Over the past year, the California Department Education (CDE) took two critical steps to recruit, support, and retain teachers of color. First, in 2020, to address the state’s teacher–student ethnoracial mismatch, Assemblymember Mike Gipson and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond co-sponsored Assembly Bill (AB) 520. One goal of AB 520 was to provide additional state resources aimed at recruiting, supporting, and retaining teachers of color. The intent of AB 520 was to establish the California Diversifying Teacher Grant Program, which would have included awarding one-time competitive grants, totaling $15 million, to school districts, county offices of education, and/or charter schools that develop and implement new (or expand existing) research-based programs that address local efforts to advance the teacher workforce while emphasizing the retention of male teachers of color. These efforts include strategies for recruiting and retaining teachers of color, specifically by establishing or advancing support programs, and providing outreach and communication approaches.
The second step taken by the CDE and State Superintendent Tony Thurmond to recruit, support, and retain teachers of color was to establish the CDE Educator Diversity Advisory Group. The purpose and charge of the CDE Educator Diversity Advisory Group is to provide recommendations to State Superintendent Tony Thurmond on how the CDE can recruit, support, and retain teachers of color across California. Members of the Educator Diversity Advisory Group responded to State Superintendent Thurmond’s charge by developing a bottom-up approach to policymaking. Specifically, members of the advisory group held four virtual convenings with practitioners across California. The purpose of these virtual convenings was to document how practitioners were supporting and retaining an ethnoracially diverse educator workforce, the barriers they have faced in deepening the educator diversity workforce, and their recommendations to the CDE on policy levers aimed at bolstering teacher diversity efforts.
Below are the five primary recommendations made by the CDE Educator Diversity Advisory Group.
- Create communities of practice for county offices of education and for local school districts to build their capacity to recruit, support, and retain teachers of color
- Maintain sustainable funding, measure outcomes for teacher diversity, and identify focal support factors at the state, county, and district levels
- Provide guidance and accountability for LEAs so grant funds support the development of foundational equity-based processes/practices
- Promote deeper partnerships and collaboration among local education agencies (LEAs), institutes of higher education (IHEs), and community-based organizations (CBOs) to build institutional pathways for candidates of color
- Develop a public awareness campaign that highlights how Proposition 209 constrains educator diversity efforts and continue to co-sponsor educator diversity legislation