Want to Recruit Teachers? Be Intentional.
Why this Colorado teacher believes that intentional recruitment is the key to growing and diversifying the teacher workforce.
Author: Annette Konoske-Graf
Why this Colorado teacher believes that intentional recruitment is the key to growing and diversifying the teacher workforce.
Author: Annette Konoske-Graf
Ladorris Troche didn’t always know that teaching was in the cards. Growing up in Denver, no teacher had ever told her that she’d make a great educator, though she regularly babysat and worked with kids at her church. Ladorris’ interests were myriad; she wanted to be a pharmacist, a court reporter, a paralegal, and a social worker.
Thankfully, Ladorris found the teaching profession. And as she begins her first year in the classroom as a lead teacher, philanthropies in her home state of Colorado are making monumental strides to support educators like her.
In March of 2020, a month that altered the trajectory of so many lives, Ladorris discovered TEACHColorado.org, Colorado’s first tech-driven initiative to recruit teachers. The program provides potential future teachers with free support, including one-on-one coaching and licensure guidance from current educators, profiles of Colorado’s teacher preparation programs and school districts, application fee reimbursements, and scholarships. TEACH Colorado meets aspiring educators where they are, especially during the pandemic: online, on their phones, and on social media.
“I was confused and didn’t really know the route I wanted to go,” Ladorris said. “I didn’t know if I had to go back to school to get my teaching license. I found TEACH Colorado and signed up with a coach so I could get more information based on my history.”
Ladorris believes that intentional recruitment is the key to growing and diversifying the teacher workforce. “It can be so confusing,” Ladorris said.
“Having a coach helps people who want to teach establish a clear idea of where they want to go, the goal they have, and how to get there and maneuver between all of the teacher preparation programs.”
Thankfully, TEACH Colorado has already shown promising results. In the past year, the initiative’s educator-coaches conducted more than 1,000 advising calls with potential teachers, and more than 7,000 subscribers expressed an interest in teaching. What’s more, the applicants that TEACH Colorado supported in its first year were much more diverse than Colorado’s current teaching workforce: 28% of TEACH Colorado-supported applicants identified as people of color (as opposed to 13% of Colorado’s current educators).
TEACH Colorado was not born in a vacuum. The initiative is a multisector effort of philanthropies, government leaders, and nonprofit organizations, all equally committed to recruiting more talented, diverse teachers. Though the program was launched with foundation support, the Colorado legislature recently passed a watershed, bipartisan bill that includes several years of funding for TEACH Colorado. This sustainable, statewide funding is the type of support philanthropy hopes for when investing in transformational ideas to grow and diversity the teacher pipeline.
Excitingly, Colorado’s work to elevate the teaching profession doesn’t stop there. This landmark legislation creates several programs dedicated explicitly to recruiting and retaining educators, from creating a pathway for adjunct teachers to providing teacher preparation program participants with up to $10,000 to pay for tuition. The bill also creates concurrent enrollment opportunities for high-school students interested in teaching. Other states would benefit from adopting similar strategies to mitigate their educator shortages and intentionally recruit more educators of color.
Ladorris is determined to be a leader in her community, and strives to create a warm, equitable classroom for her preschool students. When she was a student, Ladorris did not have teachers who looked like her. Most of her teachers were white, and had a limited understanding of Ladorris’ background and culture. “They came from a place of not understanding,” Ladorris explained. “As a teacher of color, I’ve seen and experienced inequity. That’s what pushes me to be the best educator possible.”
In Colorado, philanthropies have played an important role in leveraging big ideas and inspiring support of the educator workforce. As programs like TEACH Colorado demonstrate the value of providing individualized guidance to aspiring teachers, foundations across the country should prioritize intentional recruitment of more talented and diverse educators. And other states should adopt legislation to recruit and retain teachers—those same teachers who supported our students and families during a traumatic and unprecedented year.
Like so many of us, Ladorris believes that elevating and diversifying the teaching profession is paramount to building an equitable future for all students. “It’s very inspiring as a young child to have a teacher who looks and acts like you, has the same experiences, someone who came from the same community as you,” she said. “It helps kids believe, ‘I can do that, too.’”
TEACH Colorado’s funders include Rose Community Foundation, Boettcher Foundation, Colorado Education Association, the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment, the Colorado Workforce Development Council, Public Education & Business Coalition, Colorado Education Initiative, and Microsoft. TEACH Colorado’s Advisory Group includes the Colorado Department of Education, the Colorado Department of Higher Education, Public Education & Business Coalition, Colorado Education Initiative, and TEACH.