“In 2022, the Colorado legislature passed the Educator Stipend Act (HB22-1220), an innovative program intended to reduce the financial barriers often faced by student teachers during their culminating clinical teaching experiences. Using COVID relief funds, the bill targeted lower income students based on eligibility for Pell grant funding, who tend to be more diverse. In compliance with the legislation, Dr. Cindy Gutierrez and Dr. Barbara Seidl in CU Denver’s teacher prep program contracted with the team at CU Denver’s The Evaluation Center to assess the impact for students receiving the stipends. The Evaluation Center team developed a survey and conducted interviews with the first group of teacher and counselor candidate recipients.”
