A renewed push to recruit more teachers of color in the Rochester City School District is focused within, and helping paraprofessionals and non-teaching staffers advance.
The Teach Rochester initiative aims to address disparities in a district where about 25% of teachers are people of color, compared to more than 90% of students. RCSD also has a staffing shortage, with more than 60 job postings for teaching positions currently posted on the district’s website.
Having more certified educators who reflect the student population benefits students, said Chris Miller, the district’s chief of human capital. “We're helping people navigate certification, cost and access,” he said. “We're making teaching an accessible, supported career path for them that they can go from community to classroom to career.”
Teach Rochester is about building a long-term teacher pipeline, he said, and it aims to get more educators who reflect the student population.
The racial diversity of teaching workforce in the United States has increased in recent decades, according to the Brookings Institute, a nonprofit public policy think tank.
But while research shows teachers of color help promote positive outcomes among students of color, a 2021 study published in the Review of Educational Research journal argued that policies meant to increase the number of such teachers in schools are “unlikely to succeed if they ignore how educational systems currently marginalize teachers of color, particularly early in teachers’ careers, when they are more likely to leave.”
Through the Teach Rochester initiative, the City School District is offering up to $17,500 in student loan forgiveness for teachers who work for five consecutive years, and a starting salary of $52,520.
