Staffing shortages are straining school communities around the country, even as new variants of COVID-19 make the pathway forward uncertain.

Schools can use federal funds to create long-term solutions to staffing shortages and create a more diverse workforce that reflects the communities they serve. Key steps:

  • Build partnerships with local community colleges and four-year colleges and universities
  • Pay teachers-to-be during their training year in the classroom
  • Consider student loan forgiveness
  • Create incentives for support staff, including tutors and aides, to become fully credentialed teachers

These are challenging times for education leaders everywhere. But amid the hardships and turmoil associated with the pandemic is a chance to make real progress toward achieving a long-standing goal for public education: building an educator workforce that better reflects the diversity of the students schools serve.

Using new funding resources and an opportunity to “reset” school priorities, educators are finding creative, ambitious ways to hire more teachers and other school staff who reflect the communities they serve. That means hiring, supporting, and retaining more teachers and staff of color, whose lived experiences mirror those of the students and families they serve.

The K-12 student population is more racially diverse than ever before, with Latino students comprising almost 25% of the student population (up from 18% a decade ago) and Black students making up 15%. Asian students represent 6%, and white students 59%, according to U.S. Department of Education data. Some states are even more diverse. In California, for example, non-white students represent well over 75% of the K-12 student enrollment.

But teachers in every state remain overwhelmingly white, according to a 2020 survey by the U.S. Department of Education. Nearly 80% of public school teachers are white, fewer than 7% of teachers are Black, and just 2% are Black men. This indicates that representation is often not considered in the design of school systems.

But research shows that representation is important as the increased exposure to educators of color correlates directly with students’ ability to visualize and manifest themselves into higher career opportunities. According to the Brookings Institute, Black and brown students scored higher on standardized tests, had higher attendance rates and were less likely to be suspended when they had at least one teacher who matched their race.

Investing in educators of color allows us as a sector (both charter and public, and private) to consider the natural deposit of development and sustainability for the families we serve. Using funds from the Every Student Succeeds Act and American Rescue Plan, schools are now in a unique position to bolster the diversity of their workforces and invest in long-term staffing solutions.

Read the full article about teacher diversity by Erin Mote, Kate Cochran, Chuck Jones, and Eric Tucker at Getting Smart.