CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW)- During the 2018-2019 school year, there was a shortage of 30 teachers in the Montgomery County School System.

Without any intervention, that number would’ve been 80 teachers by the 2019-2020 school year due to several factors including a growing student population.

Two programs helped fill that gap and jumpstarted a new broader initiative that will continuously address the need for more teachers each school year.

The CMCSS in partnership with Austin Peay State University, Nashville Teacher Residency, and Lipscomb University are part of the “Grow Your Own” partnership, a teacher pipeline that will eventually generate 85 new teachers each year through educational opportunities and hands-on apprenticeships.

The district is the state’s inauguration of the program and CMCSS will reallocate $2 million of existing funds from the Basic Education Program disbursement to fund the program.

At the CMCSS Board meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 12, Dr. Sean Impeartrice presented a report to the school board, about what’s referred to as the ‘teacher pipeline,” and spoke about recruiting diverse teachers and more teachers.

“It’s about investing in your own community with an apprenticeship approach to develop teachers,” Impeartrice said.

The partnerships with Austin Peay State University and Lipscomb University will offer opportunities for CMCSS employees, high school graduates, non-degreed individuals, and those with Bachelor degrees who are interested in becoming a teacher to elementary or secondary students.

The GYO program involves a few opportunities:

  • The Clarksville Teaching Fellows is a residency program focused on current CMCSS employees with a Bachelor’s Degree who desire to be certified and teach secondary English Language Arts and Mathematics. The residents work as an educational assistant in an exemplary teacher’s classroom, plan lessons, and co-teach through the course for one academic year. At the same time, the residents are working alongside exemplary teachers, they are going to class three days a week in Nashville through Nashville Teacher Residency. At the completion of the academic year, the residents become secondary teachers in CMCSS.

The district has hired 12 residents as secondary teachers in CMCSS schools and the residents are 50% ethnically diverse.

  • The Early Learning Teacher Residence (ELTR) Program: is a partnership created in Spring 2019, with Austin Peay State University, which provides 20 recent high school graduates and 20 CMCSS teacher’s aides with an accelerated, free path to become full-time school system teachers in just three years. The program specifically targets minority and first-generation college students, increasing diversity both within the school system and at Austin Peay.

They will earn a free bachelor’s degree in only three years, become dual certified in a critical shortage area plus special education and participate in a three-year residency experience while still being a full-time employed paraprofessional, earning a salary, health insurance, and retirement contributions.

In return, the teachers will commit to teaching for three years in the CMCSS. They will work in an apprenticeship role with experienced teachers for 3 years and then teach their own classes the next year.

In 2019-2020, the program will offer opportunities for those seeking to teach secondary students in science and math.

  • iTeach provides an opportunity for CMCSS classified staff with a degree to become teachers in hard-to-fill subject areas. This allows classified employees to become a job-embedded teacher for the 2019-2020 academic year. Through intense mentoring support and online classes, they will earn their certification. The average completion time for iTeach students enrolled in the online course work is four months.

In addition, CMCSS plans to partner with Lipscomb University to offer up to 20 future teachers a licensure program that includes a one-year full-time paid residency and dual certification (K-5 and special education) at no cost to the teacher. Through this initiative, these future teachers will also earn a master’s degree in this partnership between Lipscomb and CMCSS.

A “Grow Your Own” summit will be held on Dec. 16 in Clarksville to discuss ways to develop the program.

In December there will be information sent out to high school seniors, employees and on website.

More information will be provided to high school seniors, CMCSS employees and others interested in teaching opportunities by the end of November.