District Awarded TEA Grow Your Own Grant

Posted Date: 06/03/2020

April 26, 2018—Amarillo ISD is one of 25 school districts, universities and education service centers awarded a Texas Education Agency (TEA) 2018-2019 Grow Your Own grant.

Commissioner of Education Mike Morath said the goal of the TEA’s 2018-2019 Grow Your Own grant is to help increase the quality and diversity of the teaching force, a priority echoed by District leadership.

“In the past few years, AISD has put a real focus on recruiting a diverse group of teachers who reflect the students in our school district,” said AISD Chief Human Resources Officer Doug Loomis. “We’re honored to be selected by the TEA for grant money to help us further those efforts and continue to make AISD a great place to work and learn.”

Among AISD’s emphasis on recruiting are the District’s successful Path2Teaching program, which provides those who have or are close to completing a bachelor’s degree with options to become certified teachers, as well as the new Cultivating Our Rising Educators (CORE) program which was launched this spring. The first 20 AISD seniors to be named CORE cohorts were announced this month. These scholars will graduate from AISD with a job offer, pending their completion of the CORE program, a degree from WTAMU and a Texas Teacher Certificate in the content area.

According to the TEA, based on information shared in the applications of grant recipients, Grow Your Own grants will fund:

• 49 current teachers to receive a Masters in Education in order to teach the Education and Training courses for dual credit starting the 2020-2021 school-year;

• 136 paraprofessionals to receive a bachelor’s and teacher certification and project them to be full-time teachers starting the 2020-2021 school-year;

• 59 paraprofessionals to receive a teacher certification and project them to be full-time teachers starting the 2019-2020 school-year;

• 24 teacher candidates to participate in a year-long clinical teaching placement and project them to be full-time teachers starting the 2019-2020 school-year; and

• 59 high schools to start or grow education and training programs.