\n80 percent of PK-12 teachers are white, middle-class women;<\/strong>
\n > 40 percent of public schools have no teachers of color;<\/strong>
\n 2 percent of public school teachers are black males;<\/strong>
\n < 2 percent of public school teachers are Hispanic males
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
Saroja Barnes, senior director for professional issues at AACTE, says universities were selected for the program based on great diversity within the school districts and community they serve, alignment of the project\u2019s goals to the existing strategic initiatives and mission of the institution, and strategic attention to enrollment trends.<\/p>\n
\u201cAACTE is committed to working with our members to support innovative practices and the dissemination of those practices to the larger professional community,\u201d says Barnes. \u201cOur goal is to ensure the innovations that emerge from the work of this small group will be shared with the entire AACTE membership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dean Thomas DeFranco says goals for expanding the diversity of teacher preparation within the Neag School of Education align closely with the objectives of AACTE.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven both the urgent need to address Connecticut\u2019s achievement gap and the number of concerted efforts we have made to address this gap, I believe we are poised both to make significant contributions to AACTE and to engage in significant improvement efforts through our collaboration with [Networked Improvement Community] members,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Efforts by the Neag School of Education to expand the diversity of students enrolled in teacher education programs include the creation of the Teacher Prep Academy in Bulkeley High School in Hartford; designation of an academic advisor specifically charged with recruiting minority students into the Integrated Bachelor\u2019s\/Master\u2019s Program; and providing a variety of scholarship opportunities, such as the Connecticut State Minority Teacher Incentive Grants.<\/p>\n
Dorothea Anagnostopoulos, director of teacher education in the Neag School, says a multipronged approach through the collaboration of a group of institutions will help to address the challenge of developing new approaches to expanding the teacher candidate pool.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Networked Improvement Community that we\u2019ll be part of will help us collect data on whether those initiatives are working, how they are working, and provide us with insights and feedback where they are working,\u201d says Anagnostopoulos. \u201cThe AACTE objective is on a parallel path with the Neag School. We hope to put our school at the forefront of these initiatives and get some cutting-edge research on these initiatives. It\u2019s a complex terrain. That\u2019s why we need a number of initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Neag-Jenkins.jpg\")
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