As student diversity continues to grow in Connecticut, lawmakers and the state Department of Education are trying to make educators more reflective of the student body by recruiting candidates as early as high school into the profession.
Under the Aspiring Educators Diversity Scholarship Program, students from the state’s 16 priority districts can receive up to $10,000 each year to pursue a career in the education sector.
Priority districts include the towns across Connecticut with the largest population and towns with the highest number of students under the Temporary Family Assistance program. Priority districts are also traditionally part of the state’s worst-performing school systems, also called Alliance Districts, and include cities like Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Waterbury and Norwich.
“In addition to the scholarship, … [this initiative] addresses the disparities that our students of color often face as systemic barriers and disparities in access to quality education,” said Sinthia Sone-Moyano, the deputy commissioner for the state Department of Education, at a news conference Monday morning. “By increasing … teachers of color, it also closes the opportunity gap. Research has shown that having teachers who share the same racial or ethnic background as their students can positively impact all students — not just students of color — all students.”
Sone-Moyano added that a more diverse teacher workforce “brings diverse perspectives and experiences into the classroom.
“Representation matters. Having teachers from diverse racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds can help ensure that students see themselves represented in those who they’re being taught by,” Sone-Moyano said.
The Aspiring Educators Diversity Scholarship Program is a product of legislation passed in 2023, with a $4 million investment in the state budget for FY24 and $10 million allocated for FY25.
“[It] was one of the most important pieces of legislation that we passed last year,” said Sen. Doug McCrory, co-chair of the Education Committee. “Right now, about 53% of the children that attend public schools in the state of Connecticut are children of color. Yet, [about] 11% of the teachers are teachers of color. That has to change.”
The rapid increase of students of color in Connecticut has outpaced teacher diversity, which has only increased 2.4 percentage points since 2017-18 from 8.8% to 11.2%.
The scholarship program was rolled out in the fall and garnered over 300 applications, the education department said. Twenty-nine students received scholarships, including Central Connecticut State University sophomore Sherrod Cuttino.
“My main reason for becoming a teacher was because … I haven’t seen a lot of people who look like me in the environment of helping students and I think that goes a long way,” Cuttino said. “Even now being so young, I talk to other students and they say I’m a role model to them. So I can only imagine the effect on a larger scale when I become a teacher.”
Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, shared excitement with other stakeholders about the scholarship, adding that it allows future teachers to enter the field with less debt. She added, however, that the next crucial step is “supporting and maintaining the profession.”
“I think incentivizing, encouraging and drawing people in, in this way is so critical,” Dias said. But, she said they need to make sure “that we continue to have the supports [and] the financial backing of our legislature — so that what these young students go into, in terms of a workforce, continues to be thriving, vibrant and a place where their influence gets felt on a daily basis.”
The second application period for the Aspiring Educators Diversity Scholarship Program is open until March 15. Eligible students must be graduates from a priority school district and enrolled in an approved educator preparation program in Connecticut.