The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
To fill teaching gaps, state turns to college students
A month after announcing a program to entice more minority students to become teachers, the state has unveiled a second program to get Connecticut college students already planning a teaching career into the classroom quicker.
Called NextGen Educators, the program, to start, will put up to 18 Central Connecticut State University students into Bristol Public School classrooms to help ease pressures on current teachers and contribute to the success of students.
“In the short term, it will help districts struggling to fill current staffing shortages meet their immediate needs and make connections with potential talent eager to contribute to student success,” said Commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona. “In the long term, it advances our goals of filling persistent shortage areas and building an educator workforce that reflects the full diversity of our students.”
In announcing the program, Gov. Ned Lamont said the idea is to create a pipeline that encourages teaching as a career and increases the diversity of those teaching in public schools in the state.
The number of minority educators in Connecticut’s schools has increased steadily since 2015 but remains far below that of the minority student population in the state. The current goal is to get it to 10 percent by 2021. In the 2019-20 school year, teachers of
color represented 9.6 percent of the state’s educator workforce. Nearly half of the state’s 514,000 students are classified as minority students.
The program will have NextGen Educators provide two to three days of support in Bristol classrooms. Unlike student teachers, the NextGen Educators will not earn credit but instead get paid for their service.
The state of Connecticut is funding necessary background checks for these NextGen Educators who will be called on to lead small group instruction under supervision, develop lesson plans, help in the use of new technologies for online learning or providing personalized support for students.
The pilot program includes six K-5 elementary schools and two K-8 schools. Last week, 18 NextGen Educators from the classes of 2022 and 2023 at Central began orientation. They will support classrooms both in person and virtually through the end of the current school year.