Agricultural Education Preservice Teacher Internship Program Grant

Agricultural Education Preservice Teacher Internship Program Grant

Status: ACTIVE
Funder: Illinois State Board of Education
Last Updated: April 15, 2025

Summary

The Agricultural Education Preservice Teacher Internship Program aims to alleviate educator shortages in Illinois by providing a structured internship experience for preservice agricultural educators. This program focuses on enhancing content knowledge, fostering industry partnerships, and ensuring equity across teacher preparation institutions. It offers a minimum of 300 hours of practical experience, combining lectures and hands-on learning, thus preparing students effectively for future teaching roles in agricultural education.

Overview

NOTE: : The State of Illinois Grant Accountability and Transparency Act (GATA) requires applicants to complete prequalification requirements before applying for any grant. This includes completion of the Grantee Registration and pre-qualification process through the Illinois GATA Web Portal. Program Purpose The purpose of this grant is to address the educator shortages experienced by middle school and secondary agricultural education programs in Illinois. The internship is designed to develop a highly qualified and effective agricultural education candidate pool that is sufficient in size to meet the needs of Illinois schools. The intent is to provide a statewide internship program for preservice agricultural educators in Illinois that will strengthen the relationships among preservice teachers from all colleges and university agriculture teacher preparation programs, enhance preservice teachers’ agricultural content knowledge, and increase the integration of industry partnerships in agricultural education statewide programs. Program Description The awarded applicant will have partnership(s) with postsecondary institution(s) that offer credit-bearing internship program(s) and will provide a program plan and supporting documentation as outlined in this NOFO/RFP that support the purposes and intent of the Agricultural Education Pre-service Teacher Internship Program. This grant is designed to establish programs to assist pre-service teaching students in acquiring paid experience in the agricultural industry. The Agricultural Education Pre-service Teacher Internship Program must: Offer, at a minimum, an eight-week experience or 300 hours of experience to prepare the pre-service teaching student for in-classroom experiences, including, but not limited to, experiences aligned to the pathways found within the Advance Career and Technical Education cluster for agriculture, food, and natural resources;Include both in-classroom or virtual lectures and hands-on, applied learning;Be articulated with coursework at each of the teacher preparation institutions offering teacher licensure in agriculture in this state; andMake a commitment to equity for pre-service teaching students across all agricultural teacher preparation institutions in this state.

Eligibility

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