Educator Workforce

Strengthening and diversifying the educator workforce is a priority area in U.S. education policy and is based on a substantive body of research that consistently shows that teachers are the single most important school-based factor in a student's academic growth. Indeed, the effects of teachers on student achievement are both additive and cumulative and are shown to have the most significant benefit for lower-achieving students. As leaders strive to address achievement gaps for students of color, diversifying the educator workforce has become prominent due to research showing the positive effects of students having exposure to same-race teachers.
Timely Information
The National Center and The Diversifying the Educator Workforce Work Group has just released Cultivating Teacher Talent Through Grow Your Own Programs interactive mulitimedia package. It was developed from a series of three webinar sessions conveniently broken down into key insights, real-world examples, and expert-given advice that can help state and local education agencies design, implement, and evaluate their own GYO programs.

Bright Ideas Across the Network

Tools to Hone Your Teacher Retention Strategies: Program Profiles and Data Inventories
Chicago Public Schools and R9CC collaborated while analyzing eight major teacher retention programs to discern which evidence-based practices are most helpful in recruiting and retaining educator talent. Here is a collection of insights, strategies, and resources to help other districts do the same and leverage the best results.

Managing Teacher Leadership
Learn how to design, implement, and evaluate a formal teacher leadership program in a school or district using this easy-to-navigate multimedia resource from R5CC. The nine modules provide an inclusive look at related research, links to planning tools, templates, and other materials that might assist in the development of a rewarding teacher leadership program.

Diversifying the Educator Workforce: A Guide to Minnesota districts and Schools
When only about 5.6 percent of Minnesota’s teachers identified as Black, Indigenous, or a person of color (BIPOC) compared to 36 percent of its student population, the state set out to change the ratio. With the help of R10CC, educators in Minnesota created a guide with useful tools to recruit and retain a diverse population of teachers that can benefit all SEAs.
Getting Oriented to Strengthening and Diversifying the Teacher Workforce
With persistent educator shortages, declines in educator preparation programs, and troubling rates of attrition, education agencies are searching for proven and innovative strategies to ensure their students have access to the teachers and leaders they need. In addition, factors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have left schools across the country facing their toughest staffing challenges in recent memory—at a moment when students need diverse, effective teachers more than ever.
Use the navigation on the left to take a deeper dive into this topic.
Attracting and Recruiting Educator Talent
Although states maintain a focus on recruiting and retaining qualified and competent teachers, it is particularly difficult for schools considered hard to staff—those with high concentrations of low-performing, low-income students; high teacher turnover; and relatively high percentages of teachers who are less than fully certified. Therefore, efforts to hire and retain teachers in high-need schools, teachers of color, and teachers certified in STEM/computer science subjects are top priorities in teacher recruitment and retention.
CCNetwork Resources
Strategic Use of Data to Support Recruitment and Retention
The Region 8 Comprehensive Center developed this brief as part of its support for the Indiana Department of Education’s educator recruitment and retention efforts. The document details the different types of recruitment and retention data and how to use such data to answer key questions. In addition, the brief outlines how to use data throughout the process of teacher and leader recruitment.

Strengthening the Teacher Workforce through Selection Processes

Lessons Learned around Reducing Inequitable Access to High Quality Teachers

Opportunity Culture: Lessons Learned - An Executive Brief for District Leaders in North Carolina
Illinois Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Recognition Project: Summary of Findings From Illinois Student Focus Groups and Teacher Interviews
Region 9 Comprehensive Center (R9CC) and Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) collaboratively collected and analyzed teacher workforce data to identify barriers for recruiting and retaining an effective and diverse teacher workforce. R9CC and ISBE used the Teacher Shortage Tool from the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders to identify equity and diversity gaps within the teacher pipeline and created problem statements that characterize the teacher shortage in Illinois.

Tools to Hone Your Teacher Retention Strategies: Program Profiles and Data Inventory
External Resources
-
Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Mid-Atlantic - Five Findings on Teacher Turnover and Access to Effective Teachers in the School District of Philadelphia
This blog shares five findings that stood out from REL Mid-'Atlantic's research.
-
FutureEd Georgetown University - In Demand: The Real Teacher Shortages and How to Solve Them
Report author Sandi Jacobs, a principal at EducationCounsel, analyzes supply and demand for teachers before the Covid pandemic, identifies new staffing questions that have arisen during the current crisis, and offers policy recommendations that help states and districts take a nuanced approach to ensuring that all students are taught by effective educators.
-
Insight Education Group - Support for Teacher Recruitment & Retention
By prioritizing recruitment and retention in a new, systemic way, districts and schools are experiencing increased success in finding and retaining those teachers their students desperately need. This report offers several supports to help schools or districts build teacher recruitment and retention systems.
-
Commonwealth Education Continuum (CEC): Teacher Recruitment, Retention Recommendations
The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and the Commonwealth Education Continuum developed a list of recommendations to strengthen 'Kentucky's education-to-workforce pipeline, including building a minority educator workforce.
Preparing and Certifying Teachers
States are rethinking their policy and program systems for preparing educators for several reasons, including shortages, attrition, and the need to attract a more diverse workforce. As a result, educator preparation is rapidly evolving, with more "grow your own" programs and the increasing popularity of high school pathways, residencies, and other alternate routes to certification. Paired with more flexible licensing policies, states can take meaningful action to develop and hire high-quality teachers.
CCNetwork Resources

The Mutually Beneficial Partnership

Preparing Future Educators and Youth Workers in Michigan
Diversifying the Educator Workforce
Most students of color are not taught by teachers of the same race and ethnicity. A diverse teaching force may help states and districts close large, persistent gaps in academic performance and improve the educational outcomes of students of color. Matching student and teacher race may result in more culturally-relevant instruction and more positive perceptions of teachers.
CCNetwork Resources

Teacher Diversity and Student Success: Why Racial Representation Matters in Classrooms

Addressing the Bilingual Teacher Shortage

A Coalition for Teacher Diversity

Increasing Workforce Diversity to Boost Learning Recovery Efforts
External Resources
-
Center for Education Equity (MAEC) - Exploring Equity Issues: Racial Parity: The Need for a Diverse Teacher Workforce
This paper examines the need to achieve parity between the teaching workforce and the student population in the United States.
-
Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Mid-Atlantic - Teacher Diversity Infographic
This infographic illustrates how increasing teacher diversity may improve educational outcomes for students of color.
-
Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest - Confronting Bias and Building Trust: Strategies to Create Inclusive Environments for Black Teachers
This webinar discusses how retaining Black teachers is a strategy for improving student outcomes.
Developing Culturally Responsive Practices
Data consistently reveals troubling trends in academic success for black and brown students in this country. The experiences of many students whose identities and family backgrounds do not reflect the dominant culture in American schools makes the case for schools to shift toward culturally relevant pedagogy and practice. This shift means that culturally relevant pedagogy and practices must provide a way for students to maintain their cultural integrity while succeeding academically.
CCNetwork Resources
Culturally Responsive Practices as a Strategy for Diversifying the Educator Workforce
Dive into this multi-media resource on Culturally Responsive Practices as a Strategy for Diversifying the Educator Workforce to hear from prominent educator, researcher, and author Gloria Ladson-Billings about why it is essential for our nation’s educators and policy makers to understand and respond to the needs of today’s youth through a new lens and renewed purpose.

Raising Awareness of the New York State Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework
Supporting Professional Growth and Evaluation Systems
It is widely established that engaging in-service teachers, particularly those in the first few years of their career, in high-quality professional learning activities leads to improvements in practice and improved rates of retention. A review of studies demonstrating a positive link between teacher professional development, teaching practices, and student outcomes point to these features of effective professional development:
- is content focused
- Incorporates active learning utilizing adult learning theory
- Supports collaboration, typically in job-embedded contexts
- Uses models and modeling of effective practice
- Provides coaching and expert support
- Offers opportunities for feedback and refection
- Is of sustained duration
CCNetwork Resources

Considerations for Developing Effective Math Coaches: A Content-Driven Perspective

TI Brief #4: Prioritizing Teachers: Importance of Self-Care and Adult Social and Emotional Competencies

Building Teacher Capacity in K–12 Computer Science by Promoting Formative Assessment Literacy

Adult Learning Framework

Planning Engaging Learning Experiences

Digital Professional Learning for K–12 Teachers: Literature Review and Analysis
External Resources
-
Center on Great Teachers and Leaders - Mentoring & induction toolkit 2.0
This Toolkit is a ready-to-use resource for states working closely with districts to build strong mentoring and induction programs.
-
Center on Great Teachers and Leaders - Using Teacher Evaluation Data to Inform Professional Learning
This module delves into practical approaches for using evidence and ratings gathered through performance evaluation to inform professional learning for teachers.
Cultivating Educational Leadership
Educational leadership capacities are needed throughout education systems and are enacted by district and school administrators as well as by teachers. Providing teachers with opportunities to develop their leadership skills recognizes their stature as instructional experts and their potential to influence learning beyond the classroom. Leadership development can occur at an individual, team, or organizational level and may include leadership pathway programs and opportunities to improve policy and practice, among other approaches to improve student achievement and educator decision-making.
CCNetwork Resources

Success Stories from Region 5: Promoting Teacher Leadership in West Virginia

Principal Leadership at a Challenging Time: An Evaluation of the Missouri Leadership Development System
External Resources
-
Center on Great Teachers and Leaders - Teacher Leadership Toolkit 2.0: Strategies to Build, Support, and Sustain Teacher Leadership Opportunities
This toolkit can help with the design and implementation of teacher leadership programs.
-
University of Wisconsin-Madison - Guide to Creating Teacher Leader Positions
This Guide provides 10 key decisions for designing teacher leader roles.