4111.3 4111.3Personnel - Certified
Increasing Educator Diversity
The __________________________ Board of Education recognizes the importance of diversity among its educators. It is committed to ensuring effective strategies are implemented to recruit and retain a diverse pool of highly qualified and effective educators who reflect the demographics of our student population and those diverse communities extending beyond our schools' walls.
In accordance with Public Act 23-167, Section 10, the Board directs the Superintendent to develop and submit an Increasing Educator Diversity Plan (the Plan) to the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) on or before March 15, 2024, and comply with all CSDE procedures related to the Public Act. Upon completion of the Plan and prior to its submission, the Board shall approve it. The day, month, and year on which the Plan receives Board approval is required to complete the application.
The Board recognizes the complexity of sustaining the critical efforts to increase educator diversity. To that end, the Board will work within its authority to support planning and implementation tasks, including but not limited to planning team responsibilities, administrator and staff training, recruitment efforts, and data collection.
The Board directs the Superintendent to draft regulations referencing resources available on CSDE's Talent Office Homepage.
(cf. 4111 - Recruitment and Selection)
(cf. 4111.1/4211.1 - Affirmative Action: Equal Employment Opportunity)
Legal Reference: Connecticut General Statutes
10-4a (3) Educational interests of state identified.
10-151 Employment of teachers. Notice and hearing on termination of contract.
10-153 Discrimination on account of marital status.
10-220(a) Duties of Boards of Education. (as amended by PA 18-34)
46a-60 Discriminatory employment practices prohibited.
PA 16-41 An Act Concerning the Recommendations of the Minority Teacher Recruitment Task Force.
PA 18-34 An Act Concerning Minority Teacher Recruitment and Retention.
PA 19-74 An Act Concerning Minority Teacher Recruitment and Retention.
PA 21-2 June Special Session, Sections 378 & 379.
PA 23-27 An Act Concerning Transparency in Education, Section 10
Policy adopted:
R4111.3
Personnel Certified
Increasing Educator Diversity
The __________________________ Board of Education recognizes the importance of diversity among its educators. It is committed to ensuring effective strategies are implemented to recruit and retain a diverse pool of highly qualified and effective educators who reflect the demographics of our student population and those diverse communities extending beyond our schools' walls.
In accordance with Public Act 23-167, Section 10, the Board directs the Superintendent to develop and submit an Increasing Educator Diversity Plan (the Plan) to the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) on or before March 15, 2024, and comply with all CSDE procedures related to the Public Act. Upon completion of the Plan and prior to its submission, the Board shall approve it. The day, month, and year on which the Plan receives Board approval is required to complete the application.
The materials provided by the CSDE will assist districts in developing comprehensive and sustainable plans to support efforts for diversifying their educator workforce. The following suggestions are referenced in detail in these documents and are meant to provide a broad overview:
1. Convene a team passionate about this work, bringing diverse backgrounds and experiences, having the credibility to lead this work, and devote the time necessary to engage in preplanning and planning activities.
2. Utilize CSDE resources, such as EdSight, to examine your district's data and demographics.
3. Utilize the Toolkit to create an action plan.
4. Utilize the Toolkit to assist your team in creating a Shared Vision, a Theory of Action, SMART Goals, and a Problem Statement and performing a Root Cause Analysis. These tasks and their desirable outcomes are clearly explained and will assist your team's plan development.
5. Use the coaching webinars for training purposes to build your team's capacity to lead this work.
6. While your team's functionality is critical for sustaining your district's efforts up to and beyond the plan submission stage, having one person in the district responsible for recruiting and prioritizing diversity hiring is also identified as a key to reaching your goals.
7. In addition to approving the Plan, the Board's support is critical in ensuring it provides the resources necessary for the plan's development, communicates the plan's importance to the community, and provides time in its meetings for updates.
Through its Talent Office portal, the Connecticut State Department of Education provides various resources designed to support districts in preparing their Increasing Educator Diversity Plans.
Connecticut State Department of Education's Talent Office Page:
https://portal.ct.gov/SDE/Talent_Office/Talent-Office-home-page
Materials including:
Webinars are provided to provide districts with an overview of the work required in creating planning teams, plan development and dissemination, and training.
Creating a District Plan to Increase the Racial, Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity of Your Educator Workforce: A Guidebook for Hiring and Selection is a comprehensive guide divided into three parts:
1. Creating a District Plan to Increase the Racial, Ethnic and Linguistic Diversity of Your Educator Workforce: A Guidebook for Hiring and Selection;
2. The Brookside Story: A Process Scenario designed to illustrate what district and school leaders in a fictitious district are thinking and doing to address the goal of building a more diverse teacher and administrator workforce;
3. Culturally Responsive Hiring Strategies Guidance Resource: A Companion to the Culturally Responsive Hiring Self-Assessment Tool.
Creating an Action Plan and Sustaining Efforts to Increase Educator Diversity: A Toolkit for District & School Leaders provides practical suggestions for getting started with preplanning tasks, developing an action plan, and ongoing progress monitoring. Of great importance, this Toolkit includes the Increasing Educator Diversity Plan Template. While not required, the SDE materials strongly suggest using this template for plan submission.
An 80-minute training module is provided to help school leaders in hiring professionals, identify implicit bias in the hiring and selection process, and help create a plan for recruiting and retaining educators of color. Recent legislation passed by the General Assembly required that the diversity training module be provided to all school district personnel responsible for hiring teachers to examine implicit bias's pervasive role in discriminatory hiring practices and the disproportionate distribution of teachers of color in the educator workforce.
The Video Contents and Agenda include:
1. Welcome from CSDE Chief Talent Officer Dr. Shuana Tucker
2. Introduction
a. Quiz 1: True or False: Myths and Misconceptions About Teacher Diversity
4. Equity and Systemic Racism
5. Why Educator Diversity Matters
a. Quiz 2: Core Tensions
7. Implicit Bias and Bias-Based Beliefs
a. Activity: Reflect on Bias-Based Beliefs
8. Responding to Microaggressions
9. CSDE Resources for Creating and Sustaining Educator Diversity Efforts
10. Closing
You can find more information about creating a plan on the CSDE's website, including:
The CSDE requires that the district's Increasing Educator Diversity Plan Template must use the fillable Increasing Educator Diversity Plan Template, below, to create and submit your increasing educator diversity plan.
Email questions about increasing educator diversity plans to:SDE.IEDPlans@ct.gov
1. To upload your increasing educator diversity plan by March 15, 2024 use the link below to access the Increasing Educator Diversity Plan Submission Portal:https://sdect.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0IJ4GfNUJNNuuaO
2. FAQs, Plan Template, EdSight Educator Diversity Dashboard and Reports
Regulation approved: