The January/February 2023 issue of Insight Into Diversity magazine features an opinion article by Julian 
Vasquez Heilig, Ph.D., former dean of the University of Kentucky College of Education.
Vasquez Heilig writes that recruiting more students to backfill the teacher pipeline amid a growing shortage in the U.S. is at the top of nearly every education school’s agenda and explains how preliminary data show the number of incoming aspiring teachers at the UK College of Education recently increased 83 percent, going from 118 incoming education majors in Fall 2019 to 216 in Fall 2022. During that same time period, the number of freshman students of color increased 275 percent in teacher education programs, rising from 12 to 45.
Vasquez Heilig attributes the increase, in part, to this generation being motivated by the desire for a better world, and the college’s efforts centering on showing how teaching is a career in which they can make a difference.
“Some say meaningful change cannot happen quickly, but I believe our students are showing that it can happen remarkably fast with commitment and innovation. It is imperative we create policies that will enable those in the teacher pipeline to persist and succeed. Our students are eager to enter a fulfilling career,” wrote Vasquez Heilig.
Read the full article in the January/February 2023 issue of Insight Into Diversity.