On Wednesday, Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath announced the recipients of the 2018-19 “Grow Your Own” grant. A brainchild of the Texas Rural Schools Task Force that was commissioned in 2016 to address challenges faced by rural school districts, the Grow Your Own award is designed to help districts cultivate interest in the teaching profession.

According to information provided by recipients, this year’s awards will be used to help districts prepare for the 2020-21 school year by assisting educators currently pursuing their Masters in Education, allowing districts to expand their dual credit courses, and facilitating current paraprofessionals in pursing their teacher certification, adding 59 full-time teachers and 136 full time teachers to the workforce in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school-years respectively. The Grow Your Own grant funds will also be used to assist student teachers during their clinical teaching assignments and high schools to expand education training programs.

The 25 recipients of the 2018-19 award are as follows:

• Amarillo ISD
• Angleton ISD
• Burkeville ISD
• Chapel Hill ISD (Smith County)
• Cumby ISD
• Everman ISD
• Fort Stockton ISD
• Grand Prairie ISD
• Lamar CISD
• Lometa ISD
• Midland ISD
• Moody ISD
• O’Donnell ISD
• Pearsall ISD
• Region 2 ESC
• Region 5 ESC
• Region 6 ESC
• Snook ISD
• Socorro ISD
• Springtown ISD
• Stafford ISD
• Stephen F. Austin University
• Texas Tech University
• Texas Woman’s University
• Timpson ISD

ATPE congratulates all the recipients of the Grow Your Own grants.