Tennessee nonprofit gets media attention

Written for: DPEI

Knox county non profit staffs up to bring students more math, science education

The Distinguished Professionals Education Institute, a Knoxville-based non profit committed to providingTennessee high schools with teachers for hard-to-fill courses, is calling for additional professional subject matter experts. Good pay and flexible hours make working with DPEI attractive for a variety of professionals, such as scientists, engineers, mathematicians, physicians and linguists.

Knoxville, TN – November 19, 2008 – The Distinguished Professionals Education Institute (DPEI), a non profit committed to helping school systems find educators in hard-to-fill positions such as math and science, is staffing up in response to the Tennessee Board of Education’s 2008 State Report Card on Schools, released earlier this month.

DPEI evolved out of Knox County’s “Every School A Great School” education program, which recommended that schools “recruit skilled scientists, engineers, linguists, and others to teach in hard-to-staff subject areas.”

Since its inception in the fall of 2006, more than 900 students have been served by courses taught by DPEI professionals. However, as Tennessee launches new initiatives towards a statewide goal of reaching a 90 percent graduation rate by 2014, the institute is finding that it needs more professionals to fill the need and is gearing up by calling for candidates who work in math, science and foreign language areas.

The unique DPEI program takes subject matter experts such as engineers and scientists and then qualifies them to teach their subject within the school system. Often a school system can’t find an appropriately endorsed teacher, but they can turn to a “distinguished professional” on a course-by-course basis.

“This program is the ultimate collaborative effort between community and school,” says Michael Reynolds, Principal, Farragut High School. “The Distinguished Professional Education Institute helps us bring real world expertise and a unique perspective into the classroom.”

“We hope to see this initiative expand statewide in the next three to five years,” said Buzz Thomas, Executive Director of the Public School Forum of East Tennessee. “The DPEI program has great potential to benefit schools statewide.”

To learn more about the Distinguished Professionals Education Institute, contact Betty Sue Sparks through www.dpteach.com. The institute is actively searching for qualified professionals who have work and educational experience in languages, math, and sciences.

About Distinguished Professionals Education Institute

The Distinguished Professionals Education Institute (DPEI) is a 501(c)(3) charitable institute for the advancement of education which lessens the burdens of government. Its mission is to provide high quality education to Tennessee high school students in specialized courses which require teachers with critical, hard-to-find skills. DPEI will partner with educational organizations across the state to address their unmet critical course needs with Distinguished Professionals who hold teaching licenses for those specific critical courses. Additional information is available at www.dpteach.com.