New CCSSO Report Offers Guidance for Building a Diverse and Learner-Ready Teacher Workforce and AACTE’s 2019 Annual Meeting Amplifies This Effort
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released yesterday A Vision and Guidance for a Diverse and Learner-Ready Teacher Workforce, a report that outlines key recommendations state education chiefs, leaders in educator preparation, local education agencies, and others can take to ensure each child in the public school system is taught by a diverse and learner-ready teacher workforce. The report highlights actions for attracting, preparing, placing, supporting, and retaining teachers from diverse ethnic or racial backgrounds and socioeconomic experiences. It identifies specific policy levers state education agencies (SEAs) have authority over that should be activated to achieve the vision of what success can look like for students and teachers as well as highlight distinct responsibilities of SEAs where they have a moral imperative to lead for equity. Additionally, the report appendix references some of the best practices and policy recommendations states have implemented to push this work forward.
Along with state chiefs, AACTE and other national education organizations partnered with CCSSO on its new initiative to diversify the teaching profession through its Diverse and Learner-Ready Teachers (DLRT) Initiative. The collaboration led to the production of the new report—a viable resource for state teams that provide model research- and evidence-based state best practices and policies.
The report specifies what success looks like for students and teachers in the classroom, the importance of culturally responsive practice, a comprehensive approach across the teaching career continuum, and recommendations for retaining in-service teachers.
“AACTE joins CCSSO and our partner organizations in the collective commitment to foster a more diverse and culturally-responsive teacher workforce,” said AACTE President and CEO Lynn M. Gangone. “This newly released report will offer practical guidance to our members on how to recruit and retain teachers of color with the support of state policies.”
Access the full report.
AACTE continues to amplify its work in developing and retaining a diverse and learner- ready teacher workforce at its upcoming 2019 AACTE Annual Meeting in Louisville, KY, February 22-24. Closing keynote speakers for the 71st Annual Meeting Closing Session, Mary Dilworth, editor of Millennial Teachers of Color, and Leslie Fenwick, dean emerita of Howard University, will engage in a provocative discussion that probes beneath the surface to address how the millennial generation of teachers and those of color, in particular, have become agents of change in education. Members of CCSSO’s DLRT will be a part of two concurrent sessions. Additionally, the AACTE Diverse Teacher Workforce Topical Action Group (TAG) will once again host an Annual Meeting preconference session, which will highlight AACTE’s most recent Journal of Teacher Education issue on teachers of color. Finally, AACTE will soon release its first Issue Brief entitled Education Students and Diversity: A Review of New Evidence, a supplement to Colleges of Education: A National Portrait.
“AACTE is committed to working with its member institutions to expand the pool of teacher candidates of color and culturally-responsive teacher candidates overall,” Gangone said. “The Association is proud of its work, as well as that of CCSSO and our other strategic partners.”
Tags: AACTE partner organizations, Annual Meeting, diversity, equity, workforce development
