What do you do when your teacher workforce doesn’t reflect the diversity of your student body?
It’s a question many education leaders have found themselves asking. According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics, over half of public school students identify as people of color, compared to only 20 percent of public school teachers. The consequences of this disparity are profound — research shows that when students of color have at least one teacher who shares their racial and cultural background, they:
- Perform better on standardized tests
- Are more likely to graduate from high school
- Are more likely to attend a four-year college
Suffice to say, the diversity gap reinforces the opportunity gap. As to why this disparity exists, that’s a topic we could write about ad infinitum. But for now, let’s focus on what you can do to make a positive impact and close the diversity gap.
Launch a “Grow Your Own” Program In Your District
One strategy is to launch a “Grow Your Own” program in your district to focus on cultivating a pool of diverse teachers from your own community.
Grow Your Own programs can be two-pronged:
- Provide opportunities for community members or current support staff to become licensed educators
- Identify and incentivize students in your high schools to pursue education majors and enter the teaching profession in your district
Verona Area School District’s Grow Your Own Teacher Program
Verona Area School District (VASD) near Madison, Wisconsin launched their Grow Your Own program for two reasons:
- A growing teacher shortage in the district
- A glaring mismatch between the racial makeup of their teaching workforce and student population
At one point, the district’s student body was over 30 percent students of color, yet only four percent of their teachers fit the same description. At the same time, the district was only receiving four or five applicants for hard-to-fill positions, like Special Education or STEM.
Jason Olson, the Director of Human Resources, knew that the research. Students of color do better when some of their teachers share their cultural and racial background. And he knew that the vast majority of public school teachers attended high schools within a one-hour drive from where they work now. Focusing on recruiting locally, from the district’s own community, could lead to a teacher workforce that more accurately reflected the student population.
Active Recruiting for Strong Candidates and Learning Outcomes
Leaders at VASD implemented their two-pronged approach thoughtfully. They intentionally recruited district support staff who exemplified the natural qualities of an educator in their day-to-day roles:
- A positive attitude
- A growth mindset
- Perseverance
- Smarts
- Adaptability
- Dedication
- Excellent problem-solving skills
After a screening and interview process, they offered the strongest candidates an 18-month alternative teacher certification program, at the end of which they had a group of certified teachers who were community members with attributes that could make a difference for their students.
Simultaneously, they developed a longer-term initiative as the second-prong of the Grow Your Own Program. They identified high school students with those same characteristics of a high-quality teacher and ran them through a similar selection process, slightly adjusted for these younger candidates.
Jason shares:
“Those questions aren’t as focused on lesson planning and grade books and curriculum, you know, set-up and things like that. We figure we can teach people about that. What we can’t teach them about is some of the things that are born and early formed in terms of conflict resolution, conflict de-escalation, race relations, advocacy for students, standing up to bullying, things like that.”
The district partnered with a local college to offer reduced tuition for students in the Grow Your Own program and picked up the remaining tuition not covered by financial aid or internal scholarships. As a result, those students in the program have all of their tuition paid for a bachelor’s degree and walk away with a teacher certification. The money paid by the district toward the degree is forgiven once the student has taught in the district for four years.
Prioritizing the Program in the Budget
With a pipeline of roughly two to eight students in the Grow Your Own pipeline, and two students enrolling in each year, Jason calculates that the program costs about $80,000-$100,000 per year. It’s not cheap, but Jason is quick to point out that turnover isn’t cheap either. The program is a priority in the budget due to the positive long-term impact district leaders expect it to have on their teacher workforce and student outcomes.
Goals and Results of the Program
So far, the program is poised for success. It’s helping the district take positive steps toward equity for all students in the district.
In it’s first year, the program had strong results:
- The first cohort of internal staff members who completed the 18-month certification program have now entered the teaching workforce
- The first high school student from the program graduated with a degree in Special Education and will take a role in special education at the district
- The diversity of applicants to the district increased greatly and diversity in their teaching workforce doubled
Jason attributes this incredible change to an improved reputation in the community. He shares, “I really attribute that to word of mouth out in the community, that, ‘Wow, something’s different here this year, and I don’t know what it is, but I like it.’ … Like that curb cut effect where if you do something good for one particular group of people, what do you know, it ends up being a good thing for everybody.”
He adds:
“What I heard was that people appreciated the honesty of saying that what we’ve been doing in the past, for our students of color in particular, hasn’t been working very well, and owning up to that. And being humble enough to put that out there, I think, resonated with a lot of people. And also acknowledging the fact that there is an important connection between students of color and teachers of color and making that a priority, I think, elevated that with a lot of our applicants — kind of elevated their thought of us as a district, and also as an employer.”
Starting a Grow Your Own Teacher Program in Your School District
Looking to start a Grow Your Own initiative in your own district? Learn more about how Verona Area School District launched their program, and the results they’ve seen, by checking out this episode of Field Trip, Frontline’s podcast about leadership in education.