The Virginia Department of Education awarded a second round of Grow Your Own Grants totaling $1.52 million to 24 school divisions.
The grant funding will assist in creating registered teacher apprenticeship programs to help recruit and train well-prepared future teachers within their communities. Grow Your Own programs are a focused approach to helping school divisions deal with teacher recruitment challenges and help future teachers work toward their bachelor’s degrees and fulfill all licensure requirements, so that upon completion of the program participants will be ready to accept a full-time teaching position in their communities.
The VDOE has partnered with the National Center for Grow Your Own to become a national leader in helping develop effective registered apprenticeship programs to assist school divisions in recruiting teacher candidates from their local communities. Under this model, aspiring Virginia teacher candidates can include paraprofessionals and other staff already working in the schools, dual-enrolled graduating high school seniors, or career switchers with an interest in classroom teaching. Twenty-eight Virginia school divisions have launched Grow Your Own registered teacher apprenticeship programs during the 2023-2024 school year.
“I am proud to continue our commitment to helping school divisions find ways to put exceptional people from their own communities in their local classrooms,” Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons said. “Teacher recruitment is a major issue for school divisions, and we recognize that new approaches are needed to help build a strong talent pipeline for our schools. Working with the National Center for Grow Your Own, we are creating innovative ways to help increase teacher supply and make becoming a classroom teacher more affordable for students and dedicated professionals who want to serve in our schools.”
Prince William County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. LaTanya D. McDade said she envisions a future where the “program becomes an exemplary model for others to follow. We aim to address teacher shortages and build a sustainable pipeline of passionate, talented and knowledgeable educators ready to make a difference in the lives of all our students.”
“Throughout our region we have tremendous educators and support staff. Unfortunately, the cost of higher education has been a barrier for many of our paraprofessionals to complete their bachelor’s degree and obtain teacher licensure. The Grow Your Own grant award will remove the barrier of higher education costs for many paraprofessionals throughout our region. In partnership with Emery & Henry College, forty paraprofessionals from across Southwest Virginia will receive the final two years needed to obtain their bachelor’s degree while continuing to work in our schools and completing coursework in the evenings,” Smyth County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Dennis Carter said.
Today’s awards were issued to individual school divisions and consortiums of school divisions that have partnered with an Educator Preparation Partner to train future teachers locally. Divisions in bold and noted with an asterisk are the Lead Division within the consortium. Some school divisions are members of two consortiums.
Recipients include:
In partnership with Emory & Henry College
- Smyth County Public Schools*
- Bland County Public Schools
- Bristol Virginia Public Schools
- Carroll County Public Schools
- Galax City Public Schools
- Grayson County Public Schools
- Washington County Public Schools
- Wythe County Public Schools
In partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University
- Prince William County Public Schools*
- Chesterfield County Public Schools
- Dinwiddie County Public Schools
- Essex County Public Schools
- Henrico County Public Schools
- Petersburg City Public Schools
- Prince George County Public Schools
- Surry County Public Schools
- Waynesboro Public Schools
In partnership with Radford University
- Roanoke City Public Schools*
- Bland County Public Schools
- Carroll County Public Schools
- Galax City Public Schools
- Giles County Public Schools
- Pulaski County Public Schools
- Radford City Public Schools
- Wythe County Public Schools
In partnership with Virginia State University
- Hopewell City Public Schools
In partnership with Bluefield University
- Tazewell County Public Schools
In partnership with Averett University & Mary Baldwin University
- Newport News Public Schools
Today’s grants follow on a previously awarded $1.78 million awarded in July 2023. A total of 165 teacher apprentices will be supported during the 2023-2024 school year.
Grow Your Own apprenticeship programs can produce well prepared teachers without the financial barriers associated with traditional teacher preparation. As registered apprentices, participants in the program are paid during their preparation and have the advantage of using federal workforce funds to cover a portion of the program costs.
Program participants also receive tuition discounts from the higher education educator preparation programs partnered with the school districts’ Grow Your Own programs. By significantly reducing the financial barriers to becoming a well-prepared teacher, the programs increase opportunities for potential educators to follow a mentored pathway for completing both the coursework and on-the-job training required to become fully licensed teachers.
The National Center for Grow Your Own was recently co-chair of the coalition which authored the National Guideline Standards for K-12 Teacher Registered Apprenticeships approved by the U.S. Department of Labor. The group also manages the National Registered Apprenticeship in Teaching Network, a partnership of 35 states, to help build awareness, understanding and capacity in developing registered apprenticeships in teaching to address educator shortages.
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Rebecca Barnabi
