Effective & Representative Teachers
Our city’s students deserve educators who are fully equipped to do the work.
More than 85% of Milwaukee students are young people of color. However, fewer than 30% of our city’s classroom educators are teachers of color. Research suggests this contributes to our city’s significant opportunity gaps.
City Forward Collective works to ensure strong, culturally competent teachers, school leaders, principal managers, and governing board members, with an emphasis on more Black and Hispanic/Latino people in those roles.
Below is a summary of our strategies and investments for increasing the quantity, diversity, and effectiveness of our teachers for Milwaukee students.
Why They Teach
City Foward Collective joined forces with the public service advertising experts at Serve Marketing to launch Why They Teach, a multimedia campaign to inspire would-be educators to pursue a teaching career, paired with an online tool that explains pathways to teaching and connects candidates with job openings at local schools.
Teacher Diversity Grants
City Forward Collective awards grant investments to schools, school networks, and school support nonprofits to test and scale innovative concepts to improve the recruitment and retention of Black and Hispanic/Latino teachers. To date, we’ve awarded $200,000 in grant funding. Preliminary data indicates that since the 2018-19 school year, our grantees have increased from 21.2% to 33.1% the number of teachers of color they employ.
MPS + DWD
Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce Development made a $500,000 grant to City Forward Collective for its work with Milwaukee Public Schools to expand the district’s Emerging Educators pilot program beyond MPS to also serve educators in public charter schools. This will help ease the city’s teacher talent crunch, while also creating a new pipeline for educators of color. The program provides $3,000 scholarships for teacher’s assistants to complete a bachelor’s degree program and become fully credentialed teachers. 95 paraprofessionals are now enrolled in the program.
MKE BIPOC Educator Advisory Group
The MKE BIPOC Educator Advisory Group is an educator-run group that seeks to increase the number of BIPOC educators in Milwaukee by creating a community of teachers who are empowered, valued, supported, and effectively equipped to improve outcomes for all students.
Teacher Talent Collective
City Forward Collective has convened a group of school leaders and hiring managers from MPS and independent schools across the city around a shared commitment to increasing the diversity of their teaching staff and improving recruitment and retention of Black and Hispanic/Latino teachers. Participants have been engaging in comprehensive training on strengthening the tools, systems, and practices they use recruiting, hiring, and developing staff to ensure an engaged and diverse instructional team.