Grow Your Own Policy Spotlight: Organizing a Coalition for Systems Change

• In Event: 28.050 - Program and Policy Innovation for Paraprofessional Pipelines

Abstract

Purpose: The objective of this paper is to (1) spotlight state’s efforts of organizing coalitions for systems change related to grow your own programs; and (2) describe the Coalition’s launching, legislative platform and journey of policy work to advance diversity in the teacher workforce will be shared.

Perspective: Similar to other states in our nation, our state is in a crisis with a wide racial and ethnic mismatch between P-12 students and their teachers. Our state also identifies as having one of the largest and persistent achievement/opportunity gaps between Black, Brown and Indigenous students compared to White students amongst all of our nation’s K-12 school systems (Hamilton, Spies, Godinez & Mariani, 2016; Magan, 2018; Weber, 2009). A Coalition has formed to address this persistent crisis. The Coalition is comprised of many cast members from P-12, higher education and community based organizations committed to collaboration rather than competition around the common goal: By 2020, double the number of teachers of color and American Indian teachers (TOCAIT) in the state (currently approximately 2,500 or 4.2% of all teachers), and ensure that at least 20% of those in teacher preparation pathways are persons of color and American Indian (approx. 1,500 candidates). To support this goal, the Coalition developed several key strategies to address the most significant barriers to advancing diversity in the teacher workforce that includes; financial support, addressing climate and curriculum in P-12 schools and teacher education programs, discriminatory teacher licensing exams, along with retention and mentoring of teachers of Color.

Method: When considering the challenges to addressing teacher diversity, it is important to formalize a coalition of stakeholders who can work to elevate and advance the work in thoughtful and impactful ways. This paper utilizes descriptive inquiry to document the development via antidotal notes, program and state educator data, coalition memos, and legislative records over the course of a three-year period.

Findings: Analysis of data over a three-year legislative cycle yielded five key findings: (1) we must recognize and make decisions that treat them as part of a large ecosystem of change efforts and existing structures (e.g. financial support, institutional climate, curriculum, licensing exams, retention) in order to increase the percentage of TOCAIT; (2) Plan legislative strategy for both the short-term (i.e., current or upcoming legislative session) and longer-term (i.e., multiple years that build upon each other) much like a successful chess player needs to think several moves ahead and about various scenarios; (3) center the voices of American Indians and People of Color while forming inclusive relationships.

Significance: The victories won and lessons learned by the coalition across three legislative cycles inform how growing, nurturing and maturing policy work for Grow Your Own (GYOs) and other efforts can be advanced to create system change. This work has critical implications for developing policy that utilizes GYO models to advance program innovations for teacher diversity.

Author

• Robbie Burnett, Minnesota State University - Mankato