RESOURCE LIBRARY

Across the nation, the education profession faces persistent teacher shortages coupled with a diversity gap between educators and their students. The effects of COVID-19 on the diversification of the profession has further exacerbated the financial divide that pre-dated the pandemic, but now threatens the financial supports that prospective and current education students of color rely on to complete their preparation programs. Although we are witnessing a national response to the racial injustices our communities of color experience for simply living their lives, educators agree that they must be prepared to address these injustices in their classrooms and within their communities. AACTE continues to lead its members as they respond to these challenges with innovative solutions that support the preparation and retention of the nation's educators, specifically investing in our educators of color.

This qualitative study explores the holistic approaches that seven mentors use to attend to the well-being of new professionals as they transition into the classroom. We define holistic mentoring as practices that intertwine the professional with the personal, and bring together the aesthetic, intellectual, and moral in supporting beginning teachers. We call these practices the ‘poetics of mentoring,’ and used them as analytic lenses to theorise mentors’ unique approaches to working with mentees. Data included individual semi-structured interviews, a focus group interview, and expressive artefacts that mentors created to illustrate their practice holistically.

The Consortium for Research-Based and Equitable Assessments (CREA) at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education has released its first report, The History, Current Use, and Impact of Entrance and Licensure Examinations Cut Scores on the Teacher of Color Pipeline: A Structural Racism Analysis. The CREA project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, engages 14 states in examining their cut score setting process for entrance examinations into teacher preparation programs. The recent report chronicles the history of teacher preparation entrance and exit assessments and their impact on the diversity of candidates pursuing teaching as a profession.

Opportunities in Teacher Licensure and Program Approval

The Handbook of Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers, edited by Conra D. Gist and Travis J. Bristol, addresses one of the major challenges facing the field of education in the United States: the lack of diversity among public school teachers. But our teaching force didn’t always lack diversity. During the era of Jim Crow, segregated schools were staffed primarily by Teachers of Color. Ironically, following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which mandated the desegregation of public school systems, thousands of Black teachers and administrators lost their jobs, displaced by white teachers and administrators (Hudson & Holmes,1994; Madkins, 2011). Nearly 70years later, U.S. public schools remain largely segregated, but the effects of that displacement linger on. Today, the teaching force is mostly white and female, even in large urban districts that enroll few white students (Hussar et al., 2020). 

In partnership with Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity, Center for American Progress, National Black Child Development Institute, Southern Education Foundation, Teach Plus, and UnidosUs, the Learning Policy Institute co-hosted this briefing to discuss the importance of a well-prepared and diverse teacher workforce, the impact of college affordability and student loan debt on creating a diverse teacher workforce, high-quality pathways into the profession, and federal and state policies that support a well-prepared and diverse teacher workforce.

Multiple research studies over the last few years have looked at effective teacher preparation and retention strategies, with a general consensus that there is considerable room for improvement. The teacher residency model offers a way to do better. In the residency model, individuals learning to teach, called residents, typically spend a school year learning in an expert mentor teacher’s classroom while simultaneously completing community-based, practice-oriented, clinically aligned coursework. This approach directly responds to the ongoing challenges of preparing teachers to work in particular contexts, diversifies the teacher workforce, and advances equity in public schooling.

Racial inequities are a persistent reality in K–12 schools in the United States. There is a need for consensus and coordination between principals and teachers if they are to address the harm of racial inequities in education. Yet, despite this need and the interdependence of teachers and principals in schools, their preparation is profoundly distinct.

A Publication of the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance at IES

The report draws upon a subset of or residency programs from NCTR’s network that demonstrate positive outcomes in recruiting teachers of color. The programs were examined to identify the most effective recruiting strategies and three key themes emerged: 1) Residency programs recruited for and from a particular community. 2) The programs all employed culturally responsive strategies to recruit candidates. 3) The programs were designed with intentionality around diversity, equity, and inclusion. 4) These themes represent key components of the residency model, demonstrating that residencies are a unique and effective vehicle in the recruitment of teachers of color.

With significant state investment, teacher residencies are spreading throughout California. These vignettes highlight two California teacher residencies and how they are helping to address shortages and support both students and teachers. These examples also spotlight creative funding strategies that can help California’s investments in teacher residencies become sustainable over time.

This Playbook offers a comprehensive set of strategies that work together to recruit, prepare, develop, and retain high-quality teachers and bring greater racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity to the profession. Read it cover to cover or, depending on your local or state circumstance, explore a single chapter or strategy. Additional resources include examples of legislation; a curated list of publications, by topic, for further reading; a guide to talking about teacher shortages and strengthening the profession; and examples of research-based policies.

This article summarizes the results of an exploratory research project that investigated what demographic trends and changes have, or have not, occurred in the elementary and secondary teaching force in the U.S. over the past three decades, from 1987 to 2018. Our main data source was the Schools and Staffing Survey and its successor, the National Teacher Principal Survey, collectively the largest and most comprehensive source of data on teachers available in the U.S. These surveys are conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Education. The results show that the teaching force has been, and is, greatly changing; yet, even the most dramatic trends appear to have been little noticed or understood by researchers, policy makers, and the public. This article summarizes seven of the most prominent trends and changes that we found. The U.S. teaching force is: larger; older; less experienced; more female; more diverse, by race/ethnicity; consistent in academic ability; unstable. For each of the trends, we explore two broad questions: 1. What are the reasons for and sources of the trend? 2. What are the implications and consequences of the trend?

Supporting aspiring educators during preparation is essential. The field is ready to embrace shifts that will make teacher preparation more uniformly strong, sustainable, and equitably accessible—investments in preparation will make such shifts possible. This report makes the case for a renewed commitment to excellent teacher preparation, made possible by federal investments.

A web-based calculator that residency partnerships can use to estimate costs, explore funding scenarios, and calculate savings.

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How educator-preparation programs and K-12 schools can work together to leverage aspiring teachers as tutors

America is facing a wave of teacher shortages that threatens our ability to deliver on the promise of quality education. Baby boomer retirements and high rates of teacher turnover, coupled with steep drops in enrollment in teacher-preparation programs, have contributed to this growing crisis. Some states, like California, now have shortages in nearly every subject area, affecting students across the state.

The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA), enacted in December 2020, and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), enacted in March 2021, provide states and local educational agencies (LEAs) with $176.3 billion through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER II and ESSER III).

This document provides support for Local Education Agencies (LEAs) who might wish to use their Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER) Funds to develop teacher residency programs. Residencies are explicitly allowable under federal guidance, as they can address both immediate COVID-19 learning opportunity gaps and help districts "build back better" by diversifying the teaching force, reducing turnover, and improving outcomes. The logic model above is part of the new resource that LEAs can use to complete their required ESSER plans.

On January 24, Prepared To Teach hosted a discussion around exciting policy developments in New Mexico and New York that could create significant funding streams for teacher resident stipends. Participants were inspired by what is a promising moment in time in the movement towards universal, high-quality, affordable, teacher residencies in the U.S.

Research advances in neuroscience and the developmental and learning sciences have provided us with important insights about how people learn and develop. The knowledge we now have points to important transformations in teaching practice, which in turn require transformations in educator development in order to support all educators in developing the knowledge, skills, and dispositions associated with developing the whole child. This report synthesizes research on how to support educators in developing those capacities both in preservice and in-service contexts. It addresses both the “what” of teacher and leader preparation—the content educators need to learn about children and how to support their development and learning—and the “how”—the strategies for educator learning that can produce deep understanding; useful skills; and the capacity to reflect, learn, and continue to improve.

A new report by XanEdu and Education Elements identifies key trends, notable findings, and solutions to challenges facing U.S. education leaders

Prepared for the United States Department of Education & the White House

This document was prepared by Prepared To Teach, an initiative out of Bank Street College of Education, as a concept paper to inform policy discussions at the U.S. Department of Education. The ideas here are the culmination of six years of work exclusively dedicated to exploring how teacher preparation in the United States—a loosely coupled system, at best—might be universally transformed so that every student has equitable access to the opportunity to learn from a teacher who is a qualified professional, the definition of which is operationalized here as someone who has received high-quality preparation through a teacher residency. The document is informed by research on teacher preparation and its impacts, aspiring teachers’ financial burdens, economic models of other clinical practice professions, shifts across other fields that have created stronger professions, and work with districts and programs across the nation to explore the feasibility of engaging the efforts that will be needed to transform systems.

As I sit at my grandmother’s oval-shaped wooden table, I feel a warm summer breeze through the open window. I ask her again how to pronounce iciyapi.

“Ee-chee-yah-pee,” she says in a slightly slower, but confident tone. I repeat the syllables in a much slower and deliberate voice. “Ee...chee...yah..pee.”

This is the first of three blogs exploring the state of teacher shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic and evidence-based solutions for addressing immediate need and building a strong and diverse teaching workforce. This post is part of the blog series, Solving Teacher Shortages.

What if we don’t have a teacher shortage, but instead, a shortage of people who want to teach?

This report delves into a 2019-2020 survey that Prepared To Teach conducted at twelve institutions across seven states and explores aspiring teachers’ financial burdens with a specific focus on the link between said burdens and the desire for strong teacher preparation programs that include clinical practice. Learn about the many daily anxieties that aspiring teachers face, the difficult choices they are often forced to make in order to pursue their passion for teaching, and the impact this has on the quality and diversity of teacher candidates. Finally, find out why the future of the teaching profession depends on improving access to quality preparation programs by ensuring that aspiring teachers are supported financially in their journey to becoming the best-prepared educators they can be.

The second-grade team at Copper Trails School in Goodyear, Arizona, comprises one lead teacher, one certified teacher, and three teacher candidates. Together, they support 75 students total across two learning spaces. In this resource, you’ll find out how they’re taking a team approach to supporting students.