Grow Your Own Programs

Educators Rising is a community-based model, in which chapters at schools feed teacher preparation programs at institutes of higher education with the support of state departments of education and local funders and foundations. These entities come together to provide a clear pathway to increase teacher diversity and teacher quality.

The Go Teach program builds partnerships between university athletic and academic departments and provides the tools needed to recruit qualified student athletes into the teaching profession.

This pathway cultivates highly skilled educators by providing young people with dual enrollment credit, beginning and high school, and providing blended coursework focused on building understanding of diverse learners, extending through college and into the profession. 

This program supports prospective teachers by providing funding as well as academic and emotional support to individuals completing preparation programs in exchange for a commitment to teach in a high-needs school or high-needs position for at least 5 years.

This initiative from the Minnesota Department of Education supports efforts to increase the racial diversity of the teacher workforce by providing grants to school districts with significant populations of students of color to develop innovative Grow Your Own programs.

This pilot program supports several districts in the state of Washington to build an educator workforce that is representative of their student populations.

This program supports New Mexico's "Grow Your Own Teachers Act" by providing scholarships for educational assistants in public schools to pursue teaching certification through an educator preparation program.

This resource guide outlines core elements, considerations, and tools to help Missouri districts create Grow Your Own models aimed at recruiting and supporting students to become teachers in their home district.

This article describes the efforts of North Kansas City School District to combat teacher shortages by partnering with a local university to establish a Grow Your Own program aimed at recruiting high school students to pursue teaching licensure.

This program established a partnership between the University of Central Missouri and four Missouri school districts to provide paraprofessionals with opportunities to obtain a degree in education while continuing to work full time.