Attracting, supporting, and retaining special education teachers of color (SETOCs) is critical in shaping a diverse special education teacher workforce in the United States. However, efforts to diversify this workforce are fraught with challenges at the federal, state, and local levels. This paper reviews what is currently known about efforts to…

Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers are underrepresented in public schools across the United States of America, with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color making up roughly 37% of the adult population and 50% of children, but just 19% of the teaching force. Yet research over decades has indicated their positive impact on student learning…

In an era of teacher shortages, what would motivate individuals to become teachers when the demands on teachers are greater than ever and there are plenty of alternative occupations from which to choose? This paper presents the findings of a study of student teachers' motivations to be primary teachers and their commitment to teaching after their…

When it comes to teacher preparation, the support provided to new teachers, and ongoing professional development for working teachers, Grades K-12 and the field of early care and education (ECE) are two very different worlds. While both worlds assume that teachers' classroom skills and behavior can be influenced at multiple points in time (through…

This is the second in a series of three reports about the research on teaching quality that the Education Commission of the States (ECS) is producing through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE). The focus of this report is on teacher recruitment and retention. This report is intended to…

Projected teacher shortages are due to an expanding need and teachers leaving the profession. With the extreme pressures on beginning teachers, a large percentage of them leave the profession within their first 5-6 years. Causes for leaving the profession include school staffing actions; personal reasons; pursuing another job; and dissatisfaction.…