The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s educator preparation program is tackling the shortage of certified teachers in the Delta and South Arkansas regions by encouraging future educators to stay in the area after graduating. Their goal is to improve the well-being of communities in the region “one teacher at a time.” The program, led by Kimberley Davis, dean of the School of Education, focuses on providing ample opportunities for students to work and build relationships with local schools, ensuring they are certified to teach immediately upon graduating. The program also provides ongoing support for students even after completing the program.
Davis recognizes the challenges of retaining educators in the Delta and South Arkansas regions, stating the need for more teachers, especially teachers of color, particularly African-American males. A report by TNTP reveals that Arkansas has a higher percentage of uncertified teachers compared to the national average. In the Helena-West Helena School District and Forrest City, up to 56% and 52% of teachers, respectively, were not certified. The report also highlights the disproportionate impact on black students, who are more likely to attend schools in high shortage districts compared to white students.
The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated the difficulty of hiring certified educators for districts across the state. A study by the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville shows an increase in teacher turnover during the pandemic, resulting in a decline in teacher retention rates.
To address the low number of certified teachers in the region, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s program establishes partnerships with districts, such as Pine Bluff, Watson Chapel, Lee County, Little Rock, and North Little Rock. The program requires students to spend a full school year in the field before graduating, allowing them to build relationships with students and administrators before entering the workforce.
The program’s success is evident in the high recruitment and retention rates experienced by partner districts. The Pine Bluff School District, for example, has seen a significant number of teachers graduate from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, leading to the district having to account for the university’s Homecoming Week in its teaching calendars.
In addition to providing opportunities and partnerships, the School of Education at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff offers support to future educators. The program assists students in meeting their academic, performance, financial, mental, and emotional needs. It provides financial support during internships and ensures that students are fully licensed and ready to teach upon graduation.
The program also addresses the challenges prospective educators face, such as self-doubt, by providing support in areas like motivational skills, classroom and behavior management, instructional planning, and Praxis test preparation. Mentorships and workshops help students develop their teaching skills and improve areas where they may be struggling.
The impact of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff’s program is significant for the community of Pine Bluff. Graduates who choose to stay in the area have a powerful effect on the community. They can change lives in the classroom and help prepare children for the future. Their presence also revitalizes neighborhoods and contributes to the local economy.
Mayor Shirley Washington emphasizes the efforts made by Pine Bluff to create an attractive environment for graduates to settle down by investing in infrastructure, parks, recreation, and public safety.
Overall, the close relationship between the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and its partner school districts sets this program apart. Students feel a sense of belonging to the community, and the program has the potential to change the narrative surrounding Pine Bluff by producing high-quality teachers.
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An educator preparation program at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff is combating the shortage of certified teachers throughout the Delta and South Arkansas by motivating prospective educators to stay in the region after graduation.
A historically black college principal said he believes their efforts will improve the well-being of communities across the region “one teacher at a time.”
To do so, Kimberley Davis, dean of the university’s School of Education, said her program aims to prepare educators by providing ample opportunity to work and build relationships with area schools, ensuring they are certified to teach immediately following graduation. degree and providing student support support even after completion of the programme.
Davis acknowledged the problems Delta and South Arkansas face in retaining educators.
“We need more teachers,” Davis said. “And not just more teachers. We need more teachers of color, especially African-American males.”
A 2021 report by TNTP, formerly The New Teacher Project, says that approximately 4 percent of teachers across Arkansas were uncertified at the time the report was released, more than double the national average of 1.7 percent. In the Delta and southern Arkansas, however, the percentages of uncertified teachers were particularly concentrated. For example, as many as 56 percent of teachers in the Helena-West Helena School District and 52 percent of those in Forrest City were not certified.
According to the report, black students in Arkansas were “more than five times more likely to attend school in a high shortage district than white students.”
Lack of academic credentials was among the reasons cited in the study for the shortage. Many of the adults in these communities did not have college degrees.
The covid-19 pandemic has also made it more difficult for districts across the state to staff schools with certified educators.
The Arkansas public school system, from kindergarten through 12th grade, has seen an overall increase in teacher turnover during the pandemic, according to a study by a research team at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
The state’s typical teacher retention rate of nearly 80 percent in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years dropped to 76.9 percent in 2021 and 74.4 percent in the 2022-23 school year, it found. the team.
PARTNERSHIPS
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Teacher Training Program seeks to counter the low number of certified teachers in the region by motivating prospective educators to become full-time teachers in the schools where they have taught. For Davis, a key “preservation mechanism” is the partnerships the program builds with districts in the region.
“Our goal is to have all of our students work with our different partners, and once our students graduate, we’ll have jobs for them,” she said.
The program partners not only with the Pine Bluff and Watson Chapel school districts, but also with the Lee County School District and the Little Rock and North Little Rock school districts, he said.
Program teachers must also be in the field for a full school year before they can graduate. Four students will be doing it this semester, two of whom will be full-time elementary teachers, Davis said.
Such efforts allow prospective educators to build relationships with students and administrators prior to graduation.
“I’m able to connect theory to practice and I’m also able to build a relationship with the school district in hopes of future employment,” she said.
The relationship between the teacher education program and school districts is built on two-way communication, said Monica McMurray, director of recruiting and retention for the Pine Bluff School District. It also acts as a liaison between the district and the training school.
According to McMurray, at least 45 percent of teachers in the district have graduated from college at some point. Additionally, the district was able to retain 98 percent of the prospective educators placed there from the training school.
So many teachers come from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, in fact, that the district must account for the university’s Homecoming Week in its teaching calendars; they often have to tap multiple substitute teachers during that week, she said.
“That’s how huge the alumni population has been in recent years,” McMurray said.
The district’s high recruitment and retention rate is due to the first-hand experience prospective program educators get while teaching students and because the district doesn’t have to wait for them to become licensed after graduation, according to McMurray.
In order to ensure that School of Education students are fully certified and ready to teach on their first day of class, the School of Education requires its students to pass all components of the Praxis test, an assessment that measures knowledge and skills of teaching future educators.
“The students we place as student teachers, we are able to offer them jobs right away,” McMurray said. “And that’s how we keep them.”
SUPPORT FOR FUTURE TEACHERS
Providing opportunities with partner districts and actively recruiting students into the program isn’t enough, however, according to Davis. The School of Education is also committed to helping students meet their academic, performance, financial, mental and emotional needs.
Juggling classes, lectures, and teaching students while also meeting personal needs can take a toll on future educators, the principal said. The school of education has a number of non-traditional students who have to make money for their families to survive.
Fortunately, students in the program are able to earn money during their internships and have completed all of their coursework before those internships begin, according to Davis. While not the norm for residencies in other programs, the principal said his School of Education wants prospective educators to be able to focus on teaching, rather than “trying to survive.”
Students in the program are also grappling with the professional and personal requirements of teaching, according to Davis.
“Most of our students struggle with self-defense,” she said. They also need help building their motivational skills, classroom and behavior management, instructional planning and thinking about the pupils they will one day work with.
Many are also reluctant to take the Praxis test because they are “scared,” according to the principal. Davis said he believes assessment is the single significant obstacle that discourages his students from switching majors.
In response, the training school aims to provide support for students seeking to pass Praxis as well as professional development. First, the program identifies students’ strengths, then determines areas of deficits before finding the resources to address those needs.
The program takes a close look at data on its prospective teachers’ performance, using test scoring tools and surveys that identify where students feel least comfortable. Workshops provide professional development and coaching to help aspiring teachers in areas where they could use the most improvement.
Such support is critical to ensuring that prospective teachers stay in the program through graduation, according to Davis. The School of Education’s overall retention rate for undergraduates is 81.6%, while it is 75.3% for students in their undergraduate-level program, the dean said.
Davis said he hopes to graduate between 10 and 15 students in the fall and spring of each year.
IMPACT
In Pine Bluff, Mayor Shirley Washington said School of Education graduates have a “powerful effect” on her community when they choose to make it their home.
“When employed in the classroom, talented teachers can change lives and help our children become better prepared for the world,” he said in an emailed statement Friday.
Those who remain in the city after graduation, increasing the population by raising their children, can revitalize neighborhoods by acquiring or building new homes. Their purchase of goods and services also helps local businesses thrive, according to Washington.
The mayor said Pine Bluff is doing “everything it can” to become the kind of place graduates will want to live, with investments in infrastructure, parks, recreation and public safety.
McMurray said the district’s connection to the university’s School of Education is “a big deal.”
“Our district is predominantly an African-American district, and that shared pride in the university, the historical perspective of the university, in addition to being of African-American descent, that pride runs deep,” he said. “And that’s something that’s shared.”
Davis said she believes her program’s efforts are different from many others because of the close relationship between the university and its partner school districts.
“Many of our students are not from Arkansas, but they end up staying here because they feel like they are a part of the community,” she said.
According to Davis, many people who consider Pine Bluff point out negatives, such as the high crime rate and low literacy rates. However, he believes his program could change the narrative of the city. He hopes that by producing high-quality teachers, the university will similarly foster high-quality students, “who will ultimately change our community.”
“We won’t see it quickly, but it has the ability to make a difference over time,” the principal said.
MORE EFFORTS
Teach for America, a national nonprofit that places corps members in underserved schools for at least two years, has also addressed the recruitment and retention of educators in the Delta in recent years.
Like many districts and educator preparation programs, the organization has experienced disruptions due to covid-19 and has struggled to recruit teachers for classrooms in the Delta, especially when it competes with major urban centers.
“In the Delta, it’s sometimes hard to get people to settle down and move here,” said Zack Huffman, a fundraising and network recruiting specialist for the organization’s “Greater Delta” region.
Rather than focusing on virtual recruiting, a pandemic-era strategy that Huffman says wasn’t very effective, Teach for America is now focusing on regional candidates. The organization seeks to identify pockets of talent in Arkansas colleges of learning, according to the specialist.
That regional perspective is working, Huffman said. In total, 88% of incoming corps members for the greater Delta region are from the area, a maximum age of 33. The program also retained all of its teachers last year.
“We believe the talent is here,” he said. “We are leaving no stone unturned to get them into the classrooms.”
Bolstering these recruiting efforts is a virtual, paid, part-time program launched about two years ago, the Ignite Fellowship. The program, open to undergraduates, allows participants to gain experience developing relationships with students in a Teach for America classroom. Those kids are 43 percent more likely to apply for the Teach for America corps, she said.
Applications for Teach for America in the greater Delta region open August 18. Applications for the Ignite Fellowship are now open, with a November 15 deadline.
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