Jennifer Nguyen is only a senior in high school. But she’s already a teacher. Every Thursday she assists in a fourth-grade class at Bryn Mawr Elementary School — something she never dreamed she could do before this summer.
“You don’t even get the opportunity to work with children in high school,” she said.
Nguyen is receiving that opportunity because she is one of 22 Renton High School students selected for Renton High School Teacher Academy. Renton School District started the academy last summer as a way to get minority students into teaching high-need subjects (state identified shortage areas) such as English as a Second Language (ESL), math, science and special education.
Funded by a grant from the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the academy began in June as a summer academy at Central Washington University’s (CWU) Highline Community College campus and continues this school year with class three times a week and student teaching once a week. OSPI gave the district $55,000 to kick off the academy last summer and $73,000 to continue the program this school year. The money pays for instructional materials and supplies, staff salaries and the laptop and digital camera the student teachers use to maintain their
teacher portfolios.
Jay Leviton says the academy will continue next school year, with or without another OSPI grant that the district will apply for this spring. Leviton, Renton School District director of career and life skills education, is overseeing the teacher academy.
“It’s an incredible experience for those young folks,” he said. “It’s really helped a number of them make decisions about what they want to do.”
That’s true for Nguyen, who had previously considered becoming a doctor. Now she wants to teach second or fourth grade. She says she didn’t know anything about teaching before Renton High School Teacher Academy started.
“I love it. I absolutely love it,” she said of the academy.
Renton High School Teacher Academy also convinced Renton High senior Vanessa O’Francia that teaching is right for her.
“That’s always been my goal to work with kids — this just confirmed it,” she said.
Like Nguyen, O’Francia does her student teaching in a fourth-grade class at Bryn Mawr Elementary.
Nguyen is Vietnamese and O’Francia is black and Filipino. The other 22 academy students are African-American, African-American/Native American, Asian, Hispanic, Native American and white. Eleven are boys. Men are considered minorities in the teaching profession.
The student teachers assist at elementary, middle and high schools throughout the district. Five boys are teaching at the elementary level and three students are teaching ESL, one a math-ESL class. The student teachers coordinated their own placements.
The student teachers are Renton High juniors and seniors. Renton High was selected as the academy site because more than 82 percent of its students are minorities.
But Eric Hougan says Renton High’s staff doesn’t reflect that diversity.
Hougan is the teacher, supervisor and coordinator of Renton Teacher Academy. He also teaches business law, information technology and careers and education at Renton High.
“If you look at Renton High School, it’s probably one of the most diverse in the state of Washington — but it has a predominantly white faculty. The teaching body does not reflect the student body in any way,” Hougan says.
Bryn Mawr Elementary Principal Tammy Watanbe says her school has similar incongruencies.
“Here at Bryn Mawr we have a diverse staff. We have ethnic diversity,” she said. “(But) the building diversity ratio doesn’t match the students.”
Watanbe says this diversity disparity is “everywhere.”
That’s why OSPI awarded Renton School District with the grant to start Renton Teacher Academy. Four other Washington school districts were awarded grants to start similar programs.
“In our state for sure we all work hard at having classroom teachers reflect the population in classrooms and demographics throughout the community, but throughout the state there’s a real shortage of people of color and people like women science teachers,” Leviton said. “We’re trying to address those issues.”
Hougan says Renton High School Teacher Academy aims to build a pipeline for future leaders — “a stronger pipeline that doesn’t have any leaks.”
“We really want to give students as many opportunities to excel as possible,” he adds.
Leviton is trying to set up a system where Teacher Academy students can earn CWU credits and take classes at the college’s Highline campus. He’s also working on finding funds to provide Renton’s student teachers with scholarships to Central or other area schools.
The longterm goal of Renton High School Teacher Academy is to help the student teachers earn their teaching endorsements or certificates from CWU and then become teachers in Renton School District.
“We’d like to say if you have a successful student teaching experience here in Renton, we have a job for you,” Leviton says.
Although the academy is just getting started, Hougan says he’s heard only praise for his student teachers.
Cheryl McClain is impressed with the work O’Francia is doing in her fourth-grade classroom. O’Francia was her student in fifth grade.
McClain is also impressed with Renton High School Teacher Academy. She was the only African-American student in the class of teachers that graduated from Washington State University in 1992.
“Any program that supports getting more people of color into the teaching profession is something I’m supportive of. I think it’s a great idea,” McClain said.
