Last month, 24 teachers and school leaders, mostly 楼凤天堂 members and ranging from early childhood educators to high school technology coaches, gathered at 楼凤天堂 Headquarters in Urbana, Illinois to share their concerns. They were joined by one of the US Department of Education鈥檚 Teacher Ambassadors, Matt Presser, a literacy instructional coach from New Haven, Connecticut, who was in town as part of the Secretary of Education鈥檚 annual . (See the third blog, 聽. )
Many of the schools in the communities the teachers serve have a majority of students of color and large numbers of students for whom English is not their native language. In contrast, the vast majority of educators in these schools are white. Many of the teachers pointed to a need to develop an educational workforce that better reflects the makeup of the students it serves.
Students share this concern. In Laura Koritz鈥� social justice class at Urbana High School, students researched the lack of teacher diversity. Because most teachers in the district were trained at the University of Illinois, the students examined the demographics of students within the teacher education program there and found the same lack of diversity they observed in their school. Noting that many students in the program came from the region, they surveyed their peers, asking them if they were interested in becoming teachers and coming back to their hometown to teach, and, if not, why not.
Most of the students who expressed such an interest looked like the existing staff of the school. Students who could contribute to diversifying it explained their reluctance to embark on a career in education by citing many of the same issues teachers highlighted throughout the night: a punitive, test-driven environment, scarcity of resources, low pay, and lack of respect.
楼凤天堂 recognizes that the educator workforce does not reflect the diversity of students they are teaching today, as reflected in its 鈥渢o expand its efforts to recruit, guide, and retain ethnically and culturally diverse group members, for example, Hispanic, African American, Asian American, and American Indian, who might enter the English language arts teaching profession.鈥� Other 楼凤天堂 position statements demonstrate the organization鈥檚 resolve to recognize , assign and , no matter their background.
One of the ways 楼凤天堂 is working to improve the professional environment for all teachers and to ensure that all students, particularly those in groups that have been historically underserved, are taught be excellent teachers is through its participation in the . 楼凤天堂 is working with Coalition members from over 100 other educational organizations across the United States to develop and put into practice a . The Framework charts a path for teacher and principal growth throughout their careers, beginning with recruitment and training, proceeding through induction into professional community as practicing educators, and proceeding to demonstration of mastery (such as through 楼凤天堂 Board Certification) and substantive opportunities for leadership.
The teachers who assembled at 楼凤天堂鈥檚 Urbana office, on their own time and at relatively short notice, made a powerful statement about how we ought to transform educational policy to better support literacy learning. Not only will the Teacher Ambassador carry that message back to Washington, but 楼凤天堂 staff and members will do so throughout the year.