Rural Virginia Education Consortium Wins $4.1 Million Federal Grant to Recruit and Retain Teachers Across Four Rural School Divisions
The Rural Tidewater Education Consortium (TEC), a nonprofit based in Virginia, announced on October 28 that it has received a $4.1 million federal Teacher Quality Partnership grant from the U.S. Department of Education to recruit and retain teachers over five years in four rural school divisions.
The four divisions are Franklin City Public Schools, Isle of Wight County Schools, Surry County Public Schools and Sussex County Public Schools. The new initiative is called Tidewater Educator Workforce and Leadership.
Partners include Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University, Virginia State University and Paul D. Camp Community College. The work has three prongs: recruiting, by encouraging current students to consider teaching careers and helping paraprofessionals and second-career seekers become licensed; retention through leadership pathways, including a Virginia State administrator certification program for aspiring principals and administrators; and an executive leadership certificate for current administrators covering the science of reading, responsible technology use and school improvement.
About 200 entities applied for the federal awards and only 12 were funded, according to the consortium. TEC Executive Director Pamela Shetley called the award 'quite monumental' for rural divisions, and Surry County Superintendent Herbert Monroe and Isle of Wight County Superintendent Christopher Coleman also welcomed the program.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 美国乡郊砖砌校舍（资料图）。CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / A rural brick schoolhouse in the United States (file photo). CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
