Diversify the educator workforce through Grow Your Own programs, scholarships, and retention supports¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The brief recommends states diversify and retain the educator workforce to foster belonging and challenge students to thrive. Recommended policies include funding alternative-route Grow Your Own programs, scholarships and loan forgiveness to attract students of color into preparation programs, rigorous program approval standards, oral-based assessment alternatives for native speakers of foreign languages, full tuition scholarships, teacher academies and dual enrollment, and induction and mentoring providing at least two years of support for new teachers.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Numeric state and district goals for increasing student access to diverse educators, developed with local stakeholder input
• Public reporting of educator workforce racial demographics and retention rates of educators of color

Constraints¶

• Several recommendations are improvements Tennessee has not yet adopted, such as prioritized partnerships with minority-serving institutions

Target Learners¶

• P-12 students, particularly students of color; also prospective teachers of color

Target Learning Goals¶

• Student access to a racially and culturally diverse teacher workforce supporting belonging and thriving

Claims¶

Related Strategies¶

• Support belonging in AP classes through AP teachers of color, near-peer mentors, culturally sustaining curricula, and targeted supports
• Multi-pronged state investments to diversify and retain the educator workforce
• Develop high-retention pathways — Grow Your Own programs and teacher residencies — to build and diversify local teacher supply
• Build high-retention, supportive pathways into teaching for candidates of color
• State and federal policy recommendations: recruit and prepare more candidates, retain new teachers through early-career mentoring, and improve working conditions
• Establish high-retention preparation pathways—residencies, Grow Your Own models, service scholarships, and mentoring/induction—to stem turnover in high-need subjects and schools
• Build a diverse teacher pipeline through Grow Your Own grants, teacher academies, scholarships, MSI investment, and residency pathways
• Grow-your-own and recruitment initiatives: alternative programs, Minority Serving Institutions, high-school pipeline programs, and district human-capital efforts to diversify the teacher workforce.
• Deploy service scholarships, loan forgiveness, and teacher residencies to staff high-need fields and schools
• A federal Marshall Plan for Teaching focused on seven areas: compensation, debt-free preparation, high-retention pathways, mentoring, expertise-sharing, school redesign, and accountability
• Grow-your-own teacher training programs targeting community members facing certification and career-change barriers
• Professional development in asset-based pedagogies and adult SEL to build culturally affirming environments
• Retain teachers of color through leadership pipelines, multi-year induction and mentoring, and culturally responsive school climates
• Six state-level strategies for increasing the racial diversity of the educator workforce
• Deploy a portfolio of research-based strategies — service scholarships, residencies, Grow Your Own programs, mentoring and induction, and compensation reform — to strengthen the teacher pipeline
• Invest in retention of teachers of color through residencies, affinity groups, and induction/mentoring

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• The Education Trust. (2023). How Does Tennessee Support Students' Social, Emotional, and Academic Development (SEAD)?. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED630070