Survey Seeks Strategies to Diversify Teacher Pipeline
The demographic diversity of the teachers in America’s classrooms does not reflect that of the students they are teaching. In light of this persistent gap, many teacher preparation programs have bolstered their efforts – or developed new strategies – to recruit, admit, and support teacher candidates from underrepresented groups. Several AACTE member institutions are participating in a Networked Improvement Community (NIC) to boost the number of Black and Latino men in their teacher preparation programs, for example, and many others are at work in other national efforts and local partnerships.
Earlier this month, I was interested to learn of a related research project under way at Educational Testing Service (ETS) to explore efforts to diversify the teacher pipeline. As one part of this research, ETS hopes to identify successful strategies in postsecondary educator preparation programs and to help disseminate information to others. (AACTE is partnering with ETS to help support our members using performance assessments, but this research is not related to our partnership.)
If you have not already done so, I encourage you to respond (or have an appropriate colleague at your institution respond) to a 20-minute survey informing the ETS project. The most appropriate responder is probably the faculty or staff person most familiar with your program’s initiatives to recruit, admit, and support teacher candidates.
The survey is accessible here: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2681697/Educator-Preparation-Programs
Please contact Clyde Reese of ETS at creese@ets.org with any questions about the survey. For more information about AACTE’s NIC, contact Amanda Lester at alester@aacte.org.
Tags: AACTE partner organizations, data, diversity
