Dive Brief:
- Denver Public Schools is teaming up with Teach for America to recruit more teachers who are undocumented immigrants working legally under President Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
- There are already two DPS teachers authorized to work under the DACA program, and the district hopes to bring the number up to 10 by the start of the next school year.
- It is estimated that as much as 20% of the district's students are undocumented and about a third are still learning English.
Dive Insight:
According to DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg, the DACA recipient teachers are not only often bi-lingual or multi-lingual but "have a deep personal understanding of the challenges that many of our students face who similarly came to this country in undocumented status as young children.”
Teach for America responded to critics — who argued these teachers would be taking jobs away from Americans — by saying, "TFA corps members are not replacing American teachers. [They] apply for open jobs and go through the same application and interview process as everyone else.”
Ultimately, the hiring of DACA recipients to reflect the makeup of the students being taught falls under the category of “culturally responsive pedagogy”.