Six state-level strategies for increasing the racial diversity of the educator workforce¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The brief enumerates six strategies states should pursue to "create the right policy conditions to support educator preparation programs, districts, and schools in their efforts to prepare, recruit, and retain teachers of color": making educator diversity data visible and actionable, setting clear state and district goals, investing in educator preparation programs, targeting resources to districts and schools for diverse hiring, investing in retention of teachers of color, and using federal COVID-related relief funds for workforce diversity. The brief rates Louisiana against each strategy.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• State education agencies must collect and analyze educator workforce data to lead targeted, data-informed policy efforts
• States must create the right policy conditions to support educator preparation programs, districts, and schools in preparing, recruiting, and retaining teachers of color

Constraints¶

• The brief frames these as state-level policy conditions; progress depends on preparation programs, districts, and schools acting on them
• Ratings reflect one state's (California's) status in 2022 against the brief's own criteria, not measured effects of the strategies on workforce diversity

Target Learners¶

• K-12 public and charter school students
• state policymakers and advocates
• K-12 students of color

Target Learning Goals¶

• Equitable access to a diverse, high-quality educator workforce
• increasing student access to diverse educators
• recruiting, preparing, and retaining teachers of color

Claims¶

Related Strategies¶

• Build an after-school/OST-to-teaching pipeline to recruit teachers of color
• Invest in recruiting and retaining a diverse, EL-qualified educator workforce through bilingual teaching pathways
• Invest in retention efforts for teachers of color that improve working conditions and provide personal and professional growth opportunities
• Multi-pronged state investments to diversify and retain the educator workforce
• Set clear numeric educator-diversity goals at the state, district, and teacher preparation levels with public progress reporting
• Diversify the educator workforce through Grow Your Own programs, scholarships, and retention supports
• Build a diverse teacher pipeline through Grow Your Own grants, teacher academies, scholarships, MSI investment, and residency pathways
• Build an after-school/out-of-school-time pipeline into teaching to diversify the teacher workforce
• Set measurable, time-bound goals for school leader diversity and make diversity data publicly visible
• Publish school-level educator race/ethnicity data and program-completer and retention data on state dashboards
• 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.
• Make school-level educator diversity data publicly available and easy to interpret so stakeholders can act on it
• Six state strategies for increasing the racial diversity of the educator workforce, from data visibility through COVID-relief investment
• Support teacher residency programs, which are associated with higher retention rates for teachers of color
• Institutional, state, and federal actions to increase faculty diversity

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Educator Diversity State Profile: Louisiana. (2022). EdTrust. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED622849
• The Education Trust. (2022). Educator Diversity State Profile: California. EDTRUST.ORG. https://edtrust.org/educator-diversity/