OPINION- Guest writer

Serving students

Teacher corps goes where needed

This fall, middle school teacher Christina Turner received a grant from the El Dorado Education Foundation to enable her students to design and build robotic "Muppet-like" creatures while developing their skills in science, technology, engineering and math.

Hope High School Spanish teacher Minerva Pineda has taken community engagement to a whole new level by providing after-hours English language tutorial sessions for students and their parents, and she is offering instruction for parents and others at the local community college.

And, between sponsoring yearbook and directing plays, Dollarway teacher Madison Babb launched her school's first-ever student-run newspaper earlier this month in Pine Bluff.

These are accomplishments to celebrate for any teacher in any school, but they are especially noteworthy as these outstanding teachers might never have found their way into the classroom, or at least not into the classrooms in the communities where they currently live and work.

Across Arkansas, from Blytheville in the northeast to Lake Village and Strong in the south, a new group of passionate educators is stepping up to teach in some of the most difficult-to-staff districts across the state. These are people with a genuine desire to teach in Arkansas schools with an extraordinary need for teachers.

While an open position for a math or science teacher in Northwest Arkansas may receive more than 25 applications, a similar position in the southeast may receive one or two. One principal summed up a concern shared by many administrators, particularly in rural communities across the state: "Each year, it just becomes more difficult to find the teachers we need." This is an urgent issue facing many communities across the state: How do we get high-quality teachers to the districts where they are needed most?

The Arkansas Teacher Corps (ATC), a program within the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions, was built in response to this precise challenge. ATC is driven by the idea that all of Arkansas' students deserve an excellent, equitable education regardless of their geographical location or other challenges. And we believe that this program, created by Arkansans for Arkansans, is uniquely suited to address the needs of students in our state.

Through its highly selective fellowship program (typically only 25 percent of applicants are accepted each year), the corps places teachers in high-need K-12 districts across the state to serve for a three-year commitment. Teachers participate in ongoing professional development and individual coaching--at their school sites in their own classrooms--as they fulfill the requirements to obtain their standard teaching license.

There are some who criticize programs like the Arkansas Teacher Corps and the national Teach for America because these programs recruit individuals who did not major in education and place them in classrooms. While we understand these concerns, we believe that there is more than one route toward becoming an excellent teacher. This teacher quality challenge is far too important to close any doors on talented and passionate people who want to teach.

This year, ATC fellows are teaching in 34 schools across 23 districts in the state. This means that, in 34 schools across Arkansas, there is a teacher (usually more than one!) who likely would not otherwise be teaching this year. Translate this into the number of classes, club and team sponsorships, and students affected, and the broad impact of these teachers becomes evident.

The students who spend each day with ATC teachers come from diverse backgrounds, and are often students of color. Our ATC teachers reflect that diversity better than nearly any other teacher training program. For example, nearly half (48 percent) of the newest cohort of ATC fellows are people of color, and 40 percent are male. In teacher prep programs across the state, only 11 percent are people of color and 24 percent are male. It matters to us that ATC teachers more closely represent the students they serve; more importantly, it matters to the students!

The teaching fellows are former bankers, graphic designers, entrepreneurs, and college instructors with distinguished careers. They are people who want a new experience in a new town and people who want to find new ways to serve their home communities. They are from every part of our state--and a few states beyond. They are school district employees with a dream to teach and recent college graduates with degrees in biochemistry and math.

Indeed, there is no "one type" of person who is driven to do this work. Arkansas Teacher Corps teachers are diverse and represent nearly every group of people within Arkansas. But they are united by one purpose: to serve Arkansas students who need them the most, in the places where they are needed the most.

The reality is that, without ATC, many of these people would never find their way into classrooms in many of the small rural communities where they have now committed to teach, live, and build lives.

All kids--regardless of where they live in our state--are eager to create robots, become journalists, and feel confident in their math skills. But they need teachers who will be their guides in the world of robotics and journalism and math. We are proud that ATC teachers are serving that vital role for students every day across Arkansas.

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Shelley Aschliman is executive director of the Arkansas Teacher Corps; Gary W. Ritter is faculty director and co-founder of the program.

Editorial on 10/16/2017

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