Though increasing teacher diversity in Connecticut has been on an upward trend for several years, the pace of recruiting candidates that proportionally represent the state’s student population has not kept up, according to a new report from Education Reform Now CT.
Using data provided by the state’s Department of Education, the report highlights that the “diversity gap,” which measures the number of students of color in relation to the number of teachers of color, has widened, though there’s more teachers of color than ever in the state.
“While we celebrate the increasing diversity of Connecticut students, the state has a responsibility to meet the needs of these changing demographics,” said Amy Dowell, a co-author on the report and executive director at the Connecticut chapter of ERN, which is a national nonprofit that advocates for public education resources and policy. “There has been a notable rise in teachers of color in our schools over the last several years; however, systemic changes are still needed to fully bridge this gap and ensure every student has access to an excellent and diverse teaching workforce.”
From the 2017-18 academic year up until 2022-23, the population of students of color grew by six percentage points from 46.5% to 52.5%. In comparison, the number of educators of color had only grown by 2.4 percentage points in the same time frame from 8.8% to 11.2% of the teacher workforce.
“The difference between the student of color and teacher of color populations in Connecticut … [has] grown from 37.7 percentage points in 2017-18 to 41.3 percentage points in 2022-23,” the report said, specifically highlighting some of the biggest gaps in East Hartford, Waterbury and Ansonia school districts.
Last academic year, Hartford, New Haven, Windsor, Bloomfield and Bridgeport had the best ratios with between 31 to 38 students overall enrolled per each teacher of color.
Working to close the diversity gap is a naturally slow process, said Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, one of the state’s teacher unions.
“What we’re trying to do is open up the field to people who haven’t necessarily felt included and that takes time,” Dias said. “I suspect that the more we are intentional about inviting different people into this field, and this profession, and building spaces for them to be welcomed and embraced and valued, that it will [continue to] grow naturally on its own. But, we have to ensure that we’re nurturing the pipeline of educators with intentionality and knowing that what we all benefit from is a really diverse set of professionals.”
Teacher diversity goes beyond representation in districts with high concentrations of students of color, but also impacts white students in predominantly white or wealthy suburbs or rural areas where data “suggests several pockets of learning where both student and educator populations are approaching racial homogeneity,” the report said.
In Plainfield, there was only one educator of color, despite a student population of nearly 2,000. Killingly only had two teachers of color for 2,450 students in district.
“Students within these school districts are missing out on the experience of either interacting with or learning from people who are racially diverse,” the report said. “These students will one day work and collaborate with people who don’t look exactly like they do or have the same life experiences. Therefore, learning from teachers of varied racial backgrounds is an essential component of a world-class education.”
Dias agreed, highlighting that as students are exposed to more people from different backgrounds, “they really thrive.”
“They become inquisitive, and they’re curious, and it feeds their imagination and creativity and thoughtfulness,” Dias said. “I always liken it to why field trips are valuable. … [There’s] this notion that when you get out of the norm, when you get out of what you particularly know, and you see something that’s different and new, it sparks your mind to think. And that’s what we really are in the business of teaching kids to do, which is think, broaden their minds and to see the world and draw their own conclusions.”
Outside of Connecticut, several reports and studies have also shown that students from all backgrounds benefit from educators of color.
A study from the National Council on Teacher Quality in 2022 showed that elementary school students with teachers of color “saw significant increases in math and reading achievement, rates of achievement which persisted through high school. These students reported much higher levels of self-efficacy and class engagement in an elementary school survey and were 9% less likely to be chronically absent once they got to high school.” The report from the NCTQ also said that surveys showed that teachers of color were more likely to “express a growth mindset” approach toward students.
The state continues to make efforts to improve diversity in education, including earlier this year when the Department of Education announced a $3 million investment into recruitment efforts.
At the monthly state Board of Education meeting Wednesday, members of the Department of Education highlighted new certification efforts to make it easier for out-of-state educators to teach in Connecticut, in addition to growing opportunities for diverse high school students to receive scholarships, college credit and grants if they plan to enter the education field.
The Connecticut Educator Certification Council, a group made up of over a dozen education stakeholders, has also worked to “modernize and align Connecticut’s educator certification processes with the challenges of the moment so that Connecticut can continue to attract and retain the highest quality professionals for employment in all of our public schools,” according to the department’s website.
Dias added that beyond initial recruitment, retaining educators is the next step.
“We’re going to have to look beyond the invitation and think about the sustainability of the profession,” Dias said. “If we truly want this to be a desirable profession, we [also] have to start building it in a way that is financially supportive so that all people can thrive.”