Here’s how a local school district is working to address the nationwide teacher shortage

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — The President of the National Education Association described the state of the teacher shortage in America as a five-alarm crisis. Local school districts are tapping into a new program to be part of the solution to get students interested in the profession once again.

“I want to be a teacher when I grow up,” said Gateway High School senior Ashlee Young.

Ashlee just started her senior year at Gateway High School with the hopes of returning to this school as an educator.

“It’s really because I have had great teachers here,” said Young. “I just think if I can be a part of that and be a teacher and be one of color then I think it will be awesome.”

Gateway’s Teacher Academy inspired Young. Mark Spinola, a social studies teacher, brought a “Grow Your Own” teacher program to Gateway about three years ago. It’s not only designed to bring educators back to the profession but also to ensure students see themselves in their teachers.

“The idea sort of was to take the diverse pool of students that we do have at Gateway and see if we have anyone here who would make a good teacher,” said Gateway High School Social Studies Teacher Mark Spinola.

Spinola says at least 50 students have already gone through the program.

“Some have moved on to studying teaching in college,” said Spinola. “We have partnerships with Indiana University of Pennsylvania who has provided us with curriculum assistance. We partner with their professors and their student body and do some visits and some mentoring. And Carlow University actually offers our students college credit.”

National Education Association President Becky Pringle along with Pennsylvania State Education Association President Aaron Chapin stopped by Gateway to show support for the district’s “Grow Your Own” program.

“It is an absolute success,” said National Education Association President Becky Pringle. “It’s one of the reasons why the US Department of Education under the leadership of Secretary Cardona actually ensured that some of the funding that we got from the historic increase funding into public schools that it could be used for these kinds of programs, these “Grow Your Own” programs.

Pringle says a recent survey conducted by the NEA revealed that 62% of black educators said that they were planning to leave the profession.

“What was also really disturbing was that it was at every point in the career,” said Pringle. “Our newest teachers. Those who are our veteran teachers, who are mentors to our newest teachers. And even those who are near retirement. They were leaving before they were fully vested. They were just overwhelmed by what was being asked of them and as always, they talk about the fact that they still don’t get a salary that reflects the important work they do in our society. So it is a huge crisis.”

Besides salary, Pringle says these educators were also discouraged crushing debt and the lack of respect for the profession.

“When you look at what they’re saying, and you think about programs that will actually support our students in going into education and then support our educators when they come into education, this program at Gateway School District is exactly what we need to model all over the country,” said Pringle.

Pringle says there’s evidence programs like the one at Gateway are working.  And Young is just one example of that success.

“It’s one of the things I’m so excited about for the Gateway School District is because when they took on this “Grow Your Own” program and started working with their high school students they deliberately and intentionally said we need to do specific outreach to our students of color because we know we have a disproportionate number of teachers of color particularly black teachers in our schools,” said Pringle.  “They put that as an intentional part of their program, and we as a society have to address the fact that we don’t have enough teachers of color, and we don’t keep them when we get them.  We have a harder time with retention with our teachers of color then we do with our white counterparts.”

There are 500 school districts in the state.  This year, about 30 schools have implemented a “Grow Your Own” teacher program.  Besides Gateway,  Avonworth School District and Keystone Oaks School District have also launched similar “Grown Your Own” teacher programs.

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