At the start of the 2023/2024 school year, a staggering 86 percent of K-12 public schools in the United States had difficulty hiring educators. Educators weren't applying for vacant positions--and many candidates who did apply lacked the right qualifications. To compound the issue, the current educator workforce in many states does not reflect the student population's racial, ethnic, and gender diversity. Take Colorado, for example. While 84 percent of educators identified as White in the 2023/24 school year, half of all K-12 students identified as students of color. This disproportionality is concerning because students tend to perform better when exposed to educators who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Colorado is making strides toward improving educator recruitment and retention, particularly for educators of color. A 2022 report from the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and Colorado Department of Higher Education's (CDHE) Diversifying the Educator Workforce Workgroup outlined a range of innovative strategies meant to diversify the state's educator workforce. Among these strategies is Educators Matter, a cornerstone of the CDE's 2017-24 strategic plan. Educators Matter aims to create high-quality educator preparation programs, establish a robust pipeline of teachers and principals, and deepen supports for principals to boost retention rates. Stipends and other financial opportunities have also been offered by CDE and CDHE to support aspiring and practicing educators.
REL Central's Teacher Diversity in Colorado partnership, which includes representatives from CDE and CDHE, has been working together to build a more diverse educator workforce across the state. Working with REL Central, the partnership has developed a range of resources and supports, from webinars to collaborative data collection activities, to help the state, human resources staff, and district and school leaders better understand factors affecting educator recruitment and retention.
The first webinar in a two-part series hosted by the REL Central partnership described research related to educator workforce diversity and shared some of Colorado's initiatives in more detail. Geared toward human resources staff, the webinar also gave information on educator diversity trends, the benefits of a diverse educator workforce, and research-based policies and practices that help recruit, prepare, and retain educators of color.
"One of the things we know about a grow-your-own program is that people are wedded to the communities; they want to be able to give back."
- Rosanne Fulton, University of Northern Colorado
In addition, representatives from two educator preparation programs shared what they're doing to increase educator diversity. The University of Northern Colorado's Center for Urban Education, for example, is leading a grow-your-own educator preparation program in the Denver metropolitan area. Program participants, primarily paraprofessionals, work in schools in the morning and then take classes in the afternoon, evening, and weekend. The university recruits persons of color to serve as faculty members and mentors, uses culturally responsive teaching strategies, and provides wraparound support for students as they get field-based experience.
A second webinar featured educators of color, both novice educators and educators with decades of experience, who recounted their paths into the profession, shared their unique experiences within it, and articulated the factors that influence their decision to stay in or leave teaching. Webinar participants were encouraged to reflect on the presenters' experiences and consider what they can do in their systems to elevate the voices of educators of color and improve preparation, recruitment, and retention.
To hear from even more educators, REL Central partnered with CDE and CDHE to develop a statewide survey about the factors related to educators' decisions to stay in, move from, or leave a position and the profession. The partnership took what it learned from these two webinars, 
including existing research, and developed a focus group protocol to understand educators' perspectives on factors related to recruitment and retention. The partnership and REL Central co-hosted six focus groups with educators from across the state: three with educators of color and three with White educators. Effective leadership, collaboration with peers, and mitigating feelings of isolation all emerged as topics that influence educators' decisions to stay, move, or leave. We used this information in combination with existing research to expand the existing statewide Teacher Recruitment and Retention survey. REL Central, CDE, and CDHE co-conducted cognitive interviews, in which educators describe aloud what they are thinking as they read and respond to survey items, with a sample of volunteer educators from the state, to ensure the survey questions were the right questions to ask, were easy to understand, and could provide valuable insight. The final survey includes six primary categories related to recruiting and retaining educators, particularly educators of color:
- 1. Preparation and Pathways: Why and how educators entered the profession, including their motivators, preservice pathways, and experiences.
- 2. Effective Leadership: Trust in, respect for, and feelings of support from both school- and district-level administration.
- 3. Faculty Network: Collaboration, mentorship, relationships, and general factors that prevent a sense of isolation among coworkers in a school setting.
- 4. Community Connections: Opportunities to engage in community partnerships and promote positive family engagement.
- 5. Respect for the Profession: Societal expectations and protection of educator professionalism (e.g., time, autonomy, resources, or treatment).
- 6. Retention: Educators' satisfaction and plans to continue teaching.
The survey was administered for the first time in January/February 2024, and CDE and CDHE expects it will be administered to all educators across the state every other year as part of the statewide Teacher and Learning Conditions Colorado Survey. REL Central prepared guidance to help its Colorado partners analyze the results and be able to describe the findings, including disaggregating findings by race and ethnicity according to each of the six primary categories. Analyses will generate the state's first findings based on large-scale educator retention perception data for individual racial and ethnic groups. The state plans to use what it learns to help schools and districts as they work to recruit and retain more educators of color, assess the efficacy of current educator workforce programs, and create more equitable and inclusive pipelines into the profession. Results were released in July 2024 and can be found here or as a PDF.
We want to hear from you! If you have ideas about how to improve the retention of educators of color or would like to share your experience as an educator in Colorado, please email us. To stay updated as the partnership continues to evolve and to identify ways to use data to influence change, subscribe to the REL Central mailing list. And be sure to check out our infographic that shares promising strategies for diversifying the educator workforce from across the country.
