There is a shortage of effective and diverse teachers at high poverty, high minority, and rural schools in one Midwestern state. The purpose of this problem-based learning investigation was to identify strategies, policies, and procedures used by Human Resource departments of school districts in the state to recruit, hire, and retain effective and diverse teachers. The goal was to identify best practices that can be implemented by every district to ensure their students have access to effective and diverse teachers. Research began with a review of relevant literature that led to the development of five guiding questions. To answer the guiding questions a survey including both quantitative and open-ended qualitative questions was developed. The survey was validated by a panel of experts and their suggestions and recommendations were incorporated to improve the survey. A link to the survey in Qualtrics was emailed to a list of all superintendents of the state's school districts provided by the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. For the quantitative questions an ANOVA was run to analyze the variance of responses between rural, suburban, and urban school districts. For the qualitative questions the data was sorted into groups by color coding and recurring themes were identified.The first finding from the investigation was a lack of overall applications for open teacher positions. Based on the survey results and review of literature every school district in the state, especially rural and suburban districts should implement Grow Your Own Programs to increase the number of applications to open teacher positions. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education should also support alternative routes to obtain educator certification to attract candidates from various industries into education. The investigation also found it is difficult to retain effective teachers, especially in rural and suburban districts. School districts should increase overall compensation packages and incentives for teachers, along with providing leadership opportunities that highlight their expertise. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]