EORO History

Professor Tommie Brown, School of Education, circa 1982, from the UTC Historical Photos collection.

Each One Reach One (EORO) originated as educational grant program provided by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. This program, officially called the Diversity in Teaching grant, has been at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga since 1999. In 1989, the General Assembly called for a variety of ways to correct the under-representation of people of color among public school teachers in Tennessee. Changes occurred in federal law which determined that race could no longer be a factor in a program’s eligibility, in addition, the proportionality of minority teachers to minority students can no longer be a governing principle of a program. Since then, the grant has evolved to focus on serving teacher candidates who have a commitment to diversity in teaching.