E4E-MA fights to protect high-quality, diverse educators in Massachusetts

Following a year of advocacy to protect high-quality, diverse educators throughout the Commonwealth, E4E-Massachusetts secured a significant win this year when the Massachusetts state legislature acknowledged that the impacts of layoffs on the diversity of the teaching workforce is an issue worth deeper examination.

At the end of the 2024 legislative session, an amendment was signed into law requiring the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to conduct a study of the impacts of teacher layoffs on teacher diversity and quality over the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years. Specifically, the study must examine to what extent teachers of color were disproportionately laid off relative to their representation in the state’s teacher workforce overall.  

At the start of the 2024 legislative session, the odds were stacked against us. Whether it was the spread of misinformation about our goal to protect high-quality, diverse educators, or deeply vested special interests who mischaracterized our legislative campaign as being against seniority rights, E4E-MA was able to combat the mistruths, shine light on the harm of maintaining status quo policies, and accomplish significant progress during the first legislative introduction of this contentious issue.

HOW IT STARTED

Research shows that the support diverse educators provide to diverse students directly correlates to student outcomes. Students with teachers of the same race are less likely to be suspended, more likely to be referred to gifted programs, and, most importantly, more likely to complete high school and attend college.

Fortunately, states have made significant progress in recent years in diversifying the workforce to better serve the student population. Massachusetts, in particular, has stood out in its diversification efforts, ranking it second in the nation in terms of recent teacher workforce diversity growth. 

Unfortunately, Massachusetts is also one of only 13 states where seniority is a main factor when school districts lay off teachers, risking the erasure of all recent progress made. And, despite second-in-the-nation growth in teacher workforce diversity, teachers of color in MA still only account for 6.9 percent of the workforce, while 35 percent of the students in Massachusetts public schools identify as people of color. 
Recognizing that seniority-based layoff policies would disproportionately impact the diversity of the workforce and harm student success, Educators for Excellence partnered with TNTP on a 2023 study, So All Students Thrive, analyzing the impacts of LIFO on efforts to increase the number of high-quality, diverse educators who are best equipped to meet all students’ needs.

E4E introduces An Act Enabling All Students to Thrive

At the start of the legislative session in the fall of 2023, E4E-MA introduced a bill, “An Act Enabling All Students to Thrive (S. 340 and H. 583),“ which sought to consider a variety of factors, such as the quality of an educator; whether they teach within a high-needs district; or hold linguistic proficiency in the predominant neighborhood language–in addition to seniority–when districts face layoff decisions.

Several legislators and partner organizations joined the fight, including bill sponsors Representative Priscila Sousa (D – Framingham) and Senator Pavel Payano (D – Lawrence), as well as House co-sponsor Representative Rita Mendes (D – Plymouth). In January 2024, E4E-MA held a virtual briefing with the bill’s sponsors, other legislators, and other key partner organizations, underscoring the importance of the bill and collective goal to ensure that any efforts in diversifying the pipeline of new teachers were matched with protections that kept those new, high-quality, diverse educators in the classrooms.

As we were tirelessly working to uplift this campaign and amplify our messaging, the threat of layoffs due to declining enrollment and the impending end of ESSER funds became real as districts gradually began to announce layoffs. 

E4E hands out pink slips at the capitol, legislators take notice

Following the legislative briefing, E4E-MA got creative. We developed a provocative “pink slip” one-pager that outlined the purpose of this legislation, highlighting the dangers of impending teacher layoffs throughout the state. In delivering pink slips, we were proactive and ensured that legislators understood the magnitude of unfolding layoffs on educators throughout their districts across the state.

Receiving these provocative “layoff notices” in their mailboxes, legislators and staff took notice and mentioned the impact of these materials as E4E-MA met with them during a lobby day. Meeting with over 50 legislators and staffers, E4E staff answered their questions, gave voice to the teachers the bill is intended to protect, and raised the criticality of not taking action on this important issue. Throughout the lobby day, many legislators said they had not realized the risk that maintaining the status quo layoff policy would have on erasing all progress made in pipeline diversification efforts.

Finding a pathway to make meaningful progress

In March, it was announced that “An Act Enabling All Students to Thrive (S. 340 and H. 583),“ would not be included as part of a packaged bill on teacher diversity from the Joint Committee on Education, where the Committee opted instead to focus on diverse teacher recruitment and professional supports. 

The timing of this decision coincided with numerous layoff announcements being made across Massachusetts, including Boston Public Schools, Brockton Public Schools, Dartmouth Public Schools, Lawrence Public Schools, Marblehead Public Schools, and Pittsfield Public Schools. Understanding that the Commonwealth could not afford to turn its head away from the impacts of these layoffs on high-quality, diverse earlier career educators, E4E-MA worked again with legislative co-sponsors Rep. Sousa and Sen. Payano to introduce an amendment to the FY 2025 budget that would still help to achieve the goal of protecting high-quality, diverse educators in Massachusetts schools.

This amendment had specific callbacks to elements of our original bill, but intended to make sure that DESE studied the impacts of the announced layoffs over the coming school years to provide meaningful data officially released by the state, ultimately supporting a refiling of our bill next legislative session.

Teacher diversity study amendment is signed into law 

After passage in both the House and the Senate, in July 2024, Governor Healey signed the DESE study into law as part of the final budget. With the stroke of the Governor’s pen, it was clear that our year of advocacy resulted in meaningful progress being made on a contentious issue that would have otherwise not been deliberated by the legislature this session.

Read our full statement and coverage by the CommonWealth following the budget signing.

What’s next?

As DESE prepares to undertake the study, which must be released by October 2025, E4E-MA will work with educators to identify other adjacent issue areas the Department may want to consider for inclusion in the final version of the report.

Shaping critical studies like this is just one way E4E members have a seat at the table when it comes to education policy and decision-making in their districts and across the state. By becoming a member of E4E-MA, you can ensure that your voice is elevated in these and other decisions and make a positive impact on education throughout the Commonwealth. We need more than just a study: we need to remain vigilant in ensuring that Massachusetts doesn’t maintain the status quo when it comes to educator layoff policies.

Want to stay up to date and see the latest ways you can get involved in moving this work forward? Sign our Declaration to become an official E4E member or contact us today.

We work best when we are working together!