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“For teachers to be successful
teachers in urban schools, above all else they need life
experience and close relationships in urban neighborhoods,”
said Lynne Hamer, PhD,UT professor of educational
foundations and leadership in the UT Judith Herb College of
Education and Program Coordinator for Teach Toledo.
Students who want to be part of
Teach Toledo not only have to be admitted to UT, which
requires a high school degree or GED, but also have to be
selected for Teach Toledo via an interview process. The
interview has two main questions: What experience living in
central city Toledo or similar urban areas will you bring to
the program so others can learn from you? And, what is your
commitment to a career as an educator in Toledo?
Teach Toledo is based on the
successful UT@TPS which held classes at Pickett Academy and
then Jones Leadership Academy from 2011 till 2015. UT@TPS
was designed to make college education more accessible to
adults in the Toledo area while building a college-going
culture in central-city schools.
The first students in the new
Teach Toledo program will begin in the fall of 2016, but
applications are being taken now. Twenty students will be
accepted for the fall 2016 cohort, but organizers hope to
have additional cohorts each year.
Teach Toledo students will
receive partial tuition scholarships and earn an Associate
of Arts degree with a focus on urban education.
At least the first year of
college classes will take place at TPS’s Jones Leadership
Academy where Teach Toledo students will gain early
classroom experience by interacting with the pre-school,
middle school and high school students who attend Jones.
“Graduates have no obligation to
teach in Toledo,” Hamer said. “However, we know that people
often go into teaching because they want to teach in their
home town, and they want to be part of a school that their
own children may attend.” By recruiting future teachers
from Toledo neighborhoods, Teach Toledo expects to graduate
many teachers with a passion for staying in their
neighborhoods.
“Across the nation, we have a
problem that teachers often start their careers in urban
schools, but they don’t stay in them,” Hamer noted.
“Oftentimes this gets communicated as being a problem with
the urban schools and families. But it could just as well
be seen as a matter of teacher familiarity and comfort:
many teachers want to teach in schools that feel familiar,
and we haven’t been recruiting future teachers from urban
schools in a focused, purposeful way.”
The shortage of teachers of
color nationwide can be traced back to Brown vs. Board of
Education, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court case in which the
justices held that school segregation was unconstitutional.
An unintended consequence of Brown was that
African-American teachers were fired because school boards
would not hire them to teach in integrated classrooms. Black
teachers weren’t allowed to teach white students. This
devastated the African-American teaching profession, a blow
from which we have yet to recover.
Teach Toledo is designed to make
sure that teachers understand this history and how it
affects their chosen profession. In addition, the Teach
Toledo curriculum includes courses in African history,
African-American culture, Latin American history, and Latino
culture.
“It is well documented that
schools in the U.S. have served to ‘deculturalize’ people of
color,” said Hamer. “We see this in the continued
Eurocentric curriculum: in most schools, and in most
colleges of education, students still do not get exposed to
most of the world’s history and culture. Teach Toledo is
designed to make sure our teachers do not inherit and
perpetuate a Eurocentric curriculum.”
TPS leadership has given full
support for the collaboration. “As a TPS and UT graduate, I
know the power of teaching in our city, which is why I
believe in Teach Toledo,” said TPS Superintendent Romules
Durant, EdD.
Students who attend the program
fulltime, which is four classes per semester, will complete
the associate degree in five semesters. It is also possible
to attend the program part-time, or two classes per
semester, but completion time will double.
Organizers hope that upon
graduation with their associates degrees, Teach Toledo
graduates will want to pursue a teaching license. “We have
selected courses for the Associate degree that are also
required for the Bachelor’s of Education in Early Childhood
Education,” Hamer explained. With current requirements, a
Teach Toledo graduate could complete the Bachelor’s of
Education and be eligible to apply for a state teaching
license in five additional semesters, beyond the associate
degree.
“Teach Toledo courses have the
same requirements as those on campus except that they will
be specially designed to focus on issues and knowledge
essential to urban teaching,” Hamer said. “These include
African and African American history and culture, Latin
American and Latino American history and culture,
understanding the impact of various levels of government on
schooling, understanding economic systems in urban
environments, and working for the common good and social
welfare.”
For more information about how
to enroll in Teach Toledo, go to utoledo.edu/education/teachtoledo
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