Eastern’s Efforts to Recruit Minority Candidates

  1. Specific recruitment strategiescurrently in place to recruit minority candidates.
  2. SIFT: The Summer Institute for Future Teachers.
  3. SIFT is a partnership between CREC, Eastern Connecticut State University, and several school districts. It has convened summer residential programs at Eastern CSU since 1996.
  4. Participants in the Summer of 2008 came from Bristol, Capitol Region Education Council (Metropolitan Learning Center), East Hartford, Enfield, Farmington, Hamden, New Britain, North Branford, Regional school districts (Regional Hebron, Andover, and Marlborough and E.O. Smith), South Windsor, St. Bernard High School, Suffield, Waterbury, West Hartford, Voc-Tech (Windham Tech).
  5. SIFT is open to all of Connecticut’s students who will be juniors and seniors in their high schools during the following academic year. Informational sessions about SIFT are featured at the annual Future Teachers Conference at Eastern CSU during the 4th week of May each year and at follow-up SIFT activities. Future teacher clubs and Young Educators Society mentor teachers join with guidance counselors in recruiting future teachers for the program.
  6. During SIFT 2008, we implemented a four-week residential programs at Eastern Connecticut State University for twenty-seven high school rising juniors and seniors who are pursuing teaching as a profession. Participants in the program courses and field experiences practiced skills in creating classrooms that are welcoming for racial, cultural, economic, and linguistic diverse students. Participants spent mornings serving as teaching assistants in an elementary summer school program and afternoons in workshops on teaching and the education profession. Workshops in computer labs and evening sessions prepared these future teachers with the academic and professional skills and dispositions needed to succeed in Connecticut’s schools in the 21st century.
  7. Special features implemented for Summer 2008 included 1) emphases on assessment with pre- and post-surveys on self-efficacy and teaching, skills and knowledge tested on the PRAXIS I exams, and measures on developing dispositions for diverse classrooms, 2) instruction designed to increase greater awareness of the special needs of students in diverse classrooms, and 3) an evening residential program planned to enhance the development of a learning community among the future teachers.
  8. An online network has been developed to maintain this learning community into the academic year and as a professional development network for Connecticut’s future teaching corps.
  9. The SIFT 2008 participants also developed their own invitation only Facebook group, SIFT Young Educators, which is being used to generate interest in a SIFT 2008 reunion.
  10. CHEFTnet –The CREC-Hartford region-Eastern CSU-Future Teachers (CHEFT) Network:
  11. The CREC-Hartford region-Eastern CSU-Future Teachers (CHEFT) Network builds on earlier efforts in 2000-2002 to encourage Young Educators Societies and Future Teachers Club to make use of distance learning to establish and enhance inter-district connections and collaborative projects.The CHEFT Network was initiated in a pilot study with Summer Institute for Future Teachers 2008 program participants who produced a website linking their own electronic portfolio and collaborative projects, (available at
  12. The project director also developed an open Facebook group, Future Teachers of Connecticut, expanded a wikispace for Future Teachers of Connecticut at , and has invited all of the participants in the 2008 Future Teachers Conference, students, future teacher mentors, and presenters, to participate in either the Facebook group or the wikispace.
  13. Hartford High School Teacher Cadet program, soon to become the Academy for Teaching program at Buckley High.
  14. Established a team teaching model with high school faculty to teach EDU 101: Teaching in the 21st century
  15. Upon completion, students receive 3 academic credits from Eastern.
  16. EDU 110/FYR 174:
  17. An introductory education course taught by a full time education faculty aimed to inform and recruit diverse teacher candidates into the program. Currently in its second year.

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