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Syracuse University’s Baldanza Fund for Excellence in Education Policy in Practice sends diverse teaching candidates from the university to local school districts to help underrepresented students learn and grow.

The fund, which SU alumni Marcia and Ben Baldanza proposed in 2020 with a $300,000 grant, started with two fellows in May and partnered with the Jamesville-DeWitt and West Genesee school districts. Fellows complete a fully- or partially-funded master’s degree program that leads to a teacher certification. Afterwards, they must commit to teaching in their district placement for a minimum of three years.

“We had some flexibility and creativity to come up with something that felt really impactful,” said Christine Ashby, director of SU’s Center on Disability and Inclusion. “You don’t get a lot of those opportunities where somebody says, ‘Hey, come up with something you want to try. Let’s talk about it.’”

Isaiah Steinberg, a senior at Jamesville-DeWitt High School, and junior Sophia Caputo said that although their school’s current faculty contributes diversity through a wide range of life experience, the school’s teachers do not reflect the racial and cultural diversity of the student body.

“I think that students should grow up throughout their school careers seeing teachers that look like them and that they can relate to on certain issues that they may not be able to with other teachers,” Caputo said.

Students also identify with younger fellows, who can relate more to the generation they’re teaching, Steinberg said. Overall, the pair think that the fellowship will be a positive experience for both their high school and the district as a whole.

“It’s hugely beneficial to have a teacher that you can relate to because…you share a piece of your identity with them.…it empowers you (to think) that you can also pursue maybe what they did or something else,” Steinberg said. “I don’t think students do that enough, really utilizing their teachers to the fullest extent.”

Responsibilities for the program are split between Maxwell and the School of Education. Ashby and George Theoharis, a professor of educational leadership and inclusive elementary and early childhood education, work directly with the school districts to build, manage and provide oversight, Ashby said.

Two faculty from Maxwell, Leonard Lopoo, the Paul Volcker Chair in behavioral economics, and Robert Bifulco, a professor in the public administration and international affairs department, are in charge of recruiting candidates and evaluating the program.

“We work closely with George and Christine, thinking through what those interventions that we want to test are,” Bifulco said. “Once we have those conversations…we begin implementing those interventions and then evaluating (their effectiveness).”

The collaboration between the two schools has helped bring together different, yet mutually beneficial perspectives, Ashby said.

“I don’t know how to teach (marketing). I know how to teach people how to teach,” Ashby said. “It’s been a really fun collaboration because we see this really through different lenses.”

As a student, Caputo hopes the program’s focus on diversity is not prioritized over hiring quality educators.

“We are looking for folks who are excited and passionate about education, who are flexible and creative, who are willing to have tough conversations (about diversity in the teacher workforce),” Ashby said.

Neither of the fellows from the pilot cohort had undergraduate degrees in education, Ashby said.

“We aren’t discouraging folks who are education majors, but the point of this gift and what we’re choosing to do with it is to expand the pool of teachers,” she said.

As part of the program, fellows will receive a tuition scholarship for their master’s degree, a stipend for living expenses, as well as a hiring commitment from the school district they are assigned to during field placements. Ashby and Theoharis are also working on a mentorship program for fellows and connect them with a network of alumni of color.

Caputo said she thinks that the high school should raise more awareness about the fellowship among the student body so that they can give their opinions as well.

“I think both of these districts’ administrators are really listening,” Ashby said, “They’re listening to their students, they’re listening to their communities and they’re recognizing we can’t keep doing the same thing and expect to get different results.”

Published on September 1, 2022 at 1:12 am