Reviews the reasons for increasing the diversity of the teaching force, especially in urban schools. Introduces the articles of this special issue, which address the roles of federal, state, and local governments in increasing teacher diversity, discuss successful programs for increasing diversity, and describe the experiences and perspectives of…

Reviews the teacher shortage in urban schools nationally and describes the paraprofessional/emergency certified teachers provisions of the Pathways to Teaching Careers Program and the sites in which it has been implemented. An evaluation has indicated that paraprofessionals and emergency certified teachers working in urban schools are an excellent…

Reports evaluation data from the Pathways to Teaching Careers Program, which focuses on recruiting more diverse and older teaching paraprofessionals, uncertified/emergency certified teachers, and returned Peace Corps volunteers. Multiyear evaluation indicates that Pathways has exceeded its recruitment goals and graduated early cohorts of…

This handbook is a guide to the design of new teacher recruitment programs. It is intended to help new programs make the best possible start in duplicating the success of the Pathways program, which seeks to recruit from three nontraditional pools: paraprofessionals, uncertified teachers, and returned Peace Corps volunteers. Pathways involves:…