For Newark, From Newark
Montclair State University’s Red Hawks Rising Teacher Academy aims to increase the number of “homegrown” teachers in Newark, New Jersey. The dual-enrollment program is offered to students who, upon earning their college degrees, return to their high schools to teach.
“In under-resourced communities, there’s a common perception that the only way to make progress is to leave your community behind,” says Mayida Zaal, Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the Montclair, New Jersey, U.S., institution. “We’re here to disrupt that message.”
The academy provides an opportunity for students, many of whom are students of color, bilingual, and of immigrant origin, in Newark’s East Side High School and University High School to take college-level courses, at no cost, that will fast track them to a college degree.
The teacher academy, named for the university mascot, is a partnership between Montclair State University, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Newark Board of Education, the public school district representing the city of Newark.
Another partnership supports the program, and it’s one that is unique in higher education, says Danielle Epps, Director of Teacher Education Admissions, Recruitment, and Diversity, at the Center of Pedagogy. She and Zaal are co-directors of the Red Hawks Rising Teacher Academy.
“By partnering academia and administration together in this way, we bring different perspectives to running the academy. Sometimes that challenges us a bit, but it’s what makes our model so successful,” says Epps. “We’ve learned a lot from each other as we’ve built this program.”
Epps and Zaal both work within the College for Education and Engaged Learning. While each one brings a unique skill set to the academy, they share the same commitment to helping each student realize the dream of a college education in circumstances in which that often doesn’t seem like an achievable goal.
The program launched in September 2019 when a teacher academy was created at each high school. Students who joined the program as early as ninth grade began taking select college-prep courses. In the third and fourth year of high school they become dual-enrolled at MSU to earn up to 30 college credits over five semesters. This includes an on-campus summer program between the students’ junior and senior years of high school. The courses are taught by university faculty. In addition, supplemental instruction mentors from the university’s Center for Academic Success and Tutoring provide academic tutoring and support students in the transition to college-level work, like how to read a syllabus and how to manage their assignments.
At the end of the dual-enrollment program, students are not required to enter the teaching program at MSU, but they will still graduate high school with the benefit of college credit. Those who do commit to the program—so far 11 students or 40 percent of those enrolled—receive a preliminary contract to return to Newark upon earning their teaching degrees and certifications.
“In teacher education, we often talk about how it should be rooted and engaged in communities,” says Zaal. “From the beginning of my academic work, the question for me has been how do I connect to the strengths that already exist in a community while also identifying the ways in which systemic oppressive systems operate. An important piece of that is helping young people begin to imagine big futures for themselves. And for students who will have more teachers who look like them and who share their cultures, background experiences, and hometown, it becomes that much easier for them imagine their possibilities.”
“We are already seeing the impact of the program in small moments,” says Epps. “I’ll get a text message from a student who has joined a club or started a job on campus. We get to see them thriving. There are constant reminders of why we do this. So many of our students have been told they can’t, we know they can.”
About the author(s)
Ellen N. Woods is Writer/Editor at CASE.
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March-April Issue of Currents
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