Programs aimed at cultivating high school students interested in making teaching a career are undergoing a significant expansion in New York City, in the city’s latest effort to diversify its teaching force.

The city is set to go from five teaching-themed high schools two years ago to 25 schools with courses or clubs meant to set students on a path to heading their own classrooms. And Chancellor Richard Carranza is making a personal pledge to students who participate: Fulfill their goal of becoming teachers, and he’ll assure them a job.

Carranza recently told a group of student reporters that he intends to give employment “contracts” to students at teaching-oriented high schools.

The contract, he said, “will basically say, you’re hired as a teacher in NYC. … Once you get your degree, you’re guaranteed a job.”

Carranza’s pledge — and its potential impact — is largely symbolic: The city cannot guarantee future employment, and even with a growing number of schools seeking to get students invested in the idea of becoming teachers, high school programs won’t produce enough graduates to tilt the demographics of the city’s teaching force.

Still, the pledge adds to the city’s growing roster of initiatives aimed at diversifying its teaching corps. While more than 80 percent of city students are black, Latino, or Asian, less than 40 percent of their teachers are, according to recent state data.

The gap is significant: Research has found that students who have teachers who resemble  them have on average higher test scores and elevated expectations of what they can accomplish.

Carranza’s predecessor, Carmen Fariña, also praised high-school teacher programs for showing students that teaching can be an attractive career choice.

Now, education department spokesperson Doug Cohen said, “We’re investing in strategies to help more New York City public school students become New York City public school teachers” — in hopes those future educators will look more like the students they teach.

It’s unclear how big of a dent the new programs could have in the makeup of the city’s teaching force. Already, nearly one third of the district’s new hires are graduates of the city’s public schools.

But the efforts contribute to a shift already underway in the city’s approach to hiring. The NYC Men Teach initiative has “surpassed its goal of placing 1,000 men of color in the pipeline” to teach in city schools, according to Cohen, and the education department is now working with Educators Rising, a group affiliated with a national teachers association, to develop more teachers of color locally.

The group has started new programs at four high schools — Progress High School, the Brooklyn Institute for Liberal Arts, the High School for Medical Professions, and John Dewey High School — where some students are already participating in weekly programming, led by a school-based staff member, usually a teacher. The programs include an  assortment of future-teacher clubs, classes or guidance into the profession.

These schools join five others — one in each borough — that already had a teaching theme: Bronx High School for Teaching and Professions, Queens High School of Teachers, Manhattan’s Richard R. Green High School, Teachers Preparatory High School in Brooklyn and New Dorp High School in Staten Island.

Joan Weaver, the principal at Richard R. Green said that, like the rest of the city on average, more than 80 percent of the school’s students are Hispanic, black, or Asian. This diversity makes the school fertile ground for growing “the next generation of teachers,” she said.

Students enter the teaching academy junior year and participate in an internship within the school. They are paired with a real teacher whom they assist in the classroom. Senior year, students have “externships” at neighboring schools, where they can begin to figure out what kinds of jobs they might want someday. “They get a chance to say, ‘Oh, wait, I prefer this grade or to teach this,'” Weaver said. “They all think they want to teach little kids” but after working in an elementary school, many discover they enjoy teaching older students more.

And by helping these would-be teachers develop culturally relevant education practices, a centerpiece of Carranza’s vision for the city’s schools, such programs can help participants build the skills they’ll need in their future classrooms.

Starting this year, some students can begin to earn college and Regents credits that will ease the path into the teaching profession, according to an education department official. And the assortment of Educators Rising clubs or programs represent a way to replicate in existing high schools some of what Carranza says he admires at the teaching-themed schools.

“Those classes are diverse,” Carranza told YCTeen, so the students becoming teachers will be, too. “I want to nurture them so they come back.”

School funding issues have gotten a lot of attention this year, but understanding how Colorado gives schools money can still be complicated.

There is one statewide amendment related to school funding this year, in addition to other local tax requests you might find on your ballot depending on where you live. Here’s some information that might help you as you make your decisions.

Let us know at co.tips@chalkbeat.org if you have other questions not answered here.

What is Amendment 73?

This amendment to the state constitution would raise the income tax rate for those who earn more than $150,000. It would also raise the corporate income tax rate for businesses and lock in assessment rates to prevent them from going down more next year. That will have implications for property taxes.

We’ve got a lot more information on this measure here.

What about my local tax request? Why do districts want more on top of that state funding?

Some school board officials have little confidence that voters will pass Amendment 73. Others point out that the money from Amendment 73 wouldn’t come in right away, even if it is approved, and some of the needs they want to address just can’t wait.

Some districts have laid out plans for how different streams of money would go to different projects, in the event that both the statewide amendment and their local tax requests are approved. Here is a rundown of what some school boards have said about Amendment 73.

Some of the most detailed district documents online are from Adams 12, Jeffco, and Douglas County.

My district has two local requests on the ballot. What’s the difference?

School districts can ask voters for a mill levy override or a bond request. Bond requests allow the district to incur debt for the purposes of building improvements or other infrastructure projects. If the district needs to pay for operational needs such as teacher salaries, which will be an ongoing need as opposed to something they can pay off in a certain number of years, then they’ll ask for a mill levy override. This is a type of property tax increase that provides ongoing local dollars that stay in the district.

Here’s more about the difference between a bond and a mill levy override.

How much will the local request cost me?

That varies due to differences in the assessed value of each district’s tax base.

Aurora’s $35 million request, and Westminster’s $9.9 million request will have among the largest financial impacts on homeowners.

If Aurora’s measure is approved, homeowners will pay an additional $98.64 per year for every $100,000 of a home’s value. If Westminster’s measure is approved, homeowners there will pay an additional $103 per year for every $100,000 of a home’s value.

Tax requests and their annual impact on homeowners

What will the money pay for?

Across the board, two things stand out as priorities for many districts: higher teacher pay and improvements to school safety. (This document compiled by the Colorado School Finance Project, gives a summary of how each district plans to spend any new local money.)

On teacher pay: Districts have found increased public support for teachers this year following large protests, including greater awareness of how much of their own money they spend in the classroom. District officials say they need to raise pay to stay competitive as they try to recruit and keep more teachers.

Here’s an idea of how some school districts asking for local tax increases compare to their nearby districts in terms of their teacher salaries and teacher turnover:

Average teacher pay and teacher turnover rates

*Source: Colorado Department of Education. Districts in bold have a tax request tied to teacher pay on this November’s ballot.

In many districts, exactly how much more teachers get will need to be negotiated with the teachers union. Aurora’s union has already written some language into their contract stating that the district must set aside $10 million from new revenue to give teachers a 3 percent raise starting in January. After the raise, the remaining money would go into creating a new salary schedule.

As far as safety goes, many districts are looking to make improvements to school buildings. Those include new locks for classroom doors, new building entryways, and more cameras. But several large districts are also looking to increase their mental health resources for students.

Here’s a sample of what some districts plan to do to improve safety:

Aurora:

• Seat belts for all school buses
• Expanding mental health staff and training

Westminster:

• New campus monitors for elementary schools, and training for existing monitors to expand their skills
• Redesigning school entryways so all schools have double-door entryways, cameras, door locks
• Expanding visitor ID check system to all schools

Jeffco:

• Increasing counselors, and school safety officers
• Building improvements such as new school entryways, security cameras, locks and windows

Adams 12:

• Adding counselors and social workers to schools at all levels, and additional campus supervisors at high schools
• Developing and implement social-emotional learning curriculum
• Adding a member to the district crisis response team
• Installing facility access cards at high schools

Sheridan:

• New communication systems, door control and camera systems
• Hiring additional personnel who will directly support school security needs

Douglas County:

• Adding counselors at elementary schools, and reducing counselor-to-student ratios at middle and high schools
• Building security improvements

Where can I find more information about my district’s budget?

Colorado has a new interactive website with budget information from every district in the state. You can see how much your school district spends on administration, transportation, or construction debt, for instance, and compare it to other districts across the state. The website information is from 2016-17 budgets.

Denver Public Schools also has its own new budget document that drills down into how much the district spends per student on things like library services, lawyers, and more.

What about marijuana revenues?

The largest amount of marijuana tax revenue goes into a state fund that gives districts grants to build schools or make other physical improvements to their building. Known as the BEST program, districts apply and compete for these grants. Then if awarded a grant, most districts have to provide a matching amount of dollars for the project. Some local tax requests this year, including those from the Kit Carson, Lamar, and Trinidad districts, are precisely asking to collect that matching amount for this grant.

Starting this year, some marijuana revenue is available for the regular education budget, but the amount is a tiny fraction of what the state spends on education funding.