Eastern Suffolk BOCES awarded $4 million plus in state funds to grow diverse teaching pool

State funding awarded recently  to the Eastern Suffolk BOCES is aimed at bolstering the teacher workforce and increasing teacher diversity at a time when some Long Island districts are struggling to hire educators of color.

The Patchogue-based educational cooperative said its roughly $4.6 million award — part of the first round of the Empire State Teacher Residency Program announced Wednesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul — will go toward subsidizing master's or teaching certification degrees for 153 teaching assistants at SUNY Empire State College, which has a campus in Selden.

David Wicks, district superintendent of the Eastern Suffolk BOCES, which serves 51 school districts, said the Empire State Teacher Residency Program is a chance for teaching assistants to become certified teachers in the state. 

“If we provide them more pathways to become certified, we hopefully provide more people that are available to teach our students,” Wicks said. 

In 2022, Newsday reported, citing the state Department of Labor, that teaching assistants on Long Island had a median annual wage of roughly $35,000, while a 2023 story from Newsday said that a majority of Nassau-Suffolk region education professionals had six-figure salaries. 

Costs such as student loans can sometimes be a hindrance to minority candidates seeking to become teachers, experts have said.

Dia Bryant, executive director at The Education Trust—New York, said diversifying the teaching ranks in New York is multifaceted, ranging from helping with education costs to ensuring that schools where they work are welcoming places.

“What we know for sure is that students of color actually thrive more when they have teachers of the same race or teachers of color and because they have higher expectations of students, because they see students often through a lens that has less bias,” she said.

Eastern Suffolk BOCES received the largest award in this round, which also included $1.5 million for the Syracuse City School District and $300,000 for the Rockland BOCES. More funding will be announced on a rolling basis, the state said.

Wicks said the Empire State Teacher Residency Program will give each of their qualified candidates $30,000 toward obtaining their advanced degree, with the hope that many of them will work at BOCES.

The state funding prioritizes diversity among both mentors and mentees in high-need subject areas such as English, special education and bilingual education and in geographic locations facing teacher shortages, state officials said. 

The funds can be used for reduced or free tuition at SUNY, CUNY or private colleges and for books, fees and stipends for living expenses to attract teachers from diverse backgrounds.

The first round of awards comes as many school districts have struggled to hire or retain teachers of color.

Despite people of color making up nearly 53% of public school enrollments on Long Island, minority full-time teaching staff was slightly under 10%, Newsday reported, citing data from the 2020-21 school year.

Alan Singer, a professor of teaching at Hofstra University, said programs that increase teacher diversity benefit all children and help prepare them for life in a diverse society.

“It is also a step to rectify past educational inequality that kept many minority students from achieving in school and entering the teaching profession,” Singer said. 

Hochul also signed several pieces of education legislation, including one providing guidance on how to recruit underrepresented teaching candidates and identify existing funding pools to do that work. 

“Teachers take on the vital role of educating and preparing our children for a successful future, and we have the responsibility to ensure they have the necessary resources and training to support them in this important task,” Hochul said in a statement.