Grow Your Own (GYO) teacher programs help address teacher shortages, retention issues and teacher diversity by engaging in a variety of strategies that aim to recruit teachers from local communities in hopes that the pool of candidates will increase in diversity and will be more likely to stay teaching in the community. This is a summary of a literature review that provides an overview of the research on GYO educator programs as a potential strategy for states and district to employ to help recruit and retain teachers of color. It emphasizes equitable approaches and critical perspectives that combine the powerful roles of "homegrown" teachers, culturally-relevant curriculum, and social justice pedagogy in addressing the achievement and opportunity gaps, especially for the nation's woefully underserved, largely urban schools serving students of color (e.g., Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain, 2005; Sanders & Rivers, 1996). A growing body of scholarship underscores the value of recruiting people from communities that could successfully transition as teachers to the very communities from which they emanate (Fenwick, 2001; Gist, Bianco, & Lynn, in press; Skinner, Garreton, & Schultz, 2011; Valenzuela, 2016). [For "Grow Your Own Educator Programs: A Review of the Literature with an Emphasis on Equity-Based Approaches. Literature Review," see ED582731.]