Illinois Teacher Recruitment, Retention, and Recognition Project: Summary of Findings From Illinois Student Focus Groups and Teacher Interviews

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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.

R9CC conducted an extensive series of high school and college student focus groups and interviews with current and former teachers across the state to better understand the causes of these problem statements. Region 9CC analyzed the data and prepared this summary report to ISBE.