In California, school campuses are
more diverse than any in the U.S. Students of color now comprise three-quarters
of the total student population. And while studies indicate the teaching
workforce has also become more diverse,
the pace of that change has not kept up in California. For some, the
teaching workforce is even less diverse than 20 years ago.

Fullerton Secondary Teachers
Organization (FSTO) is partnering with the National
Education Association (NEA) to tackle this disparity by building a local
program that will encourage minority students to both pursue and remain in a
career in education.

According to a recent Learning Policy Institute study, students benefit academically when they see themselves reflected in the teaching population. Rates of truancy, dropout and expulsion decrease, while student success increases. NEA’s $500,000 grant to FSTO, building on an earlier $250,000 grant to launch the project, is intended to increase minority pursuit of a teaching credential by identifying and reducing impediments that prevent would-be educators from pursuing or remaining in the profession.

Grant writer and FSTO teacher Al
Rabanera developed the program around three goals: recruiting diverse potential
educators, recruiting aspiring teachers, and retaining early career educators.

Fullerton Joint Union High
School District is part of a richly diverse community around the California
State University Fullerton (CSUF) campus. Existing partnerships with CSUF provide
an infrastructure, to which additional high schools will be recruited, to help
build a sustainable teacher recruitment model. The program will include
workshops and monthly meetings to help prospective educators build
relationships with community partners, nonprofits, along with college and
university contacts.

To build the site
infrastructure, FSTO local members will help determine which school sites will
participate in the “Future Teachers Club.” Administrators serving at sites
where the programs will be launched will also play a support role to ensure
that a diverse population of both educators and students are encouraged to take
part.

In order to recruit aspiring
teachers, the program will identify 50 current college students who will take
part in a series of local, member-led, monthly educational workshops on best
teaching practices. Students will be also be recruited for membership in the Student California Teachers
Association. As many as 200 local union participants, including local CTA
chapter Ethnic Minority Committee members, will act as trainers and work in
concert with program leaders. In that capacity they will be encouraged to
attend a host of educational conferences.

Once potential career educators
are inspired and recruited, the profession must help remove obstacles to their
success. The grant’s final focus is on keeping these new educators in the
system through the creation of a 50-member union-led “New Educator Cohort.” The
group will assist new members in their first challenging years in the classroom
by helping strengthen their skills and providing meaningful training to help
improve their professional practice.

Over the three-year cycle of the grant, FTSO’s successful implementation of the plan could help narrow the diversity gap while providing a road map for other districts facing similar diversity challenges to follow.