Join “An Effective Workforce Is a Diverse Workforce: Integrating Educator Shortages and Workforce Diversity Efforts” Webinar on Wednesday, September 6, 2023 from 4:00-5:00 pm ET.

The educator workforce faces two critical challenges: teacher shortages and the need for ethnoracial diversity among educators. Although not new—but certainly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic—these related challenges are frequently covered in the news, prioritized in strategic plans at the district and state levels, and debated by researchers. Workforce data illustrate that educator shortages and the lack of ethnoracial diversity disproportionately affect some schools, and in turn, some students, especially Black students. Strategic efforts are needed to ameliorate educator shortages at specific schools and in specific academic subjects. Shortages and ethnoracial diversity are sometimes addressed separately or as part of many related themes. However, an integrated approach—in which both are addressed in tandem—offers the strongest payoff. This webinar and our upcoming papers focus on three critical realities in education:

• Teacher shortages disproportionately affect students who are racially marginalized and minoritized.
• Racial disparity in the educator workforce is a result of systemic racism in public education.
• Teachers who are racially marginalized and minoritized are critical to addressing the needs of today’s classrooms.