Diversify our teacher workforce
Diversifying the teacher workforce in Massachusetts is an urgent priority.
While students of color make up 45% of all students in our public schools, Black educators only make up 4.8 percent of all educators in the state, Latino educators only 5 percent and Asian American and Pacific Islander educators only 2 percent.
This means that there is a large population of students that will complete their entire K-12 education journey without ever being taught by an educator that looks like they do, or shares their same background — a factor we know can have negative impacts on the academic outcomes of students of color.
We also know that when students don’t see themselves in their teachers, this lack of representation limits their ability to see teaching as a viable profession that they can step into, perpetuating the educator workforce challenge.
Massachusetts can take steps to bring more people of color into the teaching profession by passing legislation that makes real and lasting change at each step along the entire educator pipeline — from recruitment to training and retention. Doing so can both improve student outcomes and strengthen our education system.
The Educator Diversity Act, first introduced last legislative session, gained the support of over 60 legislators across the Commonwealth who support the goal of assisting the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in increasing the percentage of educators of color from the 8% identified in 2020 to 25% by 2030. To achieve that goal, we should consider building multiple pathways for teachers to become certified. Right now, we have over 4,000 educators on emergency licensure in the state. This means that their license to teach is temporary. Current state law requires them to pass the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL), which has a disproportionate lower pass rate for educators of color. Additional and alternative pathways could include reciprocity for educators holding licenses in other states, or even a portfoliomodel that looks at items such as student feedback and student achievement, in addition to test scores.
We can make these changes, as have other states, while ensuring teacher quality through a standardization of alternative assessments, assessment of educator performance along with strong supports and mentorship for teachers in their early years, and piloting these and other changes to build support and ensure we are doing what’s best for students.
Additionally, we should build pathways to careers in education that start earlier on, when students are in high school. Too many students in Massachusetts, particularly from underfunded and marginalized communities, don’t have access to counseling, programs and experiences that help them develop a plan and prepare for college and careers. We can remedy this by greatly expanding our student pathways in Massachusetts, including the state’s Early College initiative, which new research shows is more than doubling the odds of sustained college enrollment for participating students, two-thirds of whom are Black or Latino. By using these tools intentionally, to create career pathway programs for students of color to eventually become teachers, we could ensure that we have a sustainable and diverse pipeline of future educators in Massachusetts.
Student Pathways to Success, a cross-sector coalition of organizations committed to educational equity that represent students, parents, educators, and employers, has come together to expand access to economic opportunity and promote a more equitable Commonwealth by creating stronger connections between what students are learning in high school and the opportunities that await them when the graduate. As we look to scale college and career pathway programs across Massachusetts, the coalition hasmade educator diversity a key priority, recognizing that educators of color will inspire and engage students of color giving them a better chance at successfully completing such programs.
Progress is underway to diversify our educator workforce. Last summer the Massachusetts Legislature committed $15 Million for the Tomorrow’s Educator Scholarship and the Educational Debt Payment Assistance programs. These allocated funds will assist educators and potential educators with the cost of attending college, provide financial assistance through scholarships, and also address the repayment of loans that many educators accrue in the process of obtaining their teacher certification within the higher education system. This investment will help those educators facing barriers to stay in the classrooms, as well as recruit new teachers into our classrooms.
Maintaining a strong educator workforce will require that policymakers make investments and policy decisions now that will set up our state for success down the road. The Massachusetts Educator Diversity Act offers the potential to yield dividends that will equitably support students in the long-run, and is an initiative our policymakers should take up in this session.