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We’re thrilled to share that Teach Minnesota—among the first state-approved alternative teacher preparation programs—is officially launching to increase the number of high-quality teachers of color.

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Teach Minnesota is poised to attract and license a significant number of teachers of color for local classrooms. TNTP, our partner organization that designed Teach Minnesota, is committed to recruiting 50% candidates of color, which will amount in meaningful progress toward diversifying the teaching profession. As only 5% of teachers in Minnesota are people of color, TNTP is committed to changing the status quo.

This is a critical moment for teacher diversity in our community, and will directly impact and shape the teaching profession here in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Attaining the Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board’s approval this past March was a tremendous feat, as is raising $1.25 million over the past four months to provide the resources needed for the program’s launch year. We’re proud to have worked alongside TNTP to help achieve these goals so more high-quality, diverse teachers can enter the classroom. We’re also incredibly grateful of our funder network, as many of them have demonstrated a commitment to diverse, high-quality teacher pathways, by providing resources to support Teach Minnesota’s launch.

TNTP has now pivoted to candidate recruitment toward placing at least 50 elementary or special education Fellows in Twin Cities classrooms in August 2022. (Teach Minnesota will scale to 100 Fellows by year three of the program.) This includes partnerships with Teach For America-Twin Cities and Black Men Teach—as Teach Minnesota will license their candidates—and active engagement with schools and districts.

Teach Minnesota is game-changing for aspiring teachers in the Twin Cities and for our collective efforts to increase representation for communities of color among the teacher workforce.

Many organizations helped lobby on behalf of Teach Minnesota. Thank you! We’re excited to continue working in partnership with you and others to introduce and advocate for proven solutions, and help connect individuals and institutions committed to making a meaningful and measurable impact for the communities we serve.