Resources and Partnerships

Strengthening Educator Development Through Collaboration

The Grow Your Own initiative at the University of Tennessee is built on strong UT-system partnerships and accessible resources to support teacher preparation. By collaborating with employers, UT educator preparation programs (EPPs), and community organizations, we ensure working learners receive the guidance, mentorship, and practical tools they need to succeed. This work aligns with UT’s Grand Challenges, advancing educational access and workforce development to strengthen communities across Tennessee.

Resource Library

Grow Your Own provides a range of tools and materials to support stakeholders in educator preparation.

Personas of TN Grow Your Own Apprentices

Personas of TN Grow Your Own Apprentices
This document provides detailed profiles of personas to aid in understanding and meeting the needs of diverse individuals aspiring to become educators in Tennessee through the TN Grow Your Own Center.

EPP and School District Resources

Local Education Agencies Playbook
The Tennessee Grow Your Own Center provides free technical assistance to school districts (LEAs) to help launch or expand educator workforce strategies, including registering apprenticeship programs and recruiting educators. They also offer support with data collection, needs assessments and connecting with relevant partners. Learn more by exploring the LEA Playbook.

Watch the Educator Registered Apprenticeship Intermediary’s information session from Jan. 22, 2025
Discover how rural districts like Carter, Lawrence and Hawkins are tackling teacher shortages through innovative Grow Your Own programs. Watch the recording to explore their motivations, key lessons learned, and actionable steps for implementing teacher apprenticeship pathways in your community. Fast forward to the 30-minute mark to go straight to the panel session with these county school district leaders.

7 Strategies: Overcoming Barriers to Entry (Webinar 1 of 4)
7 Strategies: Awarding Credit for Prior Learning (Webinar 2 of 4)
7 Strategies: The Ideal Learning Experience for Teacher Apprentices (Webinar 3 of 4)
7 Strategies: A Program for Everyone: Who is underserved? (Webinar 4 of 4)
This series aims to illustrate the connections between competency-based education and teacher apprenticeship programs, particularly for non-traditional learners. Whether you are new to these concepts or have experience, this series offers valuable insights. It is intended for colleges of teacher education and other educational institutions that want to learn how they can expand delivery to non-traditional audiences and reduce common barriers experienced by working learners. Learn more about each session and register to attend here

Hallmarks of High-Quality Teacher Apprenticeship

Background:

In May of 2023, the Tennessee Grow Your Own Center started establishing definitions for the hallmarks of a high-quality teacher apprenticeship program. Each team member contributed observations from the field after engaging with over 60 school districts and 250 teacher apprentices for five months. Team members also considered survey data and their considerable expertise as educators, school administrators, program evaluators, and educational consultants. Most of all, the team brought a deep desire to see high-quality teacher education pathways thrive. Persona development, data review, and even role-playing resulted in nine initial hallmarks of high-quality programs.

Simultaneously, the Pathways Alliance convened to establish a definition for teacher residences and standards for teacher apprenticeship. In July 2023 the Pathways Alliance released the the National Definition of Teacher Residences. Upon the document’s release, the GYO Center team spent considerable time comparing the TNGYOC drafted hallmarks with the national definition and found clear alignment.

In the interest of aligning to a national framework, the TNGYOC team is launching version 1.0 of Tennessee’s Hallmarks of High-quality Teacher Apprenticeship in alignment with the Pathways Alliance’s work.

Using the Hallmarks Rubric:

The Tennessee’s Hallmarks of High-quality Teacher Apprenticeship rubric is designed to honor the starting places in this work while also providing goals to aspire toward. Each hallmark contains a set of criteria. For each criterion, an Entry Point (level 1) and an Ideal (level 3) are described.

Ex: Hallmark 1 is Partnership. Criterion 1.1 is Collaboration

The Entry Point (1) is meant to describe the minimally required expectation for the criteria. The Entry Point level is an acceptable place to start. The Ideal (3) is meant to describe a particularly strong version of the criterion. There is no expectation that an EPP would score Ideal on every criterion.

It is possible to select Progressing (2) on each criterion. For Progressing (2), the EPP would describe how they meet the entry-level and are approaching the ideal but have not accomplished the ideal yet. We assume that if an EPP is demonstrating the Ideal level on a criterion, they have also accomplished the Entry Point level.

To ensure a high-quality experience for apprentices, programs that do not yet meet the Entry Point (1) criteria are encouraged to develop that component before launching a pathway. Finally, the expectation is that if an EPP selects a level for a criterion, that level has been achieved for all programs or pathways offered by that EPP.

EPPs, in partnership with LEAs, should use the Tennessee’s Hallmarks of High-quality Teacher Apprenticeship to serve as a self-assessment tool. Evaluators of RFPs will use the hallmarks rubric to evaluate proposals.

Partnerships

In addition to partnerships with educator preparation providers and local educational agencies or charter school organizations, the TN Grow Your Own Center connects partners with other organizations in support of aspiring educators and workforce development.

Study.com

The Tennessee Department of Education, in partnership with Study.com, provided all Tennessee Teacher Apprenticeship candidates through the Tennessee Grow Your Own Center with free access to “Keys to the Classroom” to provide test prep support for their licensure tests to earn their Tennessee teacher’s license.

C-BEN Member

The Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) is revolutionizing how we design, measure, and experience learning throughout a lifetime. As a key partner in the Grow Your Own initiative, C-BEN provided expertise and support in competency-based education (CBE), helping to ensure that the TeachBridge Pathways curriculum delivers meaningful, skills-aligned learning experiences for working learners. Through this partnership, C-BEN helped bridge the gap between academic preparation and workforce readiness, advancing Tennessee’s goals for a stronger, more flexible workforce.

Ascendium Education Group

Ascendium Education Group generously funded the TeachBridge Pathways: From Practice to Profession curriculum build project and the establishment Institute for Competency-Based Teacher Education (ICBTE). Through a $1.8 million grant, Ascendium supported the development of the TeachBridge curriculum in collaboration with 16 Faculty Fellows from seven partnering educator preparation programs (EPPs) across Tennessee. This work was further supported by C-BEN and iDesign, ensuring high-quality, competency-based teacher preparation pathways for working learners across the state.

iDesign

iDesign supported the TeachBridge Pathways: From Practice to Profession curriculum build project by helping the UT GYO Center design, grow, and sustain high-quality online experiences. Bringing together deep instructional design expertise and dedicated service, iDesign ensured that faculty and subject matter experts’ expectations were met while integrating research-based, technology-enhanced design practices. Their work guaranteed that learner experiences not only fulfilled the project’s vision but also maximized engagement, efficiency, and scalability.