Dekalb School System Partners With Tech To Find Local Teachers

The Dekalb County School System is partnering with Tennessee Tech to train teachers for the classroom.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said Tech reached out and the system was more than interested in participating in the Grow Your Own program. Cripps said this program is a huge benefit being in a rural area.

“There’s a, I would hate to say a teacher shortage,” Cripps said. “When you’re in rural communities you don’t have the applicant pool that the metropolitan districts have to pull from.”

Cripps said there has been a lack of teacher applicants and the list is dwindling each year. He said it becomes more difficult to find teachers certified to teach specialized courses.

“Especially math and science and even English,” Cripps said. “As the grade levels get higher, it’s getting harder and harder to find folks that are certified to teach those areas.”

Cripps said one of the benefits he sees in a program to address the need, is that potential candidates might already be a teaching assistant within the system. He said having a say in who is selected to teach in Dekalb County is an important piece to the partnership with Tech.

“Are they going to make the grades and stay with the program?” Cripps said. “You don’t want to hire somebody and them get in the program and then them drop out or something happen.”

Cripps said at this time it is not known how many program candidates could be placed as teaching assistants to start in Dekalb County Schools but would like to see candidates in place as soon as possible. The Tennessee Department of Education put $4.5 million towards this round of the program to provide funds to entirely cover tuition, textbooks, and fees for all selected participants.