The recruitment program will begin with modest goals by targeting members of the university’s Teaching Fellows Program, an accelerated master’s degree curriculum for students already certified as teachers but who have yet to hold a full-time teaching job.
Fox hopes to attract just a handful of participants at first, and acknowledges that outreach efforts should begin much sooner, ideally at community colleges or even in high school.
“We’re starting at the opposite end because we have the fellows’ program,” he says.
With just 36 men among the more than 400 elementary teachers on the payroll, the percentage of male elementary teachers in Columbia mirrors the national average.
Jack Jensen, the Columbia school district’s assistant superintendent of elementary education, spent nine years as an elementary teacher before moving into administration. He says the college’s effort is sorely needed.
“It’s important for our teaching ranks to reflect our community,” he says.
— Associated Press
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