MURFRESBORO, Tenn. — Launched by the Middle Tennessee State University College of Education, the Tennessee Teach Back Initiative is a teacher preparation program developed to recruit high school students to earn an initial teaching degree and then teach in high-need areas across the state.

In the August edition of “Out of the Blue,” MTSU’s television magazine show, Michelle Stevens, College of Education professor and director of the Center for Fairness, Justice and Equity, provides more details about the initiative with host Andrew Oppmann, vice president of Marketing and Communications at the university.

“What we’re trying to do is to partner with districts across the state where we are recruiting high school students and community college students to come and learn with us to become teachers,” Stevens said.

You can watch the segment here:

The partner districts will be sponsoring those students from their areas through last-dollar funding, where providers cover the remaining tuition and fees for students after other forms of financial aid have been exhausted, Stevens added. 

“Once the students graduate, they return to that sponsoring district and work for as long as they have been supported,” she said. “We are trying to eliminate the obstacles that keep people from going into the teaching field, to the field of education and really promoting education as a viable option.”

Stevens said rural school districts, especially, have a harder time filling vacancies and Tennessee Teach Back provides a pathway in the hiring process, particularly in physical education, special education and other areas. 

“We are partnering not only to receive funding, but also mentoring opportunities,” she added. “We’re focusing on not only recruiting the students, but also making sure they’re engaged so that we retain them. Then, as they graduate and they’re inducted into the field of education, they stay. It really is about retention throughout the process. They get selected for this program, they receive an education and land a job.”

To learn more, visit www.mtsu.edu/ttbi or call 615-898-2739.

“Out of the Blue” is available anytime on the university’s YouTube channel, the True Blue TV channel, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. It also airs on Murfreesboro cable Channel 9 daily at 6 and 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; NewsChannel5+ at 3:30 p.m. Sundays; via streaming on MTSU’s Jazz Network on WMOT HD2 and through WMOT.org at 7 a.m. on the first Sunday of each month; and on other cable outlets in Middle Tennessee, so check local listings.

It is also available as a podcast on iTunes and Google Play and as individual interview segments on Spotify at https://spoti.fi/453hxg3.

Watch previous episodes of “Out of the Blue” at https://mtsunews.com/out-of-the-blue.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)