In January 2011, in response to a drop in the number of black and Latino teachers employed in New York City public schools, the UFT passed a resolution calling for the city to take specific actions to increase the diversity of its teaching force. At the Feb. 3 Delegate Assembly, Sean Ahern, the delegate from East River Academy on Rikers Island, asked what the union has done to advance that agenda.

UFT Assistant Secretary LeRoy Barr responded that the UFT has been working with three programs to help identify high school and college students of color who may be interested in teaching and then encourage and support them in pursuing that career.

Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers identifies high school students who want to teach, guides them through college and then encourages them to pursue teaching. Barr said the program now has 600 alumni working as educators in public schools in New York City, Washington, D.C., Maryland and a few other states.

The DOE, the UFT and Educators Rising, he said, are collaborating on a pilot program that guides high school students of color on the road to becoming teachers.

A third program, NYC Men Teach, has been spearheaded by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Young Men’s Initiative, Barr noted. Its goal is to have an additional 1,000 male teachers of color in classrooms by fall 2017. The city has earmarked $16.5 million toward that goal.