University of Tennessee partners with the state on a $20 million plan to fix a teacher shortage

Tennessee desperately needs more teachers, and it's calling on the state’s oldest higher education institution to help. 

The Tennessee Department of Education and the University of Tennessee System are launching the Tennessee Grow Your Own Center, a $20 million three-year pilot to prepare teachers and eliminate the state's teacher shortage. 

"We know across the country we have a serious shortage of a number of teachers who are in front of kids every single day," Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny said Monday. "We know that we've got to fill those vacancies because the single most important thing we can do in public education is provide an excellent educator in front of every child in every class every single day."

Schwinn told The Tennessean in January that the state has been about 2,000 teachers short for the past few years. 

Building the pipeline:How Tennessee is leading efforts to combat teacher shortages with free apprenticeship programs

Teaching in a pandemic:College student teachers focus on future of education

But this new investment hopes to tackle that shortage. The Tennessee Grow Your Own Center hopes to recruit and train new teachers, better equip existing teachers and serve as a the "one-stop-shop" for all program and technical support for new and existing Grow Your Own apprenticeships. 

The UT-backed center will leverage its campus presence in all three of the state's divisions and UT extension offices in each of Tennessee's 95 counties to pull in more teachers from all areas of the state. 

The no-cost pathway will help the state recruit more diverse teachers. Tennessee's teacher workforce is currently majority white, and Schwinn said the biggest barrier keeping first-generation college students, college students from rural communities and college students of color from becoming teachers is money. A lot of students simply can't afford to take on unpaid teaching assistantships.

But Grow Your Own eliminates affordability barriers for those student teachers by providing funds to entirely cover tuition, textbooks and fees.

"I hope we have zero teacher vacancies in this state moving forward. I hope our teachers leave their college degrees with zero debt," Schwinn said. "I hope every single student in the state has a teacher who's ready to be excellent on day one because they have such phenomenal training like we offer in this program."

Grow Your Own is a statewide program aimed at improving the teacher pipeline in Tennessee and ensuring teachers stay in the state. 

The program recently became the first federally recognized apprenticeship for teaching in the country. Teacher candidates typically work in partner classrooms full-time while getting their teaching degrees and certifications. 

The initiative launched in March 2020 as a partnership between Knox County Schools and the University of Tennessee. It was aimed at developing a local pipeline of well-qualified teachers who are ready for the classroom.

The program placed up to 15 students at UT Knoxville in Knox County Schools classrooms as paraprofessionals. Student teachers received a salary and health care.

The small initiative quickly expanded. Two similar programs launched at Austin Peay State University and Lipscomb University. The state also launched the Grow Your Own Competitive Grant, offering 20 $100,000 grants to fund partnerships between local school systems and educator preparation providers.