Connecticut’s state board of education has taken a number of steps to increase the number of teachers of color in the state’s public schools.

According to reporting by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas of the Connecticut Mirror, the board adopted a number of initiatives in recent years.

One program OK’d by the board will allow college graduates without a teaching degree to gain teaching certification. Teach for America will run this program, which is expected to enroll about 20 bilingual individuals each year. Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree and with at least a 3.0 grade point average.

In another initiative, the board late in 2018 voted to allow Relay, an alternative program, to continue to operate following completion of a pilot program. Some 91 people completed the pilot program last year, of which 8 percent were white. Relay enables paraprofessionals and others without a teaching degree to pursue a program leading to teaching certification.