News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Five Upper Cumberland counties will receive a new opportunity to fill teaching positions.
Tennessee Tech University received a state grant for the Grow Your Own program. College of Education Associate Dean Julie Baker said the grants pay for a candidate’s education leading to a teacher’s license.
“We are so excited,” Baker said. “We have been looking at opportunities like this for several years now, and we have been talking with our school partners about an opportunity like this.”
Putnam, Warren, White, Overton and Jackson counties will get a chance to participate in the program. Baker said the university is helping each school district recruit about 30 local prospects. Each county will hire the candidates as teacher assistants while they begin course work next summer.
“It give us an opportunity over the next couple months and even a little bit into the spring semester to make sure that we have them admitted into Tennessee Tech, to make sure all their district paperwork is completed and then, the summer will be big for them.”
Baker said once the candidates gain a teacher’s license, they will return to the school district that recruited them.
“We are helping them look for teacher assistants that are currently already out there teaching as teaching assistants in their school but maybe did not finish a degree and get their license,” Baker said. “Or high school graduates who have a couple of years of college under their belt, but maybe, for whatever reason, did not finish their degree or get their license.”
Baker said the time line for the program is on schedule. The grants pay for two years of schooling.
