Today's Students Tomorrow's Teachers Gives Pioneer Award to Ossining Schools

The Ossining school district recently received a Pioneer Award from Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers at the group’s 20th Anniversary Breakfast in Tarrytown.

Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers is a nonprofit that recruits and mentors culturally diverse and economically challenged high school students who want to become teachers. Of the 3.5 million teachers in the United States, only 13 percent are minorities, according to the group. Meanwhile, the student of color population is 52 percent.

Bettye H. Perkins, the organization’s founder and CEO, said Ossining received the award because what Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers has become today began in the district.

Dr. Perkins interned in Ossining while studying to become certified as a school administrator at Pace University. After asking her to develop a minority-recruitment strategy for the district, the administration approached the Putnam/Northern Westchester Board of Cooperative Educational Services about getting other districts involved. Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES hired her as a consultant. She created Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers two years later as a nonprofit organization, and Ossining schools gave her office space at the time.

“So it all started with Ossining understanding and knowing that their school district was becoming more diverse and they knew they needed to do something about it,” Dr. Perkins said.

Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers has grown from a handful of students in Ossining and Yorktown to about 880 participants – 430 high school students in New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Virginia; 350 college students across the country; and 106 teachers in nine states who are graduates of the program.

Students begin the program in 9th grade, and they receive career counseling, college financial assistance, job shadowing, job placement assistance and other services. They must achieve a B-plus average by their senior year of high school, tutor at least two hours a week and intern 20 hours each summer.

Twenty-four colleges partner with Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers by providing students with a minimum 50 percent tuition scholarship throughout their college education, including Pace University, Iona College, Fordham University, The College of New Rochelle, Sacred Heart University and Manhattanville College.

Three-quarters of the students are the first generation in their families to attend college.

“In Ossining, we believe in mentoring our youth to be productive citizens in society. We also believe that we need great teachers working with our students,” Superintendent Raymond Sanchez said. “The synergy that exists between school districts and TSTT provides us the opportunity to encourage students as early as high school to pursue careers in education.”

Recent research from Harvard University has shown that students of color benefit academically when they have teachers of their own race, Dr. Perkins said. “It’s very important for students to have teachers who look like them,” she said.

The Ossining school district has sponsored more than 110 students to be in the program. Eleven TSTT graduates teach in the district, Dr. Perkins said. Most importantly, TSTT teachers remain in the classroom significantly longer than their peers. Nine of the 11 graduates – 82 percent -- have been teaching five years or more, compared to 50 percent nationally. Five have taught for more than 10 years. Dr. Perkins said she proudly calls them “Perkins Scholars.”

“We keep them connected with their school district and hopefully place them back in their home school district,” she said.

Pictured in photo, from left to right: teacher Catharine Marisol Wager; Dana Levenberg, school board member; Raymond Sanchez, superintendent; Dr. Bettye Perkins, CEO of TSTT; Dr. Angela White, assistant superintendent for administrative services; student Najah-nae Crafton; and Bill Kress, school board president.