In Denver, TeachStrong campaign to release new poll showing strong support among Coloradans for recruiting more diverse, high-achieving teachers to Colorado schools to improve the quality of public education.
The TeachStrong campaign brings together 60 teachers unions, teacher voice organizations, and education reform, civil rights, and education policy leaders to make modernizing and elevating the teaching profession the top education policy issue of 2016.
Denver, CO — Nearly 5,500 teachers in Colorado will retire this year, and only about 2,000 students will be graduating with teacher licensures from universities in the state. At the same time, the share of minority students in Colorado’s education system is 43 percent, while the share of minority teachers is just 10 percent—an example of the state’s struggles to fill classrooms with qualified and diverse teachers.
On Tuesday, May 24, Colorado education leaders—including Colorado state Sen. Nancy Todd (D), Colorado Department of Education interim commissioner Katy Anthes, Margarita Bianco, associate professor at University of Colorado Denver, and Denver educators—will join Lisette Partelow from the TeachStrong campaign for a news conference to highlight strategies Colorado is using to identify and recruit great teacher candidates so that every student across the state has access to a great teacher. The TeachStrong campaign is a coalition of 60 leading education groups aimed at making modernizing and elevating the teaching profession the top education policy priority in 2016.
At the news conference, the TeachStrong campaign will release a new poll, conducted by Public Policy Polling, that shows strong support among Coloradans for recruiting more diverse, high-achieving teachers to teach in Colorado in order to improve public education across the state.
WHO:
Colorado state Sen. Nancy Todd (D)
Katy Anthes, Interim Commissioner, Colorado Department of Education
Lisette Partelow, Director of Teacher Policy, Center for American Progress
Margarita Bianco, Associate Professor, Special Education, Teacher Education, University of Colorado Denver
Denver educators
WHERE:
Colorado State Capitol
Room 0111
200 East Colfax Ave
Denver, CO 80203
WHEN:
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
1:00 p.m. MT
For more information or to RSVP, contact [email protected].