people who are already embedded in and invested in the communities they want to serve. Their work is dismantling some of the most stubborn barriers in our system—financial, logistical, cultural—and replacing them with mentorship, structure, and opportunity. We are honored to join them in this work.
From our side, Passage Preparation brings what we do best: effective, empowering licensure preparation that not only helps candidates pass the exam but also prepares them for the realities of classroom teaching. We’ve spent years refining an approach that’s as much about teaching mindset and instructional relevance as it is about content mastery.
We don’t treat licensure exams like hoops to jump through. We treat them as chances to grow—to truly understand the academic foundations of great teaching. But we also recognize that test-taking itself can be difficult for many aspiring teachers. Test anxiety, uneven access to prep resources, prior educational opportunities, and unfamiliar testing formats can all derail even the most promising candidates. And it shows up in the numbers: According to the National Council on Teacher Quality, only 46% of teacher candidates pass the Praxis® on their first attempt. While many do go on to retake the exam, the costs—financial, emotional, and logistical—can delay certification, derail preparation, or even discourage them from pursuing teaching altogether.
It’s simple: support aspiring teachers who are ready to lead in the classroom deserve stronger, more effective support to get there.
That’s what makes this partnership so meaningful. With NCGYO’s community-based infrastructure and Passage Preparation’s tailored preparation resources, we’re building a bridge—not just to pass the test, but to cross into a fulfilling, long-term career in education. We’re working to be the cost-effective solution to an expensive, and significant, problem.
This partnership will allow us to work directly with NCGYO programs and candidates, offering content-rich, accessible licensure prep that supports aspiring teachers at every stage of their journey. Our tools are designed by experts who know what it takes to pass, and what it takes to teach. We use teaching scenarios, personalized instruction examples, and intentional scaffolding to help candidates connect what they’re studying to the work they’ll do in classrooms every day.
We want candidates to walk into their exams with confidence and walk into their classrooms with clarity. That’s the heart of this work. Together, Passage Preparation and NCGYO are creating a blueprint for what’s possible when preparation meets purpose. When rigorous support is paired with high standards. And when we say to every future teacher: we see you, we believe in you, and we’re right beside you until you’re standing at the front of
the classroom.
To our partners at NCGYO: thank you for the extraordinary work you’ve already done and for letting us play a part in what comes next.
To schools, districts, and educator preparation programs around the country: join NCGYO and Passage Preparation in ensuring that every person with the heart and drive to teach is fully supported on their journey to success.
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About the Author: Nathan Estel
Nathan has over 20 years of experience in the educator preparation and certification space. In that time, Nathan has worked in a state education agency, leading the state’s efforts to recruit, prepare, license, and retain professional and support staff and on the national level for large companies providing assessment solutions for the education field.
