eastern Illinois University
GYO Rises in the East
Over the past three years, EIU GYO has focused on preparing high school, elementary and special education teachers, and connecting them to school districts across central Illinois.
Initially funded by the Illinois Board of Higher Education in 2018, it aimed to develop a regional solution to the teacher shortage in rural communities. The EIU consortium started with 68 school districts in 4 regional offices of education across 19 counties. This year saw the addition of 14 districts in Champaign and Ford Counties.
Working across the central region
One major strategy of GYO EIU is to support nontraditional teacher candidates in on and off-campus programs in their pursuit of teacher licensure. Our off-campus cohorts are targeted to racially diverse working adults and offer professional learning opportunities in technology, socio-emotional learning, place-based education, and other topics that arise from candidate’s experiences and interests.
In 2019, EIU recruited two cohorts of paraprofessionals, one in Special Education in Jasper County and the other in Elementary Education in Vermillion. Most recently, GYO’s EIU program has expanded to offer both Special Education and Elementary Education in Champaign to begin in Fall 2021.
Long term strategy
Over the past year, GYO EIU in collaboration with the Rural School Initiative (RSI) has been working to create a Rural Teacher Corps in 10 area high schools. Additionally, RSI has been working with regional offices of education and community colleges to create educational pathways that support students from high school to teacher licensure by:
Creating more dual credit education courses for high school students that transfer to teacher education
Connecting high schools and community colleges in supporting high school students interested in teaching
Providing monthly experiences for future teachers to visit schools and learn from P-12 educators