YOUNGSTOWN — A $70,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Education will help the Youngstown City School District to attract people of color to its teaching ranks.

The school district will use the two-year Diversifying the Education Profession in Ohio grant to encourage its students to pursue careers in education and return to teach in the district.

The grant also will be used to bolster the district’s recruitment of minority teachers by officials attending job fairs at historically black colleges and universities. Those hired will be provided ongoing mentoring and support as they relocate to northeast Ohio.

The program is dubbed “Y-Teach.”

The district also is expanding its Educator Rising project, offering foundational courses in education to cultivate students’ interest in the profession.

“We have excellent educators at YCSD,” school district CEO Justin Jennings said. “We just want to add educators of color to our district family. I think our scholars would benefit from seeing more role models in our schools who look like them.”

About 14 percent of the school district’s teaching and administrative staff are minorities compared to about 87 percent of students.

A 2017 study by the Center for American Progress found that a diverse workforce provides more culturally relevant teaching and better understands the situations minority students face.

AMBASSADORS

The study also determined that minority teachers can serve as cultural ambassadors, making students feel more welcome at school and serve as role models for students of color. It also found that minority teachers have more positive perceptions of minority students, both academically and behaviorally.

Jeremy Batchelor, the school district’s chief of staff, pointed out that the grant and the district’s goals for its implementation align with Jennings’ 2030 YOUPrint Strategic Plan.

Goal 2 of that plan is to create a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion and excellence. Last fall, the CEO established YCSD’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, which is charged with developing a plan to achieve that objective.

Batchelor chairs the talent management subcommittee, one of the five subcommittees of the core panel.

In its vision statement, the talent management subcommittee pledges to “recruit, induct and retain a workforce of educational leaders that believe in the mission and vision of the district. The talent of the district will understand and implement educational practices that enhance high expectations for academic standards as well as a strategic focus on social justice.”

The core committee meets weekly with each of its subcommittees meeting regularly as well.

WORKFORCE DIVERSITY

“It all fits together and aims for the same goal,” Batchelor said. “We’re working to diversify our educational workforce as another way to nurture, motivate and inspire our scholars to improve academically. It’s all about improving outcomes for our scholars to help them succeed not only in school but in college, career and life.”

Batchelor and Jennings credit Ava Yeager, the district’s chief of school improvement, for her work in writing the grant.

Yeager hopes that through the grant, more city school students of color will be encouraged to pursue careers in education at the district.

“The Educators Rising program fosters the love of teaching in the next generation,” she said. “As a lifelong educator, it’s gratifying to see that spark when a young person is inspired by a teacher and decides to pursue a career in education.”

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