LOUISVILLE, Ky. — One program in Louisville is working to create new teachers close to home to address a teacher shortage across the state.
Students are excited to dive into a year of learning and fun in Mr. Jones’ class. Before James Jones became a teacher he was an insurance agent. He says he has always had a desire to work with young people.
“I think my passion was always with the people and always with the community. So having an opportunity like this allows people to feel like, okay, I can make a change. I always wanted to work with kids,” Jones said. “I mean, I, I went to school 20 years ago. So when I got to the LTR (Louisville Teacher Residency program), I had been out of college 20 years,” said Jones.
The Louisville Teacher Residency program at Jefferson County Public Schools gives people an opportunity to obtain a master’s degree in just one year to give people the chance to get into the classroom and start teaching.
Leikyn Walker graduated from the LTR program last year. She says since completing the LTR program, she feels fully equipped to take on a classroom of her own.
“LTR prepares us to teach in AIS (accelerated improvement schools) schools. We actually did our training, the whole year in a AIS school. We also got to have different experiences at two different schools throughout the whole year just to kind of see different perspectives,” said Walker.
Director of the LTR program Sylena Fishback believes the biggest benefit is the supportive network these teachers are provided with.
“We are truly impacting teachers to where they are successful within the classroom as well. So you have the ease of the access into the profession, and then you also have the support network from previous graduates, from LTR administrators, district administrators, as well as university partners who are truly pouring into these teachers so that we can see the impact on student achievement,” said Fishback.
Almost two-thirds of JCPS students are students of color. That’s why the Louisville Teacher Residency program aims to fill classrooms like this with teachers of color to be able to reflect that growing number of students.
“I can remember, I think I only had two Black teachers. And seeing them instilled a lot of confidence in myself. So I want to show that to my students,” shared Walker.
Both Walker and Jones hope their roles will inspire the young minds they teach.
“The opportunity just to let them know that someone’s there for them, someone love them. And I think representation is very important,” said Jones.
The LTR program has already prepared 180 teachers working in 36 communities.