A growing body of research shows that having access to teachers of color benefits all students--and can be particularly transformative for students of color. Yet, only 20% of teachers in the U.S. are teachers of color. Moreover, the lack of diversity of the teacher workforce relative to the student population is one of the key drivers of inequity…

There have been many drastic changes in higher education in recent years. State funding has decreased, leaving schools responsible for their own revenue growth and for balancing their budgets. Colleges and universities are closing departments and are no longer offering majors that are producing few or no graduates. Small colleges are closing, and…

For the last 10 years, the California Department of Education has reported that female teachers in California outnumbered male teachers two to one. The imbalance in teacher gender is a problem that affects elementary-age students and teaching staffs because the educated and caring male teachers who could be role models are largely absent from…

Early childhood education programs in California have a crucial role to play in preparing dual language learners to enter kindergarten with the skills they need to succeed in school and beyond. The reason is simple: there are more dual language learners under the age of 5 in early childhood education programs in California than anywhere else in…

Recruiting and retaining talented individuals into the teaching workforce, especially in schools in underserved urban and rural communities, is challenging when college graduates face more lucrative professional alternatives and often carry significant student debt. Two promising approaches to attracting and keeping teachers in the profession are…

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of 30 university-prepared math and science teachers from their pre-service program into their teaching positions to better understand the conditions that attract and retain them in high-need schools. The paper uses the framework of job preview and information-rich hiring to highlight the influence of the…

This paper reports results from a resume-based field experiment designed to examine employer preferences for job applicants who attended for-profit colleges. For-profit colleges have seen sharp increases in enrollment in recent years despite alternatives such as public community colleges being much cheaper. We sent almost 9,000 fictitious resumes…

After many years of teacher layoffs, a change is underway in California: With new money in the system, districts are hiring again, and they cannot find enough qualified teachers to fill their vacancies. Shortages in many fields and locations across the state have been provoked by a steep decline in candidates preparing to teach, coupled with an…

The United States Science, Technology, and Engineering and Math (STEM) workforce is vital to this country's economic development interests, and its ability to compete effectively in the global market. One of the greatest challenges facing that industry in the US is the current and projected shortage of engineers serving the STEM industry.…

Students who are newcomers to the United States -- as English Learners (ELs) -- face barriers to learning, and their academic success often lags behind their native-English-speaking peers. Notably, there is paucity in the literature about Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) high school student newcomers' academic challenges as ELs and the…

This is a descriptive, exploratory, qualitative, collective case study that explores the pedagogical practices of science teachers who do not hold natural science degrees. The intent of this study is to support the creation of alternative pathways for recruiting and retaining high-quality secondary science teachers in K-12 education. The…

Over the last decade, California leaders have made tremendous progress on supporting kids in some crucial areas. They have vastly increased the percentage of children enrolled in health insurance and made paid family leave available for most workers. They have also invested in free school meals, committed to universal transitional kindergarten,…

In this report, the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (Chancellor's Office) presents its findings, evaluations and analysis of the success and efficacy of the face-to-face community college programs that are being offered to incarcerated students inside California state prisons. The report also discusses barriers and challenges…

In this policy brief, Heather Hough and Susanna Loeb examine the effect of the Quality Teacher and Education Act of 2008 (QTEA) on teacher recruitment, retention, and overall teacher quality in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). They provide evidence that a salary increase can improve a school district's attractiveness within their…

In Spring 1995, as the chancellor positions at Chabot-Las Positas, Contra Costa, Foothill-DeAnza, Los Rios and San Francisco Community College Districts were either vacant or about to be vacated, the leadership of the Chief Executive Officers of the California Community Colleges (CEOCCC) noted that many CEO positions in the California system had…