Special Issue of NASBE’s Standard Explores State Strategies to Recruit and Retain a Student-Focused Educator Workforce

Alexandria, VA—State education leaders have long prioritized efforts to recruit and retain effective teachers. Yet persistent challenges, including high turnover rates and teacher shortages in key subject areas, continue to strain the educator workforce.

Research on teacher effectiveness shows that students benefit academically and socially when taught by teachers who share their racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. Additionally, when teachers reflect a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences, all students benefit. Yet nationally and in many states, educator demographics remain widely mismatched with student populations.

A new special issue of the State Education Standard, published by the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), explores how four states—California, Colorado, New York, and Texas—are working to broaden, strengthen, and sustain their educator pipelines.

For this issue, guest editors Dr. Conra Gist of the University of Houston College of Education and Dr. Travis Bristol of the University of California–Berkeley School of Education convened multidisciplinary state teams tasked with examining local educator data and contexts and developing research-based policy recommendations shaped by stakeholder input.

Across the four case studies, common themes emerge: the need to alleviate financial burdens on prospective teachers, expansion of teacher residencies and grow-your-own programs, and creation of supportive environments that foster teacher retention.

In California, where the educator workforce remains predominantly White, the authors highlight state investments in programs that support educator diversity and incentivize National Board Certification, teacher residencies, and grow-your-own initiatives, especially in high-need teaching areas. Still, they call on the state to adopt a unified shared vision that bolsters educator recruitment and diversification.

Authors of the New York and Colorado articles underscore the critical link between recruitment and retention in strengthening the educator workforce. They highlight promising programs like New York’s Take a Look at Teaching project and Colorado’s Teacher Degree Apprenticeship Program and mentorship grants that expand pathways into the profession and promote teacher advancement. Still, both teams emphasize the need for policies that promote more supportive school climates, growth opportunities, and economic incentives to address recruitment and retention hurdles.

In Texas, which has the largest teaching workforce in the country and nearly one-fifth of all teacher candidates, shortages of qualified, diverse, and multilingual educators persist. Authors recommend investing more into paid teacher residencies, strengthening clinical preparation and expanding locally relevant pathways, particularly for paraprofessionals and transfer candidates.

Rounding out the issue is an opinion piece by the Hunt Institute’s Jarvis Lundy, who argues that expanding workforce diversity is not just about recruitment—it requires reimagining systems.

“Our hope is that each state, as it seeks to improve its teacher pipelines and develop the talent it has and needs, is inspired by at least one of the states featured in this special issue,” says NASBE President and CEO Paolo DeMaria.

“There is not one set of policies that will guarantee equal opportunity in educator development systems in all states,” Gist and Bristol write. But every state is striving toward the same end: ensuring that all students have access to high-quality, representative educators.

Read the special issue of NASBE’s Standard, The Educators Students Deserve: Four State Policy Approaches.

NASBE serves as the only membership organization for state boards of education. A nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, NASBE elevates state board members’ voices in national and state policymaking, facilitates the exchange of informed ideas, and supports members in advancing equity and excellence in public education for students of all races, genders, and circumstances. Learn more at www.nasbe.org.

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