Teachers are so important – not just to teach, but to give students hope and inspire them along the way.
Dr. Ferrell Miller, USD 475 Board of Education President, said that he would like to see more home grown teachers in the District.
“Other [districts] have a range of scholarships – some of them begin with encouraging kids from middle school through high school to get in to future teacher type programs and then apply for a scholarship, making a commitment to go through a teacher education program,” said Miller. “Prior to being certified, they would do student teaching in [your] district, if you are the one providing the scholarship.”
Scholarships in place at other Districts around the state range from $2500 a year to $24,000 a year toward teacher education.
“Then you have a guarantee to that student that when they graduate, they can come back into the District and have a guaranteed job,” said Miller. “The commitment then to the teacher is that the teachers stays for – whatever you commit to – two years, four years, five years…and that gives us a little more longevity.”
USD 475 has struggled in recent years with losing teachers to other Districts in the State and had trouble retaining teachers due to the transient nature of the local population.
Miller wants to also see more diversity in the teachers that are recruited to the District.
“When we look at our school district and we look at the population of our students, about fifty percent of them are other than white; but our teacher population, our certified staff – 95 percent of them are white, so there’s a disparity there.”
Miller noted that diversity is not always about race, but also about the diversity in background and life experiences. “So diversity can be about having empathy, because they’ve been there – they know what it’s like to struggle; we have a high percentage of our students who are on free and reduced lunch, we need to have folks who understand what that might be like.”
Miller noted that teachers with different experiences can help to give kids “a dream to try break the cycle – a dream, yes; but hope also.”