REBROADCAST: Staying the Course: Strategies for Sustaining and Retaining a Diverse Teacher Workforce

Supported by William Penn Foundation

This session marked the third installment of our special four-part series, The Teacher Pipeline: Creating Enduring Pathways Into Teaching. Supported by the William Penn Foundation, this series is rooted in the belief that professionalizing and strengthening the educator workforce is a “big bet” for disrupting generational cycles of poverty. As moderator Evan Stone of E4E noted in his opening framing, “We are losing teachers as fast as we are bringing them and if we can’t build the sustaining supportive school environments to retain them, we won’t change that.”

The conversation began by addressing the critical first five years of a teacher’s career. Andrea Terrero Gabbadon, Ph.D., of Teach Plus PA emphasized the need to scaffold support across the career cycle, moving from identity building in early years to professional autonomy for veterans. She shared, “When teachers, particularly educators of color, are empowered, are well resourced to do their work, [are] trusted, and feel ownership over their professional experiences, they stay.” Building on this, Kendall King of Public Impact discussed how Opportunity Culture models provide the leadership rungs necessary for high-impact teachers to expand their reach and impact while remaining in the classroom.

Shifting to the essential enabling conditions for retention, the panel explored how school culture must move beyond seeing retention in a human resources (HR) silo. Sharaé Curd of Teach Plus PA argued, “If retention lives just in HR, it doesn’t shift culture. Retention efforts have to be collaboration among human resources, professional learning operations, truly a cross functional effort.” Rashidah Lopez Morgan of Education First connected this cultural shift back to teacher preparation, noting that “the data is very clear that teachers who enter the classroom without a solid foundation of preparation are more likely to walk away from the profession entirely.” She identified the principal as the “connective tissue” between these strategic staffing models and actual teacher well-being.

The dialogue concluded with a deep dive into the intersection of policy, practice, and pay. Eric Duncan, J.D., of EdTrust highlighted the systemic nature of the challenge, stating, “Educators of color want to see that their district, their state, is investing in them and investing in the shortage areas that we see in educators of color.” To bridge these gaps, King challenged communities to look closely at existing barriers: “I would encourage you all to think about is what is truly policy and a no-go and what is something that actually we could work around.”

See the three additional sessions in this series: March, April, and June