Salem schools outline Pathways to Teaching plan to boost teacher diversity

Dr. Jill Conrad, director of Human Resources, presented the district's multi-pronged effort to diversify and retain its educator workforce and to build intentional pathways into licensed teaching.

Conrad said the proportion of licensed teachers of color rose from about 9% to roughly 15% over the past four years and retention improved toward about 80%. She told the committee that recruitment tactics (talent finder fellows, anti-bias hiring training and increased supports for licensure) helped, but recruitment alone yields only about 9% teacher-of-color applicants; the district is therefore investing in pathways, apprenticeships and grants to develop and retain local candidates.

Conrad highlighted the registered teacher apprenticeship program (RTAP) pilot that embeds full-time apprentices in classrooms while they complete degrees and licensure supports, and noted the Transforming Diverse Educator Pathways grant (formerly the teacher diversification grant) and other grant-funded work to recruit internationally and strengthen supports. She said the district plans a summer summit and a data dashboard to guide targeted, school-level pipeline work and sustainability planning once grant funding ends.

Committee members pressed for more culture-level assessment and school-by-school data; Conrad said annual staff surveys capture belonging measures but acknowledged the steering committee has focused initially on pipeline initiatives and will add deeper culture and data diagnostics during the planned summit and dashboard work.

The district emphasized multi-year planning, sustainability for grant-funded efforts, and targeted strategies for hard-to-staff areas such as special education.