Research has shown that while the number of school-age children has steadily increased over time, the number of qualified teachers available to educate them has not matched this need. This topical brief shows the percentage of public schools across the nation with teaching vacancies and summarizes strategies implemented in Region 5 Comprehensive…

The United States faces a critical teacher shortage across general education and fields such as special education, mathematics, and natural sciences, particularly in underserved areas. This shortage is intensified by high teacher attrition rates, which negatively impact student performance and educational outcomes. In Louisiana, teacher attrition…

Louisiana State University (LSU) received an Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant to implement its Introduction to Computational Thinking (ICT) course from fall 2019 through spring 2023. ICT is a yearlong course that builds skills in problem solving, programming, and mathematics (algebra and geometry) and is intended to improve…

Teacher shortages continue to be a challenge for state policymakers, and while national media coverage paints a picture of widespread shortages, a closer examination reveals that shortages tend to be concentrated in specific subjects and schools. The primary policy response to shortages is often to recruit more teachers, but research demonstrates…

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.…

Higher enrollments mean more funding for higher education, as the new model for funding rests on tuition rather than state funding. This paper describes a format for bringing relatively small groups of high school students to campus for an educational workshop, which also serves as a recruiting event. Connecting high school students with college…

Background/Context: School districts across the United States face persistent difficulties recruiting and retaining teachers (García & Weiss, 2019; Schmitt & deCourcy, 2022). Over the last decade, every state in the south has faced a growing teacher shortage, with some facing shortages in all grades and subjects (U.S. Department of…

This special report looks at how arts-based charter schools in the District of Columbia, Louisiana, Maryland and North Carolina provide access to arts education and integrate the arts schoolwide across curricula, community engagement and teacher professional development.

To best train and support school leaders in their evolving roles, they require high-quality preparation and in-service pipelines that both address the changing demands on their positions and acknowledge the cascading effects that well-prepared leaders have on both student outcomes and in school culture and retention. Including school leaders in…

Community college enrollment has significantly declined since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between the spring 2020 term and the spring 2022 term, community college enrollment declined by nearly 17 percent nationwide. This alarming trend has posed a threat to the well-being of community colleges and the students they serve, which includes…

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…

This paper presents findings from a yearlong exploratory mixed-methods research study that investigates a national sample of six (6) intentionally diverse charter organizations. Intentionally diverse charter schools work against national public schooling trends to deliberately promote socioeconomically and racially integrated schooling spaces.…

Research finds that a challenging academic curriculum is one of the most powerful levers to boost student learning and narrow achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students. This fact sheet examines Louisiana's approach to increasing rigor in the K-12 curriculum. It includes a series of questions state and district leaders can use…

Career Technical Education (CTE) teacher recruitment is a challenge that has dogged state CTE leaders for decades. According to a recent survey of State CTE Directors, 98 percent said that increasing access to industry experts is a high priority in their state. And 20.4 percent of rural districts with CTE teacher vacancies report that CTE…

This article chronicles the mass firing of veteran teachers in New Orleans, most of them African American, following Hurricane Katrina. The role of Teach for America in providing inexperienced White teacher recruits from outside the community is critiqued. Countering the ahistorical discourse that blames Black veteran teachers for the shortcomings…