How MTSU Tennessee Teach Back Initiative invests in the next wave of educators | Opinion

What do Ronald Reagan, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg and LeBron James have in common?

All have credited teachers with influencing their lives and laying the foundation for their personal, professional or political success. In fact, I would contend there are few, if any, in our society who do not credit a portion of their life’s achievements to a teacher.

There was a time when our society considered teachers to be our most important resource.

Serving as educator, mentor, role model and sometimes a de facto parent, the men and women who filled our classrooms influenced and guided generations of impressionable youth.

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Creative new approach meets the needs of schools

Today, like the rest of the nation, Tennessee is facing a critical teacher shortage. In response to this acute need to attract the best students into the teaching profession, MTSU’s College of Education leaders collaborated with Tennessee’s State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) to look for solutions.

Recently, we celebrated the launch of the MTSU Tennessee Teach Back Initiative, a creative approach to address both the educational needs of students and the recruitment and retention needs of schools.

This innovative partnership represents not only an important investment focused on the critical shortage of teachers, but it also tackles the pressing need forteachers of color and those from other underrepresented groupsin our K-12 schools.

Through scholarships that cover remaining costs after all other scholarships and grants, mentoring opportunities, and guaranteed positions within their district, school partners help remove financial barriers that stand between teachers and their goals of making a difference in their communities.

A key benefit of this effort and critical to the success of Tennessee Teach Back will be the recruitment of future educators from our state’s underserved and underrepresented populations.

Prospective teachers are recruited from school districts in Tennessee’s under-resourced areas. After training at MTSU’s College of Education, they return to teach in their local communities.

The future strength and vitality of these communities rest in large part on our ability to meet their needs in the classroom. This initiative will help provide teachers who can relate to local challenges and can better connect with the students and families with whom they will engage.

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MTSU’s history informs this new program

More than 112 years ago, Middle Tennessee State University was founded as the state’s first normal school, created to educate students in the “norm” of curriculum and pedagogy.

Middle Tennessee Normal School, as we were known then, was the only public institution of higher education in the state of Tennessee specially designated for teacher training, and the state’s first major investment in teacher training.

Since then, we have remained true to our roots and committed to the responsibility of leadership to serve our schools and classrooms with highly trained professionals. This rich history and the belief that our children deserve to be nurtured and educated by the most dedicated, talented professionals laid the groundwork a century ago for the Tennessee Teach Back Initiative.

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This commitment to educators is personal

In my family, these principles are more than anecdotal.  My wife Elizabeth taught for more than 40 years. Rarely a month goes by that she doesn’t hear from former students who call to share stories about their family, successful career, reflections on fond memories of experiences in her classroom, and thanks to her for making these things possible.

For me, this commitment to the future of teaching is more than rhetoric – it’s personal! Education isn’t just an issue for those with young children, it is an important issue for everyone in our society.

Our future leaders are serving in our classrooms today, and our future prosperity and well-being are in the hands of those who have committed themselves to meeting the needs of our youth.

We remain faithful to the charge we accepted, over a hundred years ago, to train teachers and assure a quality education for all students. With the Tennessee Teach Back Initiative, we are confident we will all succeed!

Sidney McPhee is president of Middle Tennessee State University.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How MTSU Tennessee Teach Back Initiative invests in future educators