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…

Teacher education students are more likely to be White than general bachelor's degree-seeking students across the nation (King, 2019), even as K-12 student populations are becoming more racially diverse (USDOE, 2022; DRIVE Taskforce, 2021). Colleges of education are contributing to the reproduction of a predominantly White teacher workforce. In…

The Minority Male Success Initiative (MMSI) serves as a system-wide grant opportunity from the North Carolina Community College system aimed at improving success outcomes for male students of color (North Carolina Community Colleges, n.d.). This study explored and examined the experiences of men of color who participated in MMSI programming and…

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,…

Early College High Schools (ECHS) partner with post-secondary institutions to award students, specifically those from historically marginalized groups, with significant transferrable college credit--tuition free--along with a high school diploma. Utilizing the frameworks of counterspace and counterstory, this study aimed to understand the…

Background: In response to the effort to increase minority enrollment in college science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, STEM summer bridge programs were created to help minorities with the transition from high school to college with the long-term goal of increasing the diversity of professionals in STEM. The goal of this…

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…

This qualitative study described the lived experiences of 17 educators. These educators were 10 teachers and 7 principals. The study was conducted using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology to explore the lived experiences of teachers and principals. The population included those teachers and principals with 5 or more…

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…

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…

As the entry point into higher education for over half of the bachelor's degree earners, (Trapani & Hale, 2019), community colleges are positioned to have a positive impact of bringing a more diverse student group into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors. However, the vertical transfer function from community…

Background: Recent empirical work shows that student teaching in a high-quality learning environment and with a highly effective cooperating teacher predicts the performance and retention of early-career teachers. Little is known about principal internships and their impacts on school leader outcomes. Purpose: To examine the characteristics of…

The purpose of this article is to provide a blueprint to conduct equity case studies in rural community colleges. Informed by our field work experiences applying case study design and equity-minded frameworks, this blueprint involves four distinct steps: (1) identifying rural community colleges in North Carolina; (2) operationalizing equity in…

Using 7 years of administrative data from North Carolina public schools (NCPS), we track changes in teacher and principal attrition and mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic and assess how attrition is related to characteristics of educators and schools. We find that educator attrition and mobility increased sharply between Fall 2020 and Fall…

Climate change's health effects are most strongly felt in Environmental Justice (EJ) communities which are predominantly people of color. This results in a disproportionate burden of climate change health effects on EJ communities. Climate change is a public health crisis, and more importantly to pediatricians -- it is a pediatric public health…