New Two-Part Plan to Help Teacher Retention and Recruitment

Lucas Garcia is an aspiring teacher.

“I personally want to be a music educator. I wanted to be a teacher for so long, like ever since I was in seventh grade,” Future Educators participant Lucas Garcia said.

Garcia is part of the Future Educators program in Connecticut that aims to help high school students get experience in the field before they graduate. 

“For example, right now, a lot of us are helping teach elementary schools,” Garcia said.

On Thursday, Garcia had a front row seat to learn about current teacher frustrations, including the cost and complexity of the educator certification test.

“I’m not saying the test should be easy, I think it should be more accessible to prospective teachers,” Manchester educator Mary Franco said.

The state Department of Education is taking proactive steps to address concerns by announcing two new initiatives: improving the teacher certification test and changing the way educators are evaluated.

Currently, teachers are assessed through a numerical ranking system. The plan is to move away to a more personalized form of evaluations.

“I could do all kinds of things well, and I do a few things not so well. Let's have a conversation about that. Instead of me aiming for the three, I need to be a three. I don't want to be a two, how do I get to be a two?” Divisional Vice President of AFT-CT Mary Yordon said.

Education leaders hope this will help teachers feel heard and valued.

“So, in the new teacher evaluation system, it's really focused on personalizing the learning for the educators themselves. So where are you today? Where do you need to be tomorrow? And how are we going to get you there?” Connecticut Education Association President Kate Dias said.

The initiatives are in the early stages of development during the current school year.

Districts will have the 2023-24 school year to learn the new guidelines before they are implemented during the 2024-25 school year.