Governor Phil Bredesen told business leaders (today/yesterday) that the state’s program to train teachers who have real world experience works and it should be expanded.
For three years the state’s been piloting a program called ‘Teach Tennessee.’ So far it’s produced 140 teachers who left careers in engineering, medicine and the military, to name a few. There’s an 84-percent retention rate for those who take the 12-day crash course.
Bredesen says it’s a way to improve education in the state without adding levels of bureaucracy or changing test standards and expecting something magical to happen.
Earlene England, who works for the Department of Education on the program, says coming from a career related to their subject helps the teachers connect with students.
“They are then able to stand in front of those students and say, when I was doing cancer research at Vanderbilt – as one biology teacher has said at Blackman High School in Rutherford County, when they can draw on experiences like that, they have the students’ undivided attention.”
England says the department hasn’t yet landed on the best way to expand the training. Currently, it’s offered in June and November to 35 of the hundreds who apply. England says one option may be to offer the course on 12 Saturdays to open the state-funded instruction to more would-be teachers.