By, Kathy Crawford

We are excited to share that again this year, 37% of the 2018-19 Fellow Cohort identify as people of color.  This is commensurate with the 38% from last year and a 20% increase from five years ago.  A huge shout out to our Recruitment team Maureen Malcolm, Rosy Marquez, and Meredith Trevino!  Another celebration is that Denver Public Schools has also moved the needle on hiring more teachers of color.   This year nearly 30% of new teachers in DPS are teachers of color. Nationally about 18% of the teacher workforce identifies as people of color according to the Department of Education’s publication, The State of Racial Diversity in the Educator Workforce.

Although we are holding steady, we continue to focus our efforts on hiring fellows from diverse backgrounds in these ways:

1. Emphasizing outreach at colleges with a high diversity index
2. Maintaining our commitment to our Diversity Statement (see below) and publically sharing our data on corps diversity
3. Intentionally narrating the value of diversity with a particular emphasis on racial and ethnic diversity that mirrors the demographics of our students

We are stronger because of our diversity.