Danielle Edwards

@drdsedwards.bsky.social

443 Followers 143 Following

Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy, Old Dominion University. I study geographic inequities in access to effective schools & teachers

“Grow Your Own” (GYO) programs have emerged as a new approach to expanding teacher supply, addressing localized shortages, and diversifying the profession. However, little is known about the scale and design of GYO programs, which recruit and support individuals from the local community to become teachers. We conduct a quantitative content analysis of 94 GYO initiatives and find that “GYO” is an umbrella term used to describe teacher pipeline programs with very different purposes, participants, and program features. Although nearly all GYO initiatives aim to increase local supply, far fewer offer programming aligned with reducing shortages in hard-to-staff subjects and schools, increasing diversity, and improving effectiveness. We propose a new classification scheme to facilitate more precise discussions of GYO programs.
GYO program classification scheme
GYO program characteristics by high school vs adult program
GYO program characteristics by high school vs adult program
Graph of GYO participant types. 60% high schoolers, 40% paras, 20% community members, 20% college students
Charter school and inter-district choice effects on racial & economic segregation. Increases in charter school enrollment increase segregation. No statistically significant effect of interdistrict choice
percent of Michigan students attending a school outside their resident district or a charter school