(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Suburban high school District 214 hopes to ease its teacher shortage by convincing more of its students to become teachers.
The school district, which includes Arlington Heights and Elk Grove Village, has partnered with Eastern Illinois University and National Louis University to offer college-level education courses to high school students.
If those students then get an education degree from either university, they are guaranteed interviews for open teaching positions in District 214.
District 214 Director of Academic Programs and Pathways Megan Kelly said encouraging students to return to the district as teachers makes sense.
“It’s phenomenal when we’re able to hire our own,” Kelly said. “That is one of, I think, the best feelings in the world, to see students that have been raised through our communities and our schools want to come back to us and to lend their incredible skill sets to the next generation of students.”
Kelly added that the program addresses the long-term need for teachers and has an added bonus.
“We want our teachers to mirror the students that they’re teaching,” Kelly said. “To be able to make good on that promise to our kids by encouraging them to become teachers themselves to come back to us, I think, is hugely beneficial to everyone involved.”
Kelly said students in the program also get hands-on teaching experience while in high school, which better prepares them for careers as teachers.
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