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Summarize opportunities and experiences for candidates to work with diverse peers; and the unit's affirmation of the value and efforts to increase or maintain candidate diversity.
Eastern Connecticut State University has historically served as the university of first choice for many first generation college students and has continued to welcome a high number of first-time full-time undergraduate students. Close to 12% of enrolled students choose Education as their major (second only to Business), and of these students, 40% are the first in their generation to attend a college. Of these Education students, 15% are from a minority background. These two demographics helps to put into perspective the unique landscape of the Eastern campus. While 66% of the total undergraduates enrolled at Eastern in Fall 2015 were of a non-minority background, many of these same students come under the valued Eastern criteria of being a first-time full-time college student. Eastern actively seeks, recruits and supports this unique population of students into our college campus with various programs focused on making their transition from high school to college both smooth and customized to their needs. See complete list of all the efforts undertaken by Eastern to recruit diverse candidates. Some of the focused recruitment occurs in diverse school districts such as Hartford through the STEP/CAP program that provides access and first-year support to qualified students who are either first generation college students or are from low-income families or are from traditionally underrepresented groups on college campuses. Once at Eastern, the Academic Services Center provides academic tutoring services in Math, Writing, and specific content areas to these and other students. The Advising center welcomes and monitors the progress of all students during the first year and until they declare a major. These efforts ensure that the recruited Eastern students continue to thrive at Eastern. The retention rate data for Fall 2014 indicates that our Black/African American students are retained at 79%, much higher than the White student population (71%). The Hispanic population is retained at 75% and overall, the total minority retention rate is 76%. All of these helps establish the inclusive and support campus culture at Eastern. Many of these students continue to stay connected with their mentoring programs, serving as peer mentors themselves during their junior and senior years.
The EPP data on minority students indicates that in Fall 2015 alone, 12% of the candidates self-identified as a member of a classified racial or ethnic minority group. This was an increase from the previous year (3% minorities). Our candidates therefore interact with a range of diverse peers throughout their time at Eastern, whether it be in First-Year Experience courses wherein they interact with diverse ethnic and first-generation students or in Liberal Arts courses that intermingle students of all backgrounds, abilities and interests or in Academic services such as Advising and Peer Mentoring.
The EPP offers a multitude of structured and informal opportunities for candidates to engage in professional exchange with candidates and professionals from various cultural, regional, and linguistic backgrounds. Annually, Early Childhood Education student researchers present their work at the NAEYC national conference and interact with diverse peers from other campuses. Physical Education students frequently participate in the College Bowl sponsored by the state's chapter of the Alliance which brings together candidates from other EPPS across the state: Western, Central, and Southern Connecticut State Universities. In 2012 and 2013, as another example of co-curricular experiences, both undergraduate initial candidates and master's level advanced candidates participated in The Connecticut Reading Conference, an annual conference (in Cromwell, CT) with presentations by international, national and state leaders in literacy attended by current teachers, literacy coaches and administrators in Connecticut. Eastern's candidates met and exchanged ideas with peer candidates from Sacred Heart University, University of Bridgeport, University of Connecticut, St. Joseph College, those from the other Connecticut State public universities, Connecticut College, and other universities.
The Eastern campus offers a multitude of student-centered initiatives, clubs and activities that cut across programs and diverse backgrounds. For instance, the Intercultural Center provides resources and services that are aimed to increase cultural awareness and to support diverse students. Student Affairs annually presents a series of weekly and monthly workshops, presentations and other activities aimed at heightening cultural awareness amongst all students. Pride Room is a resource of information, support and guidance for/of the LGBTQ community. Besides these campus-run services and offices, Eastern has an active student club culture with clubs ranging from academic to cultural to sports. Close to 10 of these clubs are focused on celebrating a specific cultural group. An important club that supports the EPP's teacher candidates is the Education Club and the Social Justice Club, both of which enable our candidates to come together as a community of diverse learners, through their various programming efforts.
Starting this Fall, we are excited to explore a candidate outreach program whereby our teacher candidates will be connected with teacher candidates from HBCU campuses such as North Carolina A & T State University. Our candidates from select courses will interact virtually and face/face web communications, exchanging ideas, discussing outcomes and perhaps even working on group projects together. This experience will further widen our candidates' global perspectives. Both at the university level and at the EPP level, we believe strongly in mentoring and retaining our diverse candidates and in continuously enhancing our efforts related to diversity. We continue to inform and assist minority teacher candidates to take advantage of the Minority Teacher Incentive Program (created by the Connecticut State Department of Education) to encourage minority students in higher education to pursue teaching careers in Connecticut's public schools.
During the 2014-2015 academic year, the Dean, representing Eastern Connecticut State University, served on an invited commission to address the issue of minority teacher recruitment and retention within one of our partner districts, Windham Public Schools. One aim was to propose policy and best practices for collaboration between the EPP and the district to mitigate or address this challenge. In 2015, the EPP partnered with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education's (AACTE) Holmes program to grow the state's teaching force for historically underrepresented professionals. The inaugural cohort of Holmes Masters was inducted spring 2016.
During the 2015-2016 academic year, the School began a collaboration with Bolton, Coventry, and Windham Public Schools to redesign dual enrollment. This consortium approach will focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and education related curriculum. The established goals are to promote college readiness and minority teacher recruitment. Two meetings have occurred and the projected enrollment date is fall 2017.