The academic achievement of Black boys in the U.S. has been declining, and Black male mentorship can positively change these outcomes. Schools have tried many interventions to help Black boys receive the academic, social, and emotional support they need to close the performance gap. Some case studies have proven that Black male mentorship works.…

Violet Jiménez Sims, Kerry Lord, Marlene Megos, and Ushawnda Mitchell describe a new approach to addressing the gap between the racial diversity of teachers and students in U.S. public schools. The Connecticut Teacher Residency program (CT-TRP) is a grow-your-own approach to teacher training, certification, and retention that combines an academic…

Racially and ethnically minoritized students are now the majority in U.S. public schools. This demographic change, along with heightened attention to racial injustice and evidence regarding the importance of Black teachers, has renewed a decades-old push to increase their numbers. Redesigning teacher education and development to support the…

Traditional teacher education and alternative teacher preparation programs struggle to recruit and retain prospective and early-career educators of color. To address this challenge, Jalene Tamerat and Clifford Lee recount their experiences as teachers and teacher educators-of color. They propose a reframing of pedagogies, curricula, and…

The specific needs of rural schools and communities have received limited attention from state policy makers, and many state programs have only added to the challenges that school districts in rural areas face. Michigan State University researchers surveyed and interviewed rural superintendents in Michigan to learn more about their situations.…

Amid already critical teacher shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many teachers to leave the profession, but we know little about how it may affect teacher recruitment. Kayla Bill, Amanda Bowsher, Betty Malen, Jennifer King Rice, and Jason Saltmarsh conducted a survey and focus groups to explore how COVID-19 has influenced…

Two decades ago, at a time when much of the country faced looming teacher shortages, a number of states invested in comprehensive strategies for strengthening the teaching profession. For example, and drawing upon recommendations from the National Commission on Teaching & America's Future, both California and North Carolina built statewide…

Teachers in Japan earn tenure on their first day of employment--not after two years of experience based on evaluations of teaching performance or student test scores. This is almost too good to be true. If tenure is so easy to attain, how do the Japanese make sure their teachers, especially novice teachers hired with little teaching experience,…

Teacher educators have not been sitting quietly by the side as others have demanded changes in teacher preparation programs. Across the nation, scores of efforts are underway to recruit, train, induct, and retain a highly skilled class of professionals for American schools. The stories presented in this article cover just a fraction of the…

This research examines national data on the status of the minority teacher shortage--the low proportion of minority teachers in comparison to the increasing numbers of students of color in schools. The authors show that efforts over recent decades to recruit more minority teachers, and place them in disadvantaged schools, have been very…

Research on teacher quality is not definitive. But, we know that developing high-quality teachers requires a multipronged approach: We need to recruit promising teachers. We need to retain and reward effective early career teachers. We need mechanisms to dismiss those who don't improve. We need to focus teacher preparation on the foundations of…

The authors present six strategies that constitute a comprehensive approach appropriate for federal teacher policy. These strategies are designed to reform policy in accountability, teacher recruitment, teacher education and development, teacher qualifications, pay incentives, and policy management.

Virtual bug-in-the-ear technology presents one tool that allows practitioners and university educators to use to attract, prepare, and retain high-quality teachers. The experience of Project TEEACH--which stands for Transforming Elementary Educators into Advocates, Change Agents, and Highly Qualified Special Educators--based at the University of…

In early 1999, when it was formally launched, the Massachusetts Signing Bonus Program (MSBP) for New Teachers attracted nationwide attention. The Bonus Program's efforts were greeted with acclaim and its favorable attention continued into the second year. When problems began to appear in 2001, however, only local eyes were watching. No national…

For decades, the supply of qualified special educators has been critically low. In 1983, the shortage of special educators was highlighted in "A Nation at Risk," and the situation remains much the same 25 years later. The most recently available data indicate that just 0.86 teachers were prepared for each available position in special…