Senate education committee tackles achievement gap by aiming to hire more teachers of color in Minnesota schools

The Senate Education Committee this week heard a series of bills aimed at closing Minnesota’s persistent achievement gap by boosting the ranks of teachers of color within Minnesota’s school system. The committee heard bills that will provide grants to a series of programs in order to boost the hiring of teachers of color, set new hiring goals, and make improvements to teacher mentorship and retention. 

“For too many years we have not had enough teachers of color in the classroom,” said Sen. Roger Chamberlain (R-Lino Lakes), chairman of the committee. “We are taking this opportunity to correct that problem. The benefits are clear. Hiring more teachers of color will help us close our achievement and opportunity gaps, and put more students in a position to be successful.”

“This is just the beginning of a much larger conversation,” added Sen. Chamberlain. “These bills will be part of a larger solution, we will look at more ideas in the coming weeks.”

Research shows that hiring more teachers of color improves the performance of students of color. The benefits include stronger reading and math scores, higher graduation rates, more interest in higher education, and fewer disciplinary issues. Students have reported feeling motivated by having teachers of color as role models, as well as a stronger sense of belonging.

  • S.F. 0446 — The Increase Teachers of Color Act of 2021, aimed at increasing the number of teachers who are of color or American Indian.
  • S.F. 0781 — Makes changes to improve the reporting data of hiring, terminations, and layoffs of teachers of color.
  • S.F. 0784 — Calls on the Department of Education, in coordination with the Minnesota School Boards Association, the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, the Minnesota Elementary School Principals’ Association, and the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals to develop a teacher mentorship model and make resources for implementing the model available to school districts and charter schools. 
  • S.F. 0526 — Provides grant funding to Black Men Teach Twin Cities to establish partnerships with eight school district elementary schools or elementary charter schools with a goal of increasing the number of black male teachers to 20 percent of the employees at each school site.