Texas Tech receives $1.5 million grant to continue addressing rural teacher shortage

LUBBOCK, Texas (News Launch) – Just after a successful 1st calendar year, West Texas Rural Instruction Partnership gained a $1.5 million gift from the Prentice Farrar Brown & Alline Ford Brown Foundation to keep on addressing a scarcity of qualified lecturers across rural West Texas.

Considering the fact that its launch in April 2021, the Texas Tech University-led alliance of West Texas universities, community faculties and university districts has made use of collaborative, investigation-primarily based procedures to recruit and prepare 48 aspiring educators who are fully commited to teaching in 18 distinctive rural districts.

In excess of the up coming a few decades, the West Texas Rural Education and learning Partnership – with associates which include Texas Tech, West Texas A&M College, University of Texas at El Paso and University of Texas Permian Basin – aims to extend until eventually it provides at the very least 252 instructors every calendar year who will enter school rooms in 84 rural districts.

“We’re looking at that Texas Tech is a leader in serving the wants of rural faculties, but much more is essential,” explained Doug Hamman, director of West Texas Rural Education and learning Partnership and chair of Texas Tech’s Division of Trainer Education, housed in the College of Schooling. “It will have to have the initiatives of all the university districts, universities and community colleges in the partnership to last but not least remedy the instructor scarcity in rural educational facilities. That’s what the partnership is aiming to do, and all people involved is stepping up to make this come about.”

To reach its target, West Texas Rural Education and learning Partnership will keep on its focus on setting up and expanding “grow your own” applications in partnership with college districts all over Texas. The systems look for to develop local talent by letting citizens of rural communities to keep wherever they are living though finishing a higher-quality, university-primarily based educator planning system. School districts generally do the job in collaboration with universities and local community schools to recruit and prepare the candidates.

Other analysis-backed strategies utilized by West Texas Rural Training Partnership involve paid out residencies in which faculty districts pay out trainer candidates to practice for a full calendar year along with a mentor trainer on a district campus. These residencies supply stipends of $20,000 or far more so college students do not have to function in the course of their residencies, and university school are typically based on the district campus to give guidance and advice.

Scientific tests and experience at Texas Tech have demonstrated residencies and “grow your own” plans to be trustworthy for recruiting and getting ready instructors who are committed to remaining long-time period in rural college districts and immediately improving student accomplishment.

West Texas Rural Education Partnership also employs a rural colleges liaison to guide faculty districts in addressing teacher talent desires. Shawn Mason, former superintendent of Crosbyton Consolidated Independent Faculty District, serves in the job.

“I think we’re main the condition in higher-excellent trainer preparation,” mentioned Clifton Tanabe, dean of the Faculty of Instruction at College of Texas at El Paso. “Preparation courses throughout Texas are seeking to make helpful pathways for proficient educators to get into faculties so children in individuals universities have the best educational results feasible. That’s what College of Texas at El Paso is striving to do, and which is what Texas Tech is making an attempt to do. We’re all in.”

The associates of West Texas Rural Instruction Partnership are:

• Amarillo School
• El Paso Local community College
• Howard College
• Midland College
• Odessa College
• South Plains School
• Western Texas College
• Texas Tech College
• College of Texas Permian Basin
• University of Texas at El Paso
• West Texas A&M College

Texas Tech’s Higher education of Education and learning and Hamman introduced West Texas Rural Training Partnership following witnessing a lack of cooperation between Texas establishments of increased education and learning and faculty districts.

The need to have to get the job done together was underscored by a 2017 report from Texas Instruction Agency’s Texas Rural Schools Process Pressure, which emphasized the state’s urgent instructor lack and suggested “grow your own” pathways and nearer faculty-university partnerships as prospective options for rural regions. The urgency has only elevated right after the COVID-19 pandemic led quite a few instructors to depart the occupation.

“At a time when education and political leaders are confronting trainer shortages, this venture provides a blueprint for a prolonged-expression resolution,” Hamman claimed. “It will need us to set neighborhood needs earlier mentioned all else so that college programs and neighborhood college or university systems collaborate to address this pressing academic challenge.”

The partnership was released in April 2021 and users collected in December and June for convenings on Texas Tech’s campus, the place they discussed cooperation throughout publish-secondary establishments, diploma alignment in between group colleges and universities and procedures for providing high-quality teacher preparing at a distance from the university campus. Additional convenings are planned for this year.

“It was pretty encouraging as an educator and as a rural superintendent to see these establishments coming alongside one another in the facial area of adversity to arrive up with a system,” said Chris Smith, superintendent of Brownfield Unbiased Faculty District (ISD), which associates with Texas Tech’s TechTeach educator preparing method. “There’s by no means been a time where by it is so essential for us to appear jointly and unite and serve for a superior cause. We’re on the clock. What comes about to rural districts through the next five to 10 a long time is likely to considerably impact the society and even the lifeblood of our communities.”

The $1.5 million reward funding West Texas Rural Training Partnership is from Prentice Farrar Brown & Alline Ford Brown Basis, a Bank of The usa, N.A., Trustee. The foundation previously offered a $500,000 reward to start the partnership.

West Texas Rural Training Partnership’s mission is to build and put into action an inter-institutional approach that will present a pathway to educating in rural colleges for group associates, large faculty learners and existing instructor candidates. Finally, the purpose is to help staff fill vacancies, radically decrease rates of attrition and put together lecturers who are actually dedicated to their rural, West Texas communities.

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