CUSD 10 partners with Golden Apple to assist in Illinois’ teacher shortage
By Devese “Dee” Ursery
The Collinsville Community Unit School District 10 and Golden Apple have rallied together to battle the educator shortage in the State of Illinois.
CUSD 10 hosted a presentation about the Golden Apple Accelerators Program earlier this month to promote the program. and help generate a pipeline of home-grown educators passionate about teaching in the community they grew up in.
Golden Apple, a non-profit committed to preparing, supporting and mentoring aspiring teachers, is accepting applications for both its Accelerators and Scholars programs. Through these programs, Golden Apple seeks to provide pathways for aspiring educators to enter the profession and fill crucial open teaching positions across the state.
“We work with the Accelerator program to hold presentations about the program and host accelerators are accepted into the program,” Director of Human Resources for CUSD 10 Kevin Robinson. ” By hosting Accelerators we give them a school site to complete their required observations and student teaching requirements to fulfill the requirements to obtain their teaching licensure.”
The Golden Apple Accelerators Program provides a path to teaching for career-changers and college seniors who commit to living and teaching in targeted school districts in Illinois for four years after obtaining their teaching license.
Chief Program Officer, Golden Apple Illinois Kesa Thurman-Stovall, a1992 Golden Apple Scholar said the Golden Apple Accelerators Program was launched in 2020, during the pandemic.
“We had the good fortune of being able to really travel the state and determine where the greatest needs were and what areas really needed teachers,” Thurman-Stovall continued.
According to Thurman-Stovall the Accelerators program was started to address the needs of which they were hearing, which is getting a qualified teacher in the classroom as quickly as possible. She said that Golden Apple has two programs, their long-standing Scholars Program and the Accelerators program, respectively.
It is a teacher preparation program that provides multiple layers of support, said Thurman-Stovall. The Scholars program offers support with tuition assistance, undergraduate support as it relates to both academic, as well as social/emotional learning. The Program also provides assistance with securing job placement in what we deem as “schools-to-be” as well as offer mentoring support in those first years of teaching. “Our targeted audience for the Scholars Program would be high school seniors, freshman and sophomore college students,” Thurman-Stovall continued.
Scholars receive up to $23,000 in financial assistance, extensive classroom teaching experience, academic and social-emotional support, job placement assistance and mentoring from Golden Apple’s award-winning teaching faculty. There are nearly 2,000 Scholars active in the program, with four out of every five staying in teaching for five years or longer. Throughout the history of the program, half of Scholars have been people of color, and over 60% of Scholars are from underserved populations.
The other program is the complimentary Accelerators Program. This Accelerators Program is different in that it provides a pathway for individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree, but not necessarily in education but would like to become a teacher.
“So it is an expedited pathway,” Thurman-Stovall said. “ It offers a one-year residency/training program with many of the benefits being mirrored in length to our Scholars Program, but that timeline is expedited. It’s a 15 month licensure program, where they still receive mentoring and support as they go through to receive their licensure.”
According to Robinson the Golden Apple Program helps future educators by creating an accelerated path to obtain a teaching license. The program pays full tuition and fees at a partner college or university directly by The Golden Apple Foundation. By entering into the program the Accelerators attend professional development and receive instruction from award winning educators.
The program also incentivizes students with a $10,000 stipend to help them with education expenses while they’re completing the program. The program provides a lot of support through mentoring programs in the first years of teaching to make sure the Accelerators have a support system as they complete the program and their first years in the teaching profession, according to Robinson.
“We know that we’re capable of getting these teachers in the pipeline and getting them to and through the finish line and to the classroom, but there was a process with our Scholars Program. That process would take four to five years as an undergraduate before we could put a teacher in that building,” Thurman-Stovall said.
“The difference with the Accelerators Program is that we have a licensed teacher in the classroom serving as a teacher of record within a 15-month time. That’s what is so attractive about that program.”
In 2023, Golden Apple received a historic increase in funding from the State of Illinois that allowed them to significantly increase the number of aspiring educators admitted to their Scholars and Accelerators programs each year.
In Spring 2024, Golden Apple inducted 430 Scholars into the program, its largest in the history of the program, and inducted over 180 Accelerators, a class size four times larger than the previous year’s. This level of state funding was maintained in the Fiscal Year 2025 state budget, allowing the organization to recruit similar class sizes this year. Golden Apple is committed to expanding the pipeline of organization-prepared teachers to more than 2,000 this year, teaching in 90% of Illinois counties.
“On the heels of welcoming our largest ever classes of Scholars and Accelerators earlier this year, we are thrilled to open applications for our next class of both programs,” said Golden Apple CEO Alicia Winckler. “Golden Apple has a proven record of building the teacher pipeline and supporting students in achieving their dreams. We encourage motivated and high-potential, aspiring educators from across the state to apply.”
