Tennessee Gets Grant To Train New Teachers At No Cost
One of the most important aspects to ensuring an educated population is a plethora of good teachers, especially in our public schools. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped show us the importance of having educators who can help keep students engaged. Many states have had to invest more funds into education because of pandemic-related measures. Those measures included complete lockdowns, hybrid and virtual schools, and teachers attempting to replicate the in-classroom experience using video software. Will school systems be able to attract the best teachers as the pandemic comes to an apparent end?
The state of Tennessee and its Department of Education has awarded $4.5 million in grants to help support the state’s Grow Your Own teacher training program. These funds are awarded to states through the American Rescue Plan.
No-Cost Training For Teachers
This program was started to lower the barriers to entry for prospective teachers in the state of Tennesee. The grants awarded under this program create partnerships between Educator Preparation Programs (ESPs) and the Tennessee Department of Education. The program will pay for a variety of things related to teacher training as funds can be used for tuition, textbooks or fees.
Through this $4.5 million grant award, 45 grants of $100,000 will be awarded to 13 higher education provider partners. These recipients include:
- Austin Peay State University
- Freed-Hardeman University
- Lincoln Memorial University
- Lipscomb University
- Milligan University
- Middle Tennessee State University
- Nashville Teacher Residency
- Relay Graduate School of Education
- Tennessee Tech University
- Tennessee State University
- Tusculum University
- The University of Tennessee-Knoxville
- University of Tennessee-Martin
These awards will allow some teachers to receive training at no cost. One of the goals is to diversify the ranks of teachers further. This $4.5 million award follows seed funding of $2 million set aside to start the program. Tennessee plans to use the funds from over $4.2 billion in federal COVID education relief funds for this program and others.
“The Grow Your Own program has been incredibly successful by providing additional learning opportunities and advancing career pathways for local candidates to join the teaching profession,” said Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka), the House Education Instruction Subcommittee Chair. “We are excited to see this program expanding to other Tennessee communities and know they will benefit from these additional resources.”
GrantWatch and Education
The state of Tennessee is trying to ensure more teachers can get certified. Another state, Texas, will award $2,000 to teachers for outstanding math and science instruction. The future of education depends on teachers being able to receive and afford proper training.
We have an elementary-education grant category as well as a category for education overall at GrantWatch. Educational institutions often look to grants to help fund key initiatives or projects. Feel free to look through these categories and all of our listed grants, and let us know if you have any questions.
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