Teachers are the most important school-related factor impacting students' academic outcomes. To meet the needs and potential of all students, North Carolina must be able to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. North Carolina continues to experience challenges with vacancies and positions filled with teachers who are not fully certified in…

Collaboration among teachers is an important vehicle for teacher development, shared leadership, improving student achievement, building school culture, and attracting and retaining effective teachers. However, if professional collaborative environments are not truly diverse and inclusive or marginalize individual teachers or groups of teachers…

American students are far more diverse than their teachers. Some 79 percent of U.S. teachers are white compared to 44 percent of students. As a result, students of color are far less likely to have a same-race teacher than are white students, a phenomenon that has attracted the attention of philanthropists and policymakers alike. Foundations have…

Nationwide, Latinx students access dual enrollment (completing college coursework while still enrolled in high school) at lower rates than their white peers. Research on dual enrollment programs is limited and what does exist does not account for rural Latinx students' experiences. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to…

Public schools are the cornerstone of this nation's communities, democracy, and economy. The challenges and deep inequities facing schools today are largely the result of decades of disinvestment, compounded by a global pandemic. All of this has led to a breaking point for the system of public education. In 2023, lawmakers and stakeholders are…

In October 2022, the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) dashboard reported 5,266 full-time White faculty and 714 Black faculty. Only 10% of full-time curriculum instructors were Black, whereas 82% were White (Admin, 2019). Since Black faculty are underrepresented, their voices are often unheard. This qualitative research described the…

Community colleges hold a central piece in law enforcement training. Their curricula often based on mandates from state law enforcement boards. They had been gradually increasing their focus of these training programs on issues related to diversity, equity and racial profiling. This spotlight has led to changes (or potential changes) in areas like…

While the majority of U.S students are children of color, only 20% of teachers are people of color. What's more, 40% of the nation's public schools do not have a single teacher of color on record. Research shows that all students, regardless of race or ethnicity, benefit socially, emotionally, and academically from a diverse teacher workforce.…

To enhance teachers' preparedness to support the growing number of multilingual learners, teacher educators need to engage inservice teachers working across K-12 settings in continued professional learning. In this study, we described a teacher education program designed for inservice teachers who were from diverse backgrounds and worked in a…

Teacher diversity is beneficial for all students, but especially students of color. The evidence is clear that having a teacher that matches students' racial identity increases reading and math scores, reduces the use of exclusionary discipline practices, and increases the likelihood of graduating high school and matriculating into a postsecondary…

Over half of U.S. public school students are children and teens of color, yet only about 8 percent of their teachers and administrators are people of color. Convinced that teacher and leader diversity is an essential component of an equitable education for all students, state boards of education have adopted a variety of strategies to attract,…

Salaries are one of the most powerful policy levers states and school districts can use to attract qualified, effective, and diverse teachers. What role do states play in supporting strategic use of salaries? This report examines the state teacher compensation policies that influence districts' potential strategic use of teacher pay. It analyzes…

What's the likelihood that a student of color will have the opportunity to learn from a teacher of color? Currently, teachers of color make up approximately 18% of the United States' total teaching force. Students of color make up 54% of the total student population. Racial parity is part and parcel of a greater commitment to equity--equitable…

A diverse teacher workforce has the potential to improve outcomes for all students, and especially for students of color. North Carolina has recognized the importance of increasing diversity in the workforce and despite national and local efforts from school districts and policy makers, the teaching workforce has remained largely white and female,…

Research says that teacher diversity benefits all students, regardless of race or Ethnicity. However, while the majority of students in the U.S. are of color, only about 20% of teachers are of color. Increasing the racial and cultural diversity of the teacher workforce takes a statewide commitment to collecting and analyzing educator workforce…