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Finding qualified teachers continues to be a struggle for many
school districts in Illinois in the midst of a teacher shortage. So,
what can school district leaders do about it?
In May 2018,
Dr. Rich Voltz
, IASA Director of Professional
Development, spoke with Township High School District 214’s
Superintendent
Dr. David Schuler
about his district’s
Educator Prep program.
Since its launch in 2016, more than 1,000 students have
entered the program and begun their trek toward becoming
a certified teacher.
The interview with Dr. Schuler below was taken from the IASA
podcast. It is edited and condensed for clarity.
You can listen to
the full interview
here .Q:
Can you tell our listeners about your school district?
A:
District 214 is in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. We have
six comprehensive high schools and four specialized programs.
We have approximately 12,000 students in the district.
We are very diverse, and our attitude is if we can make it
work here, it can be replicated anywhere.
Q:
Can you discuss the Grow Your Own program in
District 214 and how you have developed it?
A:
We’re experiencing such a teacher shortage in the state
of Illinois and really across the entire country.
I think one of the ways to address that is to grow our own.
Part of the reason why we have a teacher shortage is
because, for the past 15 years under No Child Left Behind,
we developed this testing mentality and a lot of the joy has
been sucked out of teaching. I think what we’re trying to do is
inject joy back into this wonderful vocation of teaching.
In our district, our students declare if they want to be a
teacher at the end of their freshman or sophomore year. Then
during their junior or senior year we will provide them access
to early college credit. We also provide them up to 200 hours
Creating a Successful
Educator PrepProgram
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