In my nearly 20 years of experience in education, working closely with hundreds of teachers and schools, I’ve seen the need for these kinds of reforms up close. As president of , I’ve seen that recruiting and preparing talented, effective, diverse teachers is possible. We prepare close to 1,500 new teachers per year for New York’s public schools. Seventy percent of our graduate students are people of color — a crucial group of new teachers, mentors and role models for the state’s children, the majority of whom are kids of color. With some thoughtful additions, the approaches Hochul and Cardona put forth could not only increase the number of teachers entering the profession, but also address longstanding challenges to diversifying those leading the nation’s classrooms. To do this means focusing on three areas: support, cost and removal of barriers.

Support. Teaching residency programs, like those in medicine, provide new practitioners with hands-on training for one year, working with a mentor to develop the knowledge, skills and mindsets of great teachers. Residencies show with respect to the diversity of the candidates they attract, the retention of those teachers in the profession and the learning outcomes of their students. 

In New York City, for example, is a residency program providing paraprofessionals, teacher aides and parent coordinators with a pathway to become teachers. Nearly all graduates of this “grow your own” approach are people of color, and 100% are already committed education professionals in the communities in which they will ultimately serve as teachers.

New teachers, particularly educators of color joining a predominantly white profession, also need peer and mentor support. In partnership with the Georgia Power Foundation, Relay launched an affinity group for Black male teachers that is in its second enthusiastic year. Participants have called it a sacred space for bonding with others who share their experiences and tackling common challenges. In his research on Black male teacher candidates, , assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley has found that such affinity groups are invaluable for holding candid conversations, building community and solving problems. Also known as in the corporate world, such cohorts are associated with increased job and satisfaction. 

Cost. Teachers should be paid more, which both Hochul’s plan and Cardona’s call to action recognize. But there are also other ways to ease teachers’ financial burdens — for example, by lowering or eliminating the cost of training to ensure they aren’t starting their career with unrealistic debt. Lowering the cost of entry can be achieved in many ways. The New York City Department of Education subsidizes participants’ tuition in teacher residency programs, as do many charter schools. Tennessee is fully funding tuition for its “grow your own” teacher prep programs, and Atlanta Public Schools is utilizing a grant to cover tuition for men of color who are currently special education paraprofessionals.

Beyond supporting the cost of schooling, districts can prioritize embedding their residency programs into their funding model for the long run. For example, Colonial School District in Delaware has worked with the paraprofessionals union to build a pathway to teaching that allows them to maintain their full salary and benefits. Previously, paraprofessionals who wanted to enter the residency program had to resign and take on a different position at lower pay.

Eliminate barriers. Finally, it is essential to remove that keep otherwise successful teacher candidates from entering the field. While high standards for teachers’ knowledge and skills must be upheld, there is evidence that the current gate-keeping systems don’t do this in a way that predicts student success in learning. Moving to multiple pathways to show content expertise, reducing emphasis on tests that don’t correlate with academic achievement () and examining children’s experiences and outcomes with early-career teachers are all vast improvements.

Research and our own experience at Relay prove that there are promising ways to do this work and make an impact. Recruiting and retaining 180,000 teachers will take more than the three solutions I propose here, but they would be a good start. The country can’t afford to throw people into the classroom and hope for the best, bankrupt hardworking teachers or leave promising candidates out in the cold because of bureaucratic and invalid gateways. Prioritizing teachers’ needs can make schools places where they want to work. And approaching the work in this way can also help diversify the profession to better serve all students.

Dr. Mayme Hostetter is president of Relay Graduate School of Education.

Teachers, administrators and child advocates say they’re impressed with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal to improve education by shoring up the employee pipeline and releasing in additional aid to schools, but they’re unsure if her approach will bring lasting change.

In , delivered Jan. 5 amid a surge in the ongoing pandemic, Hochul shared her plan to address a broad range of issues, from public safety to affordable housing. 

She also stressed the importance of educational opportunities for adults and safe, open schools for children, saying, “The role of a teacher is irreplaceable in a child’s life and as the past two years have hammered home, they’re irreplaceable in a parent’s life, too.” 

Hochul, sworn in as the state’s first female governor in August after Andrew Cuomo left the post in disgrace, is running for a full term. Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday , while another in the June Democratic primary, New York Attorney General Letitia James, dropped out last month. The , also released Tuesday, now show Hochul leading by more than 30 points her remaining Democratic rivals, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Long Island state Rep. Tom Suozzi.

While her political fate has yet to be determined, educators and advocates say they’re witnessing a shift in tone from Cuomo to a leader who has a more cordial relationship with city and state power players. But it’s unclear how or when her vision for public schools might become reality. More will become known when Hochul Tuesday.

Randi Levine, policy director for Advocates for Children of New York, which works to improve education for low-income students, said Hochul’s priorities are in line with her own, especially as it relates to added funding. But she’d like to know more.

“As is the case with a lot of these proposals, we are eager to see the details,” she said.

to attract more teachers and school workers — this includes waiving the income cap for some retirees and expanding alternative certification programs — and encourage paraprofessionals to boost their skills, among myriad other initiatives.

Her plan was informed by the state’s which is expected to worsen: New York needs approximately over the next 10 years to make up for the loss, according to the state teachers union.

Hochul earlier announced the state would phase-in full funding of Foundation Aid to New York school districts — the money comes after a decades-long legal battle — by the 2023-24 academic year. Foundation Aid takes into account school district wealth and student needs in crafting a more equitable funding distribution and will add to school coffers through the next three years.

Darlene Cameron is principal at The STAR Academy PS-63, a small, pre-K through fifth grade campus in Manhattan’s East Village where 75 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, a key indicator of poverty. Her students, like many others throughout the state and nation, have suffered mightily during the pandemic. 

Schools across the country continue to face closure as the Omicron variant surges, further disrupting learning.

Cameron supports the strengthening of the education workforce but isn’t sure how — and when — the results will be seen on her campus, which is in desperate need of literacy experts to help students with comprehension, dyslexia and trouble with writing.

“Right now, all schools are supposed to have one literacy coach for kindergarten, first and second grade,” she said. “Mine is on extended health leave. We are in mid-January and I’ve had no literacy support all year long yet my superintendent expects me to have students make two years’ worth of progress in one year.”

Sharon Collins, a math teacher at New Heights Academy Charter School in Harlem, said she, too, would like to see additional funding for more staff, including mental health workers, another key part of Hochul’s plan. The governor proposed state-provided mental health grants to schools and matching funds for those that make good on using federal dollars for this same purpose.

“Schools have never had enough counselors and now we have students who are really in need and in crisis, dealing with the loss of family members and with being out of school for such a long time,” said Collins, a member of Math for America, a nonprofit that supports New York City’s strongest math and science teachers.

The Foundation Aid comes at the same time New York state is receiving  in federal COVID relief monies meant to support summer and afterschool programming, the hiring of added staff, upgrades to ventilation and professional development among other expenditures. 

But even as the state is flush with cash, educators worry schools won’t get what they need. 

Jodi Friedman, assistant principal at Cameron’s campus, is concerned about teacher retention, adding Hochul might consider improving working conditions and compensation if she aims to keep existing employees.

Teachers, Friedman said, are exhausted, overworked and underappreciated, burned out from a pandemic which has forced many to work longer hours as they struggle with distance learning demands and chronic absenteeism among their students — all while trying to maintain their own health. 

“This idea of giving everything of yourself to help others can’t continue,” she said. “It’s not sustainable.”

And while the pandemic has been a recent challenge, schools have, for years, taken on problems that should be addressed elsewhere, she said: What schools really need are robust social services to help families off campus.

“If schools are the only way children get food, health care or heat, that is a problem,” Friedman said. “Teachers aren’t just teaching, but taking on … all of the ills of society.”

Jasmine Gripper, executive director of Alliance for Quality Education, a statewide labor-backed advocacy group, said for all Hochul’s talk of recruiting more staff, the governor overlooked a key element. 

“One of the things missing was an intention on diversity,” Gripper said, adding New York has done a poor job of recruiting and retaining teachers of color, a problem that could be remedied through “grow-your-own” initiatives, stronger relationships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities and in the certification process.

Still, she was heartened by the governor’s overall commitment to the state’s school system: Her organization was key in pushing for the release of Foundation Aid.

“The state is continuing to maintain its promise,” she said. “So that is really encouraging.”