OXFORD, Ohio — Miami University student Teri’Ana Joyner can count on one hand the number of Black women she had as a teacher growing up in Cincinnati.

They were all great, the 18-year-old said. She noted a particular connection to “Ms. Rachel (McMillan)” who inspired every day in class at Aiken High School.

But Joyner, who also is Black, thinks other current and future Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) students would benefit from having more teachers who look like them.

That feeling helped inspire her to be part of the first TEACh program class through Miami University in Oxford. The group of seven CPS students arrived on campus this fall.

TEACh — an acronym that stands for Transformative Educators Advocating Change — is a collaboration between Miami and CPS. It provides academic, social, and financial support for high school students interested in pursuing a teaching career. 

Considered a “pipeline” for future CPS educators, graduates of the program will receive preferred hiring status for a position in the district upon completion of their degree at Miami.

Cincinnati Public Schools are taking part in the TEACh program to provide resources to students who want to become teachers. The goal is for the students to go back to teach at CPS. (Spectrum News 1/Casey Weldon)

“That idea of being able to go home and teach other Cincinnati Public Schools students was really exciting to me,” Joyner said. “Plus, having a guaranteed job after graduating from college was pretty great, too.”

Her goal is to teach social studies, and she is especially interested in African American history. 

“I feel like in high school, I never really got taught about myself or saw myself in history,” she added. 

Joyner and her classmates learned about Christopher Columbus and George Washington. But lessons never went in depth about Black leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or W. E. B. Du Bois, or she didn’t learn about the Freedom Summer project’s impact on civil rights in the United States.

“I want to be a teacher who can help children who look like me go learn about themselves in history,” she said. “Black history is a lot more than just slavery.”

In 2020-2021, 94% of teachers in Ohio are white, according to data from the Ohio Department of Education. Only 4.4% identified as Black, and no other minority group topped 0.8% (Hispanic).

Joyner’s perspective is the premise behind TEACh, which originated in 2016- 2017 after a consultation between representatives from CPS, Miami University, the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, and Aiken High School.

Together, they designed a program that would work closely with students in the eighth and ninth grades who were interested in becoming teachers and continue working with them through graduation.

Participants get access to the Teacher’s Club, which offers things like mentorship, academic support, and on-campus visits for services and programming. They also receive peer mentoring from TEACh students.

Students in 11th and 12th grade also get College Credit Plus courses each spring semester to help them earn college credits for free during their school day.

“Great communities need great schools, and great schools need great teachers,” said Jason Lane, dean of Miami’s College of Education, Health and Society. 

The TEACh program is open to any students in the ninth or 10th grade with a grade-point average of 2.5 or higher or a junior or senior with at least a 3.0 GPA. The most important requirement, though, is that they have an interest in going into teaching.

Keariah Chapple, 18, moved to the Cincinnati school district during her senior year. She took part in TEACh because of its emphasis on preparing kids for college and the fact the program provides scholarships.

Financial support will be available to future students as well.

Going into teaching was natural for Chapple. She’s the oldest of six, so she was always looking after her younger siblings. But like Joyner, Chapple’s goal for teaching is bigger than just helping others succeed. It’s about helping them believe in themselves.

Keariah Chapple poses for a photo during her high school graduation. (Photo courtesy of Keariah Chapple)

“I never had a teacher that looked like me, talked like me, so I want to be there for other Black girls or other minorities that go through the same issues,” Chapple said.

Miami currently has about 25 Aiken students at various stages in the TEACh program. Although the first pilot class is still finishing up its freshman year of college, there are already plans to expand.

Over the past five years, the program has centered on Aiken. But starting this spring, the partnership between CPS-Miami is expanding, starting with two additional schools. The hope is to welcome a class of up to 15 students into Miami in fall 2023.

“We’d like to see upward of 100 students moving through the pipeline over the next five years,” said Dr. Denise Taliaferro Baszile, a professor in education leadership at Miami. She added if there are students at other schools in the district who are interested, they can contact her via email.

The TEACh program is a win-win for Cincinnati Public Schools, according to Iranetta Wright, the district’s superintendent. Not only is it creating education and professional opportunities for dozens of students, it’s also helping to address an ongoing teacher shortage.

Just days before the start of the school year, CPS had 39 vacancies, including 18 in core positions. 

The district used a mixture of recruiting and shuffling of administrative staff to decrease the number. CPS moved some certified teachers working in administrative positions back into the classroom while the district worked to recruit new employees. 

They still had two vacancies in core positions at the school year’s start.

“The expansion of the program allows CPS students to not only have the opportunity to immerse themselves in meaningful, continued education at Miami University, but also gain the experience needed to ensure they are prepared to successfully return to CPS as our next generation of teachers,” Wright said.

Several factors are contributing to the teacher shortage, according to Julie Sellers, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers. And while the Miami program won’t address any of the systemic issues that have led to the shortage, it will prepare students to teach in a CPS classroom. 

Sellers called the TEACh program “great for our students and our teachers.” 

She wishes other Cincinnati-area universities had similar programs focused on preparing future teachers to lead classrooms in area school districts.

“In order to have outstanding teachers, you need to inspire students to choose the profession while they are still in high school,” said Sellers, who spent 20 years working in classrooms. “This program helps prepare kids early for the realities of being a teacher and shows them the options that are out there when they look to begin their careers.”

That familiarity with the ins and outs of CPS and the neighborhoods is an important part of the TEACh program, Lane said. Those students understand the Cincinnati community and “challenges students face within that environment,” he said.

“I think many teachers have a desire to go back home and to give to Cincinnati and to give back to their hometown and their home community,” he said.

That’s at least the case for Joyner and Chapple. They both said they’re ready and excited to head back to Cincinnati Public Schools in a few years.

“CPS felt like a home to me,” Chapple said. “I want to make sure other kids see it that way.”