PortalWritten by Emily Creasy, WOU SPO communications intern
Oregon faces teacher shortages in its rural school districts, especially teachers who are bilingual or have backgrounds in Special Education. To fill these shortages, Western Oregon University (WOU) will expand upon the existing undergraduate Bilingual Teacher Scholars Program (BTS) to include the Rural Partnership Program (RP3). RP3 is a customized rural degree completion and licensure pathway to “create new hybrid and online courses for aspiring educators in rural areas, infuse equity initiatives into the curriculum, and improve advising systems for students transferring from community colleges.”
The BTS has previously collaborated with 19 Oregon school districts in the six years since its establishment. The program has seen over 30 scholars obtain a degree, preliminary license, and ESOL endorsement. The inclusion of RP3 will help expand BTS into rural communities and includes the addition of a Special Education endorsement. The grant proposal from WOU received $291,495 in funding from the Oregon Department of Education. The project is headed by co-directors Dr. Maria Dantas-Whitney and Dr. Kristen Pratt.
As part of the grant, WOU’s College of Education will work with rural educators, community partners, students and families, to help rural communities with recruiting and retaining Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) teachers. Steps to be taken include eliminating barriers for CLD educators that prevent them from obtaining the needed education and training. WOU will also examine the Oregon Equity Initiatives and incorporate them into education curriculum, pedagogy, and mentoring. Additionally, BTS coursework will be improved to provide more online or hybrid options for stay-at-home students, allowing more students from rural areas to participate.
This grant “will allow us to build access and equity in our program delivery and curriculum, as well as connect with aspiring diverse educators in rural parts of Oregon.”
Dr. Dantas-Whitney
The RP3 program courses will also incorporate anti-racist perspectives and prepare educators to address systemic barriers and asymmetrical power relations in their communities. As part of disrupting decades of institutionally racist practices, WOU is partnering with three Education School Districts (ESD), community colleges, tribal organizations, foundations, and community-based organizations to attract and train local candidates who then are able to serve their local community. Through focusing on the identities, values, and lived experiences of rural and BIPOC communities, RP3 pathways and curriculum reflects the background of students and their communities.
Another innovation as part of the grant is the creation and testing of an interactive navigation tool for students. Users would be able to access it through their mobile devices and be able to upload documents demonstrating their progress towards their degree, and connect to community colleges, WOU academic advisors, and school district employers.
WOU has arranged a partnership with the Willamette Education Services District Center for Education Innovation, Evaluation & Research for a third-party evaluation of the progress of the grant activities. Assessments will occur through interviews with RP3 scholars, surveys of community partners regarding the ease-of-use of transfer maps, interviews with rural districts and tribal representatives regarding the online/hybrid pathway, analysis of the incorporation of the Oregon Equity Initiatives, and progress on improving online/hybrid options for BTS coursework.