HYANNIS – The Massachusetts Teachers Association has shown its support for a bill that would expand diversity among educators in the Commonwealth.
The legislation would create alternatives to the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL), which the association says limits potential teachers.
“Just as one-size-fits-all assessments do not accurately demonstrate our students’ abilities, the narrow scope of the MTEL has been identified as discriminatory against educators of color and educators who are linguistically gifted but for whom English is not their first language,” said MTA officials in a statement.
“There are other ways to demonstrate competency as an educator, and An Act relative to educator diversity — which closely mirrors the bill that MTA members worked on — sets the state on a path to bring further excellence into our classrooms.”
MTA representatives said the change would help in teacher recruiting and retention, as well as allow more students to “experience cultural affinity with their teachers”.
They added that the bill will help address instances of structural racism in funding for public schools, which was also a focus of the Student Opportunity Act.
The bill has been referred to the Joint Committee on Education.
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