Educator Advancement Council details Grow Your Own grants, data collection and outcomes

The Educator Advancement Council (EAC) told the Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Education on Feb. 5 that its Grow Your Own grant partnerships have moved from startup to broader implementation and that the council will submit key performance measures this session to track program completion and licensing outcomes.

The presentation explained Grow Your Own as a retention-focused, community-based strategy that funds local partnerships to recruit and support future educators from within school communities, including high-school pathways, district-to-university cohorts and programs for current classified staff. EAC staff said they will include draft key performance measures in the 2023–25 grant program report and, if approved this session, those measures would be reported in the 2025–27 grant programs report.

Dr. Karen Perez, executive director of the Educator Advancement Council, said the council’s goal is “an educator workforce that’s equity driven and more reflective of the pre k–12 student demographic of Oregon.” Perez described Grow Your Own as focused on “retention, the preparation, and recruitment efforts” and emphasized the council’s partnership work with regional education networks, tribes, community colleges and universities.

EAC described three common Grow Your Own pathway designs: pre-collegiate programs for high school students (dual enrollment…