Temple ISD Investing in Program to Grow and Develop Teachers

TEMPLE, Texas — The Temple Independent School District is using a new program to grow and develop its own teachers from a pool of employees already working for Temple schools. TISD is unveiling the Certification Academy for Temple Teachers (CATT) Program for the 2023-2024 school year.

The district began discussing ways to develop teachers in-house to combat potential teacher shortages that many districts across the country are facing. After a year of planning, the CATT program came out of those discussions as a way to aid district staff on their way to becoming certified teachers. The program focuses on paraprofessionals already employed by the district who have 60 or more hours of college credit. Those employees are then recommended by principals for participation in the program. Paraprofessionals must work in TISD for at least a year, undergo a college credit review and discuss their goals with the district’s Human Resources staff before being approved for the program. Candidates then go through the hiring process. They have to apply, interview and get hired as a non-certified teacher by a district campus. Temple ISD will then work with those teachers to take online classes through a partnership with American College of Education (ACE) to complete their degree. Participants are paid an alternative rate as non-certified teachers and that allows the district to help them pay for the cost of completing their degree. It also helps the potential teachers clear a financial hurdle that might otherwise have kept them from that goal.

 “We are excited to offer this program to our employees who are already invested in our schools and our community,” said Dr. Donna Ward, assistant superintendent of Human Resources for Temple ISD. “In thinking about the challenges that public schools are facing with teachers leaving the profession and fewer college students pursuing education as a profession, we can think of no better way to fill our positions and increase our retention rate than by investing in the futures of those who are already pouring themselves into our students and staff.”

The online schoolwork takes two years to complete and participants then spend another year earning their certification through the district’s partnership with I Teach Texas. The teachers also make a commitment to continue teaching in Temple ISD for at least two years after they earn their certification. That way, the program not only provides a pathway to certification for the participants, it helps create a direct pipeline for the district to help head off potential teacher shortages in the future.

“This type of innovation is a silver bullet. Aspiring teachers win through a subsidized support of credentialing. Temple ISD wins via heading off potential teacher shortages. Most importantly, students win by having a certified teacher that already knows Temple children by serving previously as a paraprofessional in the district.” said Dr. Bobby Ott, superintendent of schools for Temple ISD.  

There are six teachers hired through the CATT program this year who will be in TISD classrooms when the school year starts. Chantal Tewo-Nsombo will be teaching kindergarten at Jefferson Elementary after spending the previous 16 years as an aide in TISD. It took a little encouragement to get her involved because she loved her experience with the students as an aide, but Tewo-Nsombo says the opportunity was simply too good to pass up.

“I love working with the kids and sharing the knowledge I have with them,” Tewo-Nsombo said. “I really want them to be successful and to learn, and I am here for them. I want to thank TISD for the opportunity because I have tried to do this before and wasn’t able to. I know it is going to be hard, but when I had the opportunity come up, I had to take it and I am very thankful.”

Sharry Hill will be teaching pre-K at Meridith-Dunbar Early Childhood Academy after working in TISD for the last seven years, most recently as a math specialist at MDECA. She says that finishing her degree has always been a goal, but without the opportunity presented by the CATT program, it probably would not have been possible.

“I just felt like this was an opportunity laid in my lap and it has been a goal of mine, so I decided to go for it,” Hill said. “I want to develop as a teacher and help the young children see their success. That’s why I am in this program and why I do what I do. I am looking forward to the bonding with the children. I think of life as a bunch of stepping stones and this is a stepping stone to success for me and I am just so grateful to have this chance.”