EDUCATOR SHORTAGES AND DIVERSITY

Challenges in recruiting and retaining teachers in general, and teachers from ethnic minorities in particular, may impact improvement efforts two-fold: 1) teachers are the most important within-school resource for student achievement, which is hindered when unqualified teachers are deployed to schools where shortages are severe, and 2) shortages negatively impact other initiatives and investments made by states and districts, such as new curriculum, technology, smaller classrooms and others, initiatives that become unsuccessful in schools and classrooms with shortages of good teachers. 

 

We bring cutting-edge expertise on developing solutions to address chronic educator shortages and diversify the teacher workforce. This work is led by Etai Mizrav, who lead many similar efforts in his role as the Manager of Policy and Equity for the Washington DC department of education, and then as a consultant and facilitator to many states and districts across the country, as they address their recruitment and retention challenges. 

 

We propose a structured, results-driven process for states to develop and implement teacher shortage and diversity plan.