Jonas Loesel, Contributing Photographer

In a step towards addressing teacher shortages, New Haven Public Schools partnered with New Haven universities and nonprofits to establish the Yale Teaching Fellowship, a program aimed at filling vacancies in schools.

This Wednesday, University President Maurie McInnis joined Mayor Justin Elicker and leaders from Southern Connecticut State University, NHPS and New Haven Promise in the lobby of the Wexler-Grant School to launch the new teaching fellowship program. 

This program will fund the training of 104 new and existing educators in exchange for their three-year commitment to teach in New Haven public schools. The Yale Teaching Fellowship will be led by Christine Gentry, a professional in teaching fellowship programs.

“I’ve been in this role [of President] for a short time, and yet I think there are few moments that will make me prouder than today’s event,” McInnis said.

At the start of the 2024 academic year, the New Haven School District’s 44 campuses had 77 classroom teacher vacancies. Forty-two of those are in just three subject areas: math, science and special education. While the district has moved aggressively to hire in those fields in recent months, many schools remain troubled by a lack of instructional staff.

Speaking at Wexler-Grant, NHPS Superintendent Dr. Madeline Negrón shared how she had identified teacher shortages as a priority from the beginning of her term. 

She recalled speaking to Claudia Merson, Yale’s director of public school partnerships, about the district’s needs, telling her that “one of those needs was to be around [the] teacher shortage.” According to Negrón, the teacher shortage can be partly attributed to the cost of teacher education. 

“We know that there are many, many reasons for this [teacher] shortage. But we know that part of those reasons includes [sic] the high cost of acquiring a graduate degree and certification compared to the relatively modest compensation that is in this profession,” Negrón said.

Since 2018, Connecticut’s State Board of Education has required teachers to earn a master’s degree in order to gain a professional teaching certificate, a required credential for most teaching positions.

The Yale Teaching Fellowship, which is backed by a $10 million dollar investment from the University, will initially support 26 fellows each year for four years in earning a master’s degree and teaching certification from Southern Connecticut State University. According to the program’s website, fellows will be provided with full tuition for graduate study, and many will also receive a living $46,000 stipend.

The fellowship is organized into three separate tracks — one for teachers without previous experience, one for certifying existing NHPS staff to teach and one for providing current NHPS teachers with additional training — tailored to the NHPS’s current shortage needs. 

Speakers emphasized the program’s focus on elevating existing NHPS talent. Negrón emphasized that “one possible solution to tackling our teacher shortage … requires investing financial resources to support teacher development and ultimately, teacher retention.”

Similarly, the executive director of New Haven Promise, Patricia Melton ’83, spoke about the ability of this fellowship to create a pipeline of New Haven students becoming teachers in their own community.

“So many more of our students would go into teaching, but […] funding has been a barrier. I can say that we are going to absolutely have lots of interest in our young people to teach, to be part of this program, and to come back here and teach their ‘siblings,’” Melton said.

This program is an outgrowth of the Yale and Slavery Research Project, which called on Yale to redress its historical opposition to educational opportunity in New Haven. 

The idea of the fellowship is the brainchild of Mira Debs GRD ’13 ’16, the director of Yale’s Education Studies program, and Maria Piñango, a professor of linguistics at Yale. They, combined with an advisory committee composed of NHPS stakeholders, constructed the specifics of this program to directly address New Haven’s needs.

Piñango emphasized to the News how the fellowship is designed to “bring in all the necessary participants … and bring out the best that each has to offer.” She also expects interest from Yale’s own Education Studies students and hopes that they will apply to teach in New Haven’s schools.

Speakers on Wednesday referenced how this fellowship will build on Yale’s efforts to mend an often-fractious relationship with New Haven. Yale’s $10 million dollar commitment comes after a previous $38 million commitment to fund scholarships for NHPS students.

Speaking to the News, McInnis explained that the fellowship “serves as another great example of [Yale’s] commitment to New Haven” and expressed gratitude for the partnership between Yale and New Haven “for helping us figure out how to bring this idea to life.”

Mayor Justin Elicker echoed this sentiment, praising the city and the university for “having each other’s back” in “training our teachers.”

The Yale Teaching Fellowship expects to welcome its inaugural cohort in May 2025.