Indianapolis Public Schools launches new recruitment and retention initiative

INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Public Schools has launched a new initiative to recruit and retain teachers in classrooms throughout the district.

The initiative, Proving What's Possible, includes new programs, like career pathways into the district, paid residency opportunities for teachers and principals, a new website for teacher candidates to learn about the district, submit an interest form, learn about hiring events and more.

“Widespread research shows that all students benefit when taught by a person of color, and that benefit is even greater for students of color,” IPS Superintendent Aleesia Johnson said. “This new initiative will build new pathways for talented educators to join our team while making sure our current excellent teachers feel supported and can grow in their careers.”

In the announcement on the district's website, IPS said only 26% of its current teacher workforce identifies as Black or Latinx compared to 85% of its students.

The initiative was launched by the IPS Talent Office.

Through the IndyTeach Apprenticeship, IPS is partnering with Christel House Indianapolis to help participants through a one-year program to obtain their state teaching license without needing to go back to school. Applications for the first cohort program, starting this summer, are now open.

The IPS Principal Residency program is a year-long paid opportunity for "high-potential school leaders" to learn and grow with IPS. Principal residents will get job-embedded development support to lead academic achievement in their schools.

There will be four resident positions available each year beginning this summer and applications are open now.

IPS said it is seeing improvements in its hiring trends, including the number of applicants identifying themselves as a person of color, the percent of teacher hires identifying as a teacher of color, the retention gap of all teachers and teachers of color has closed and there were more applicants per vacancy compared to the previous year.

Johnson also said the teacher pay raises help allocate more resources to recruitment.