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Tennessee’s teacher preparation programs are turning out a wide variety of educators, from woefully unprepared to high achieving, according to a new state report. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission released its Report Card on the Effectiveness of Teacher Training Programs this week and shows that, of the state’s 41 teacher training programs, only three produce graduates who enter the classroom and are immediately more effective at teaching than veteran teachers who’ve had more than three years of experience.
TEACH/Here, a local urban teacher residency program, has joined more than 80 other organizations nationwide to support 100Kin10, a nationwide effort to prepare 100,000 instructors in science, technology, engineering and math. Officials with TEACH/ Here, which joined under its parent organization, the Public Education Foundation, said collaborating with 100Kin10 allows the local group to qualify for extra funding and a larger network of resources.
Local teaching initiative TEACH/Here has been selected as a partner in a national initiative started by President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. TEACH/Here is a 2-year-old urban residency program in Chattanooga with the goal of equipping young teachers with valuable experience and solid tools for teaching in STEM-related fields.
The initiative, called 100kin10, is a collaborative movement designed to create and place 100,000 STEM teachers in classrooms across the country over the next ten years.
Currently working alongside a veteran teacher, Maria Lopez is a little nervous about how she’ll handle her own high school math classes next year. While she’s confident in her teaching abilities, it’s all the other stuff that leaves her hesitant — inattentive students, keeping control of the classroom and dealing with other behavioral issues.
When Gainesville native Amelia Adams graduated from the University of Florida in 2001 with a degree in
plant sciences, she never imagined that ten years later she would be pursuing a teaching license in the
state of Tennessee. But looking back, Adams is not surprised that her journey has led her to this point.
After a rigorous selection process and a year of highly-focused training, 15 residents of Chattanooga's first TeachHere "cohort" graduated in a ceremony held at Lindsay Street Hall on Monday night. Simultaneously, a group of 22 new residents began their year-long effort to learn the ins and outs of classroom management in urban settings.
It's time for round two of Teach Here. Future resident teachers met with their mentors Monday for the Summer Institute.
...Gov. Bill Haslam on Tuesday downplayed concerns about the impact on class size, telling student leaders that teacher quality ultimately matters more. ... Public Education Foundation President Dan Challener, whose group works to strengthen Hamilton County’s public schools, said “teacher quality is the single most powerful force for improving student achievement. Great teachers make a great difference.” But Challener noted that “it’s also true that every time we increase class size, we make it harder and harder for all teachers, even the great ones, to get the results we need. And I think that’s especially true for teachers working in high poverty schools.”
A few years ago, Dedric Landrum crunched numbers at an accounting firm. "So what if I said 3 to the 2nd power, what is that?" he asks his eighth graders at Tyner Middle. He now teaching students how to master algebra equations.
The push to find and retain teachers in Hamilton County's Schools expands. The Teach-Here residency program offers a one year masters program and mentoring for new teachers.
TEACH/Here is holding an information and recruiting open coffee bar at Stone Cup on Frazier Avenue on Thursday, from 10 a.m.-noon.
Hamilton County Schools will start training an additional 12 new middle-school math teachers this summer through a teacher residency grant, officials announced Wednesday. The $2 million grant comes from the Tennessee Department of Education’s portion of the federal Race to the Top money and will be given out over four years.
Making good on a promise made last year, the National Science Foundation gave nearly $3 million to a joint Hamilton-Knox counties’ teacher residency program called Teach/Here. The money will provide $10,000 living stipends to Teach/Here residents while they’re in their first year of the program, observing a mentor teacher.
TEACH/Here, an innovative teacher residency initiative through which the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is helping prepare highly-skilled math and science teachers for hard-to-fill positions in Knox and Hamilton county schools, has received $2.8 million from the National Science Foundation through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program.
An anonymous local donor has contributed a $415,000, three-year grant to support TEACH/Here, an innovative teacher residency initiative that is preparing highly skilled math and science teachers for hard-to-fill positions in Hamilton County and Knox County schools, the Public Education Foundation announced Wednesday.
The Public Education Foundation has announced receipt of a $415,000, three-year grant from an anonymous local donor to support TEACH/Here, a teacher residency initiative that is preparing highly skilled math and science teachers for hard-to-fill positions in Hamilton and Knox County schools.
TEACH/Here, a teacher residency initiative that is preparing math and science teachers for hard-to-fill positions in Knox and Hamilton County schools, has announced a $154,000 grant from AmeriCorps, through Volunteer Tennessee, to support training and stipends for participants.
...UT is introducing two new programs aimed at reducing the severe shortage of math and science teachers in the state."Vols Teach" kicks off in about two weeks and "Teach Here" will start this fall.
Carr and Adams are among 50 candidates competing for 18 positions. 10 will end up in Hamilton County, while 8 will go to Knox County.Teach/Here officials will review all the candidate evaluations in the days to come. Those selected for the special program will be notified before the end of next week, and in a classroom this fall.
Local colleges aren't churning out enough new math and science teachers. Jamie Parris, Director of Secondary Math & Sciences for Hamilton County, says "in the past two years, we've had 70 math and science teachers retire. And we began this school year with 11 vacancies in Math and Science." Last July, Hamilton County school leaders opted to join a highly selective recruitment initiative, known as Teach/Here. The residency program offers to ease college graduates and those looking for a career change into teaching.
According to Supply and Demand for Teachers in Tennessee, a study by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, the state will face a teacher shortage estimated at over 31,000 by the 2013–2014 school year. The study found that Tennessee must fill about 40 percent of all pre-K through grade 12 public school teaching positions in only four years. Beginning this Friday, an initiative called Teach/Here aims to reverse the trend in Hamilton and Knox Counties by recruiting and retaining nontraditional teaching candidates through an urban teacher residency program.
Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Hamilton County school system is desperate for qualified math and science teachers, and officials think they've found the perfect formula to supply more. Beginning next summer, the system is partnering with Knox County Schools, the Public Education Foundation and the University of Tennessee in Knoxville to offer a teacher residency program that will give college graduates a chance to earn teaching credentials and a master's degree in one year.
PEF is a local non-profit dedicated to improving student achievement in Hamilton County Schools
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“Due to the funds that were provided…
…for us by the Benwood Initiative, we’ve been able to provide some of the best research-based workshops for our teachers to implement reading strategies in the classroom, and we’ve established a literacy block which is two hours per day, every day, for all of our students.”
Marthel Young
Principal,
Orchard Knob Elementary