Fall 2022 Rise to Teach students; photo courtesy of Kara Huynh Stone.
The College of Education at Portland State University is proud to have supported 33 years of BIPOC teacher development. A new program, Rise to Teach, is built on the legacy of the Portland Teacher Program (PTP) and previous work that was done by many in the Black community. Rise to Teach, like PTP, is a collaboration between PSU, Portland Community College (PCC), Beaverton School District (BSD), and Portland Public Schools (PPS).
“PTP arose from the efforts of the black community to build a teacher workforce that reflects the diversity of the students, and lead to better outcomes for students of color,” says Tiffany Jones, faculty liaison for the program at Portland State. “This was a grassroots effort that began in the Black community in Portland.”
PSU, PCC, PPS, and BSD work in close collaboration on the program’s long-term vision and budgeting, and all students in the program will start at PCC and finish at PSU. Rise to Teach Program Coordinator Kara Huynh Stone is at the Cascade campus of PCC.
“The program offers guidance and support to students throughout their college pathway,” says Stone. She is an alumna of PSU’s PACE program at the College of Education. More than 90 percent of the students in Rise to Teach are first generation college students.
“Students have a center at PCC, regular check-ins, and workshops where learning about social justice and developing the skills to be teacher leaders are core topics. We also provide comprehensive advising support and have an emergency fund to help students when they have an unexpected financial need because we want to reduce as many barriers as we can for our students to be able to complete their college education,” says Stone.
Rise to Teach offers future teachers a tuition-free path to a bachelor’s degree, starting at PCC and finishing at PSU. After earning a degree at PSU, students transition to the one-year Graduate Teacher Education Program at PSU’s College of Education, with 50 percent tuition assistance. Future Special Education teachers may complete a bachelor’s degree in Special Education. All RTT students commit to applying for teaching positions at Portland Public Schools and Beaverton School District after they graduate.
“Much of the strength and success of the program is owed to Tiffany and Kara who work in tandem to support RTT students at PCC and PSU. It seems to be a true labor of love,” says Amanda Sugimoto, Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at PSU's College of Education.
“We have 23 students at PCC and we have eight students at PSU, and three of the eight are now in the teacher license program,” says Jones. She and Stone guide this community of all BIPOC students, who will be together for up to seven years. They interview all of those who are in the program.
“The community building part of it is really important,” says Stone. “As students graduate, they have a network of teachers of color. We really want to support them fully all along this path.”
“This was a ground swell movement to match teachers to the student ratios in schools,” says Jones. “We are building on the legacy of PTP’s commitment to the community.”