State considering more legislation to diversify the teacher workforce

Legislation that would award grants to eligible schools to help them diversify their teacher workforce passed the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.

The California Diversifying the Teacher Workforce Grant Program would provide one-time competitive grants to local school districts, charter schools and county offices of education to develop or expand programs that recruit and retain more black and brown teachers.

In the 2017-18 school year fewer than 21 percent of  California teachers were Latino and 4 percent were African American, while 54 percent of the state’s students were Latino and 5.4 percent were African American, according to the bill.

“We regularly talk about equity,” said Mike Gipson, D-Carson, author of Assembly Bill 520. “This bill will put and place equity front and center as a priority to improve student achievement. We need to create a better space for our students to grow, to learn and succeed.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond called into the committee meeting to express support for the bill, which the California Department of Education is sponsoring.

“Research shows that when you diversify the teacher workforce — yet even having one teacher of color provides all kinds of benefits for students of color and for teachers, for students of all backgrounds,” he said. “In other words, this is a measure that is simply just a win-win.”

Only school districts that have had significant turnover of teachers, receive Title 1 funding, have a disproportionate number of inexperienced teachers and who have a commitment to developing culturally responsive teachers focused on the educational outcomes of high needs, low-performing students are eligible for a grant.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee analysis did not offer the amount of the grants or the total cost for the bill, saying instead that it would likely cost in the tens of millions of dollars.

Some of the allowed uses for the funds include providing professional development for teachers, collaborating with teacher education and coaching programs to support teachers, setting up career pathways to encourage teachers to pursue administrative positions, creating a positive school climate and offering coaching around social emotional learning.

Committee member Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, expressed support for diversifying the teacher workforce, but questioned whether the legislation would replicate a recently funded program in the newly approved budget bill. The budget allocated $350 million to establish the Teacher Residency Grant Program. Among the goals of the program is diversifying the teacher workforce.

Senate Bill 520 passed the committee and will go to the Senate Appropriations Committee next.