Panola College, UT Tyler team up to offer four-year teaching degree at Carthage campus - panolawatchman.com

Beckville ISD, like a lot of East Texas school districts, faces the same major hurdle every August: They’re trying to fill all of their available teacher spots and still finding it hard to get qualified applicants.

So a new partnership between Panola College and UT Tyler to let Panola students earn a four-year teaching degree on the Carthage campus has Superintendent Devin Tate excited. It’s an opportunity for both kids and school districts.

“The idea that they could earn a degree and basically never leave home: That’s important and it’s very helpful to our kids,” Tate said. “The cost of education is high, but when you add the housing, away from home and even a kid that has to commute a long distance, the expenses go way up. I just think it’s a great opportunity.

“There is a shortage of teachers in East Texas, and all indications are that that’s going to increase... We’ve got great potential teachers in our schools at this time, so what better way to keep them here and let them earn a degree and have a career right here in East Texas at home? That’s really exciting, and I can’t express how lucky we feel to have this for our kids.”

Panola College President Greg Powell and UT Tyler President Michael Tidwell made the new program official on Thursday with a memorandum of agreement signing inside the Arthur Johnson Gymnasium at Panola’s main campus.

Under the new partnership, students enrolled in Panola’s associate of arts in teaching degree can now earn their bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies (education) through UT Tyler. Students in the program will be able to take all of UT Tyler’s early childhood through 6th grade (EC-6) courses at Panola College if they are enrolled in the AAT degree program when they apply to UT Tyler and meet the program criteria.

UT Tyler’s EC-6 program gets students ready to teach English, math, science, social studies, music, art, health and physical education at the elementary level.

Powell said the idea stemmed from a conversation he had with Carthage ISD Superintendent John Wink about the trouble the district was having in recruiting teachers and how hard it is for some students to travel outside the area to get their degree. He called Tidwell immediately afterwards, noting the two had already been discussing a desire to work together.

“We couldn’t be more excited about this program beginning in January,” Powell said.

Tidwell agreed.

“These challenges are only going to get greater — and we’re only going to be able to address them when great institutions like UT Tyler and Panola College work together to fix them,” he said.

UT Tyler Provost Amir Mirmiran said Thursday that the new teaching degree program would have a tremendous benefit to the area. He noted Texas is the fastest-growing state in the nation in terms of K-12 enrollment, adding about 820,000 students. In addition to that, he noted that the Texas Education Agency is predicting a need for 68,000 more elementary school teachers and the Texas Retirement System has between 125,000 and 140,000 active teachers who are eligible to retire right now.

“It means that teacher shortage is real and it could be imminent,” he said. “That’s why together we, the UT Tyler and Panola College, with this partnership project to strengthen our region by training and placing qualified teachers in our school districts.”

Carthage ISD is already planning to incorporate the new program into its education pathway, Assistant Superintendent Donna Porter said. They also have some paraprofessionals who are interested in becoming teachers — and this program will make it easier for them to do that.

Panola Charter Schools Superintendent Bud Worley was excited about two things: It’ll give educational opportunities to kids when they may not have been able to afford it otherwise and it’ll help local schools.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity that allows them to be here, to not have to leave, to be a home-grown person,” he said. “I think because attracting that quality person, if you’re able to raise them up, you know what you’re getting, you know that they’re going to be a quality teacher, a quality representative of what your program and what your school district has done.”