Looking Inward to Find Tomorrow’s Teachers: A Grow Your Own Process

By Bradley Eddy, HR Director, Muskogee Schools

Those who lived through the 1980’s likely recall a song by Bonnie Tyler in which she claims, “Where are all the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?” Much like Tyler, in the last half century, those of us in education have been singing a similar refrain, louder with each subsequent year. We no longer have the luxury of “Holding out for a Hero.” We need teachers, and we need them now!

In the early 1990’s, I graduated from my master’s program with the distinct fear that I might not find a teaching role. Indeed, at that time, teachers tended to remain in their roles, and many new teachers were unemployed. I saw this firsthand, a few years later, while helping my principal find a new English teacher to replace our recently resigned career teacher. I was sent to the central office to pore over literally hundreds of handwritten applications in an attempt to find a replacement. However, this abundance of teacher candidates was nearing its end.

After the dawn of the 21st century, I watched as the number of teacher applications slowly began to diminish. By 2010, it was painstakingly clear: a major problem was on the horizon. Indeed, the Oklahoma State Department of Education began to look into the growing issue by putting together a Teacher Workforce Shortage Taskforce to examine the issues surrounding a dangerous drop in teacher applicants. As a member of the task force, I was concerned about the multitude of reasons for the loss of applicants, but I was equally encouraged by many of the ideas championed by the committee, not the least of which was looking inward to “grow our own” batch of teachers, right in our community.

Over the course of the next few years, my team began to look for ways to remind people that teaching is a viable and respectful career. Alongside The New Teacher Project (TNTP), we conducted our own workforce shortage study and learned that, indeed, Oklahoma does not graduate the numbers of teachers we need to replace those outgoing. We learned that students are choosing education as a field of study in college at an increasingly diminishing rate. In fact, we estimated that, while the two largest schools in Oklahoma were reporting the need for 20 English Language Learner (ELL) teachers in the coming year, the state was only producing nine – for the entire state! With this reality, we realized that we needed a multifaceted approach which would include “growing our own.”

Like most public-school systems, faced with the challenges of COVID, we did not have a lot of time in the last year to begin a large number of initiatives, so we needed something we could implement quickly, easily, and with nominal cost. After hours of research and committee scrutiny, my team selected the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention & Advancement (CERRA) program to help us locate, motivate, and train future teachers. Through the design of this South Carolinabased program, we currently have an entire class of high school students who are learning about teaching, in addition to observing and practicing through multiple culminating projects.

Our first-year class is now in its second semester. We began implementing this Teacher Cadet program in the winter of 2021, which means a school district could have this initiative up and running by the start of the 2023-2024 school year. To do so, simply reach out to Dr. Wine Snyder at winesnyderm@cerra.org or toll free at 800-476-2387. You will also want to talk to your curriculum and guidance teams as soon as possible to make sure the class can be offered to students, and to ensure the class “makes”; you should also do everything within your means to advertise the class. In our case, we sent messages home, spoke to students in forums, and reached out to individuals, all in an effort to identify our best and brightest for the full-year class.

Next, you will need to select the teacher or teachers to lead the class. CERRA recommends a teacher with a master’s degree to teach the class, and you will definitely want someone who is excited about teaching as a career. Students are already hearing plenty of negative messages about teaching; you do not want a mentor teacher adding to that negativity.

Once selected, the teacher or teachers will need to travel to Rock Hill, South Carolina, where they will study and train for three days and return with a hard copy and access to digital curriculum resources. The entire program follows a school year, and lesson plans are included.

Testimonials

The Teacher Cadet program gave me a look into education and helped me feel confident in my choice to become a teacher. Our Teacher Cadet instructor guided us through the curriculum and provided a model of the kind of teacher we wanted to become. I have such wonderful memories of the Teacher Cadet program and would highly recommend it to any student interested in becoming an education advocate. I have been blessed to work with a few Teacher Cadets in my own classroom. I love this program and the things it is doing to grow future teachers.

I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to be a part of the Teacher Cadet program in High School. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a teacher but this was the first opportunity I had to get in a classroom and see just how big of an impact a teacher can make It helped me see that I wanted to work with younger students and helped me pick a major as I prepared for college.

Importantly, the costs for the training are reasonable for a program with the potential to erase decades-long declines in new teachers. The three-day course is currently available for $750.00 for out-of-state participants. In addition to these costs, you will need to cover the cost of travel, lodging, and per diem for the teacher or teachers who will teach your class. Nearly one year later, these are the only incurred costs.

Although we are just finishing our first year with the program, we can say with certainty that simply offering this class has signaled to the community that teaching is a viable profession and that we find it important enough to make it a focus in our district. This knowledge impacts both the community and our students.

I challenge you to visit https://www.teachercadets.com, review what you find, and contact those who have implemented it to determine if the CERRA program is right for your school or district.

One thing is certain, teachers are not returning to the profession simply because we want and need them to. They have been told by countless others that teaching is a profession not worth pursuing. However, we know that education is the profession that creates all other professions. We need to remind the community that teaching is a calling, a viable career, and can provide a respectable living while fulfilling needs far beyond financial. We need to remind them that we still need heroes. ■