LM Feb.2019

Creating a Successful Educator PrepProgram

Finding qualified teachers continues to be a struggle for many school districts in Illinois in the midst of a teacher shortage. So, what can school district leaders do about it? In May 2018, Dr. Rich Voltz , IASA Director of Professional Development, spoke with Township High School District 214’s Superintendent Dr. David Schuler about his district’s Educator Prep program. Since its launch in 2016, more than 1,000 students have entered the program and begun their trek toward becoming a certified teacher. The interview with Dr. Schuler below was taken from the IASA podcast. It is edited and condensed for clarity. You can listen to the full interview here . Q: Can you tell our listeners about your school district? A: District 214 is in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. We have six comprehensive high schools and four specialized programs. We have approximately 12,000 students in the district. We are very diverse, and our attitude is if we can make it work here, it can be replicated anywhere. Q: Can you discuss the Grow Your Own program in District 214 and how you have developed it? A: We’re experiencing such a teacher shortage in the state of Illinois and really across the entire country. I think one of the ways to address that is to grow our own. Part of the reason why we have a teacher shortage is because, for the past 15 years under No Child Left Behind, we developed this testing mentality and a lot of the joy has been sucked out of teaching. I think what we’re trying to do is inject joy back into this wonderful vocation of teaching. In our district, our students declare if they want to be a teacher at the end of their freshman or sophomore year. Then during their junior or senior year we will provide them access to early college credit. We also provide them up to 200 hours

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