This website provides states with resources to build a foundational support plan for social and emotional learning, strengthen adult competencies and capacity, promote social and emotional learning for students, and use data for continuous improvement. States can use these resources to inform their own work, learn how their peers are addressing similar issues through practical examples, and customize materials for their own use.

Longwood University’s Residency Program supports career switchers and provisionally licensed teachers while they earn their master’s degrees in special education. The program provides RVE (Reading for Virginia Educators), Praxis, and VCLA (Virginia Communication and Literacy Assessment) support as part of the program.

This brief highlights the following four high-leverage practices for K-12 teachers of students with disabilities: establish a consistent, organized, and respectful learning environment; provide positive and constructive feedback to guide students’ learning and behavior; teach social behaviors; and conduct functional behavioral assessments to develop individual student behavior support plans.

This brief highlights several grants funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Effective Educator Development Office that aim to increase educator retention through the implementation of an assessment process for micro-credentials to support professional development.

This report aims to guide districts, school leaders, and teachers to effectively design teacher leader roles in their school contexts in order to support professional growth and teacher retention.

This brief, developed by the U.S. Department of Education’s Effective Educator Development office, is designed to help grantees strategically analyze the job design of teachers and principals in order to create new or strengthen existing leadership roles.

This policy snapshot summarizes existing research about the effects of education on students’ social and emotional skills, identifies important state and district policy considerations for initiating and integrating social and emotional learning into classroom instruction, and presents considerations for preparing and developing teachers and leaders to focus on the whole child.

This professional learning module helps regional, state, and district leaders deepen their knowledge and skills for integrating a social and emotional learning emphasis into their policy and planning work; strengthen connections between social and emotional learning, state standards, and teacher evaluation and professional development systems; and learn strategies to support school leaders in guiding teachers to reflect on their own teaching practices and social and emotional competencies.

This case study seeks to inform policymakers, practitioners, and teacher educators about the components of a strong social and emotional learning-focused teacher preparation and development program by exploring two examples and outlining implications for policy and practice.

This brief and accompanying report offers recommendations for how state agencies can measure and promote social and emotional learning in their accountability and continuous improvement plans.

This website provides access to reports, briefs, and other resources summarizing the growing body of research and best practices for social and emotional learning.

This brief presents three state policy priorities with guiding questions and implementation strategies for attracting and retaining quality teachers. One policy priority focuses on attracting teachers from diverse backgrounds.

This grant supports the Tennessee Department of Education’s effort to increase the diversity of the educator workforce by providing awards to school districts to create Grow Your Own programs aimed at recruiting and preparing minority teachers.

This program aims to increase the number of male teachers and teachers from diverse backgrounds, particularly in low-performing schools, by recruiting diverse teacher candidates, offering loan forgiveness, establishing a cohort system for cultural and social support, and assisting with job placement.

This brief from the Learning Policy Institute details how local and state policymakers can leverage federal ESSA funding to strengthen principal preparation and development.

This Course Enhancement Module (CEM) on school leadership for students with disabilities is a compilation of resources intended for use in the development and enhancement of leadership education courses as well as for professional development programs for practitioners. This module addresses the dimensions of school and collaborative leadership necessary to foster collective responsibility for students with disabilities, including partnerships with parents and families. In addition, the CEM addresses the role of district leaders in supporting effective instruction for students with disabilities.

This policy snapshot provides an overview of available research on principal impact and influences on principals’ career paths. The brief also identifies potential strategies that states should consider to reduce principal turnover.

This professional learning module can help state and district teams understand the connection between turnaround leader competencies and the actions of successful turnaround principals and leadership teams and learn strategies for coaching and developing turnaround principals and supporting implementation of key turnaround leader actions.

This professional learning module can help regional comprehensive centers and state education agency staff learn strategies to recruit, select, and provide ongoing support to school principals working in a turnaround context.

This website provides access to reports, briefs, and other resources summarizing the growing body of research and best practices for school leadership, with a focus on principal training, development, evaluation, supervision, pipelines, and policy.

This program, from the New Mexico Public Education Department, aims to support in-service teachers by empowering educational leaders to establish and monitor plans to create conditions for effective teaching in New Mexico schools.

This professional learning module is offered by the IRIS Center to support school administrators and related personnel who aim to support the retention of special educators. This module offers various exemplars and resources, concluding with an end-of-module assessment.

This brief highlights findings from the annual American Teacher Panel Survey about strategies used in California to ensure that teachers have a voice and influence in school decision making.

This brief outlines key provisions found in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that ensure that teachers’ voices are part of decision making at the federal, state, and local levels.

This blog post shares six tips for school and district leaders to involve teachers in leadership roles at the school level.

Supporting teachers during the COVID-19 crisis, this tool includes a self-care self-assessment with key strategies for fostering resilience and a self-care planning tool to assist educators in identifying areas of strength and growth related to self-care and developing self-care plans.   

This self-assessment tool helps teachers and principals understand their stress levels during the time of COVID, leading to beneficial self-care strategies.

This brief highlights the following three high-leverage practices for K-12 teachers of students with disabilities: collaborate with professionals to increase student success; organize and facilitate effective meetings with professionals and families; and collaborate with families to support student learning and secure needed services.

This paper reviews an extensive body of research on teacher recruitment and retention, and identifies five major factors that influence teachers’ decisions to enter, stay in, or leave the teaching. One of the factors discussed is working conditions, including school leadership, professional collaboration and shared decision-making, accountability systems, and resources for teaching and learning.

Iowa’s Teacher Leadership and Compensation (TLC) System promotes retention by rewarding effective teachers with leadership opportunities and higher pay. The TLC system incentivizes educators to collaborate within their school settings and districtwide.

The brief outlines five opportunity culture principles to implement sustainable and effective strategies for extending the reach of excellent teachers and principals to more students and teachers.

This report outlines strategies for extending the reach of high-performing teachers to more children while providing those teachers with multiple avenues for advancing their achievement and impact within teaching.

The infographic highlights how extending the reach of great teachers and their teams builds an “opportunity culture” in which all teachers and students can excel. In opportunity culture roles, great teachers choose to extend their reach to more students and support other teachers’ success, without increasing instructional group sizes.

Teachers with a record of high-growth student learning and leadership competencies, known as multi-classroom leaders (MCLs), teach part-time while leading small, collaborative teams of two to eight teachers in the same grade or subject. MCLs guide lesson planning, help teachers practice and prepare for instruction, coach and develop the team and individuals, and lead improvements based on data. This brief describes four examples of MCL teaching strategies to reach students who have disabilities—three examples in inclusive models and one example in self-contained special education classrooms.

This program, established by the Louisiana Department of Education, provides opportunities for high-quality educators to facilitate in-person and virtual professional development, as well as help review and create instructional materials, for teachers in Louisiana who are new to the workforce.

This brief provides an overview of current tiered licensure policies across the United States.

This program aims to retain teachers by creating opportunities for career advancement through a four-stage tiered licensure model, ranging from a 1-year provisional license to a lifetime master educator license.

New Mexico’s tiered licensure system provides teachers in the state with opportunity for career advancement across three licensure tiers, based on in-service experience and demonstration of specific competencies.

The four-tiered licensure system creates opportunity for provisional licensure for preservice teachers as they complete their field experience and professional advancement for in-service teachers as they gain experience and leadership skills.

This webpage describes the requirements, development routes, and other policy considerations for Minnesota’s tiered licensure system. The model ranges from a one-year provisional license (Tier 1) to a five-year comprehensive license (Tier 4).

The Leadership Initiative For Teachers (LIFT) is a five-stage career ladder that provides high-performing teachers with opportunities for advancement inside the classroom, as well as additional responsibility and increased recognition and compensation.

This toolkit includes a synthesis of research on teacher leadership, current examples, and useful tools for designing, implementing, and supporting teacher leadership initiatives.

This brief outlines strategies to improve teacher retention and address shortages by providing teacher leadership opportunities to highly effective teachers.

This policy snapshot summarizes the literature regarding teacher leadership, including associated benefits and challenges, while also highlighting policy levers that can be used to improve teacher leadership opportunities.

This program, established by District of Columbia Public Schools, aims to retain high-performing teachers by creating opportunities for career advancement through a five-stage ladder. Increased financial compensation will be provided to teachers as they advance the ladder.

This program provides ongoing professional development by positioning expert teachers as coaches within their school communities. These coaches conduct observations and give feedback to teachers in the school, while remaining teachers of their own classes as well.

This resource highlights three categories of approaches that states and districts can take to promote or support teacher leadership by examining nine different types of strategies for each approach. Each strategy features examples from states embedding the strategy into their approaches to foster teacher leadership.

This program, established by the State of New Jersey Department of Education, provides in-service teachers with the opportunity to earn a Teacher Leader Endorsement through an approved program of study aligned with the state’s Teacher Leader Model Standards.

CEEDAR’s interactive state policy map provides information about state policies that support the preparation and development of teachers and leaders in meeting the needs of students with disabilities. Each state policy profile includes information about teacher and leader standards, preparation, certification and licensure, induction, and professional development standards.

Florida’s educator certification renewal requirements mandate that at least one credit hour of the six credit hours required to renew certification focuses on teaching students with disabilities.

This brief explores induction and mentoring as an effective strategy to retain teachers. A definition of induction and mentorship programs is provided, followed by a summary of supporting research on this strategy, state policy examples, and considerations for policymakers.

This paper reviews an extensive body of research on teacher recruitment and retention, and identifies five major factors that influence teachers’ decisions to enter, stay in, or leave the teaching profession. Induction and support for new teachers is discussed as a strategy to attract and retain teachers.

This policy snapshot highlights research about effective induction programs and strategies for setting effective policy related to induction plans. It also includes short spotlights on existing state induction programs, as well as sample regulatory language.

This toolkit provides regional comprehensive centers and states with ready-to-use tools and resources to facilitate meaningful conversations with local education agencies about the design and implementation of effective, high-quality mentoring and induction programs. Toolkit materials summarize research and best practices, highlight relevant examples, and provide streamlined processes for action planning.

The SEED grant program from the U.S. Department of Education provides funding to increase the number of highly effective educators by supporting the implementation of evidence-based preparation, development, and enhancement opportunities for educators.

eMSS (eMentoring for Student Success) provides new and veteran teachers with content, endorsement, and grade-level focused mentoring through an online technology network. Through eMSS, teachers collaborate in an interactive community to facilitate the exchange of information, ideas, and experiences in order to advance high-quality instruction for all students.

This program assigns first- and second-year participating teachers with individualized one-on-one weekly mentoring and support during their first 2 years participating in the induction program. This job-embedded mentoring and coaching is based on the individual needs of new teachers, as identified through a self-assessment using the California Standards for the Teaching Profession.

Induction Insights are a collection of briefs derived from longer research syntheses that target topical areas in special induction and mentoring. The briefs are geared to specific audiences, including administrators, policymakers, teacher educators, beginning teachers, and parents.

This program supports early-career educators by pairing them with extensively trained mentors during their first years in the classroom and provides both the novice teacher and mentor with ongoing professional development.

This program helps schools and districts in Georgia establish and/or strengthen teacher and leader induction models grounded in high leverage practices. Guidance includes district exemplars and professional learning resources.

This program, aimed towards novice special education teachers, provides these teachers with day-long training sessions and ongoing year-long virtual and face-to-face professional development.

This tool helps educator preparation programs, local education agencies, and state education agencies reflect on how they are incorporating and
aligning high-leverage practices from preservice coursework to inservice practice within beginning teacher induction programs.

This framework from the Tennessee Department of Education outlines essential aspects for the development, implementation, and monitoring of partnerships between educator preparation programs and local education agencies in the state.

The Colorado Plan Into Action Grant supports efforts to recruit and retain effective educators by providing $2 million in funding to 17 diverse collaborative projects throughout the state.

This professional learning module helps state and district teams learn how teacher evaluation data are used in self-reflection and formative feedback; practice using teacher evaluation data in planning for professional learning for individuals and the organization; and explore next steps for ensuring that school and district structures support a teacher evaluation system focused on professional growth.

This professional learning module helps state and district teams identify professional learning approaches that support evaluators in developing more accurate and reliable evaluation skills. The module uses collaborative activities and exercises to help evaluators develop stronger coaching and feedback skills and create a comprehensive plan for preparing all educators for implementing evaluation.

This brief explores the characteristics of effective district leaders and shares considerations for setting evaluation policies for district leaders.

This policy snapshot focuses on how states can prioritize and fund studies of educator evaluation systems. It also highlights the importance of studying evaluation implementation and shares strategies for prioritizing and funding studies.

This brief explores ongoing feedback and targeted professional development following evaluations as an effective strategy to retain teachers. A definition of the evaluation feedback loop is provided, followed by a summary of supporting research on this strategy, state policy examples, and considerations for policymakers.

This report investigates micro-credentials as a strategy to promote teacher professional development and includes lessons learned from three early adopters of this professional development practice.

The School District Collaboration Grant Program (SDCG) provides funding for school districts to improve student achievement through the  collaboration of teachers and administrators to implement new approaches to career pathways, evaluation processes, compensation models, and enhanced professional development opportunities.

Developed by the Vermont Task Force on Teacher & Leader Effectiveness, this program aims to establish statewide standards for teacher and leader development and evaluation through collaboration with in-service teachers and administrators.

This guide from the Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education is intended to support districts across the state in planning and evaluating the professional learning they provide their educators. 

This program aims to reduce educator turnover by offering financial rewards to teachers and principals for their impact on student achievement as measured through the New Mexico Teacher Evaluation System (NMTEACH). Teachers in low-performing schools and areas with critical shortages are prioritized in this program.

This series of briefs highlights innovative examples of teacher education programs that are providing their candidates with practice-based opportunities within coursework and fieldwork. Topics include structured tutoring; virtual simulation; lesson study; laboratory experiences; bug-in-ear coaching; video analysis; and coursework-aligned, field-based practice opportunities.

This special issues brief from the CEEDAR Center and GTL Center outlines essential features for providing candidates with high-quality, structured, and sequenced opportunities to practice within teacher preparation programs. The brief also showcases several teacher preparation programs wherein faculty have enacted innovative strategies to embed practice-based opportunities into existing coursework and field experiences.

This policy synopsis summarizes states’ field experience policies for general education candidates and the extent to which they require experience with students with disabilities.

This framework and facilitation guide is intended to support educator preparation program faculty, teacher educators, collaborating P–12 partners, and university supervisors engaged in deliberate reflection and planning for effective, practice-based opportunities for candidates throughout coursework and field experiences.

This brief offers examples of ways that teacher candidates can serve as assets in their field placements, both in person and virtually, helping to alleviate potential and ongoing teacher shortages in many content areas.

This program supports the Louisiana Department of Education’s effort to increase teacher readiness by providing yearlong residency programs for all candidates, support for rural communities, and professional development for mentor teachers.

The District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education intends to award $1.5 million in competitive grants from Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act funds for the public charter sector for teacher pipeline initiatives. The purpose of the SOAR Act grant is to improve school performance and educational outcomes and to provide facility funding to increase the number of high-quality public charter school seats in the District of Columbia.

This article describes one teacher preparation program’s efforts to strengthen and extend existing partnerships with a group of nine rural schools districts. The article summarizes lessons learning over the five-year partnerships that was supported by a 325T professional development grant.

This state policy and practice portrait describes how partnerships between educator preparation programs and local districts can be used as a strategy to address teacher shortages. The brief provides examples of how these partnerships have been structured in CEEDAR states, specifically how the partnerships have led to innovative strategies to fully license newly hired teachers.

SCRIPT-NC partners with select North Carolina community colleges to enhance coursework and practical experiences in early childhood programs by incorporating evidence-based and competency-based practices that support the inclusion of children with disabilities and who are culturally and ethnically diverse.

Pathway to Practice NC is a joint online program between NC State University and UNC-Chapel Hill, designed to help emergency licensed teachers on a residency/temporary license in North Carolina schools earn their teaching certifications in numerous subject areas, including special education. This program consists of seven modules that can be completed on flexible schedule.

Innovation Configurations (ICs) are self-assessment tools designed to evaluate the extent to which evidence-based practices are taught, observed, and applied within teacher preparation and professional development programs. ICs are available on the following topics:
Evidence-Based Practices for English Language Learners
Literacy Instruction for Students With Multiple and Severe Disabilities
Evidence-Based Reading Instruction For Grades K-5
Evidence-Based Reading Instruction for Grades 6-12
Transition Services For Students With Disabilities
Universal Design For Learning
Culturally Responsive Teaching
Evidence-Based Practices For Writing Instruction
Principal Leadership
Supporting Content Learning With Technology For Students With Disabilities
Evidence-Based Practices For Students With Sensory Impairments
Evidence-Based Practices For Students With Severe Disabilities
Evidence Based Practices for Mathematics
Use Of Technology In The Preparation Of Pre-Service Teachers
Evidence-Based Practices For Improving Challenging Behaviors Of Students With Severe Disabilities
Evidence-Based Practices For Classroom and Behavior Management: Tier 2 And Tier 3 Strategies
Preparing Teachers to Facilitate Communication Skills in Students With Severe Disabilities

Course Enhancement Modules (CEMs) include usable resources for faculty and professional development providers to integrate into coursework or professional development to provide teachers and leaders with effective opportunities to learn about and use evidence-based practices. CEM resources are designed to be used in whole or in part with teacher preparation and professional development programs to support learning at the pre-service and in-service levels.
Culturally Relevant Education
Evidence-Based Transition Planning and Services
Disciplinary Literacy
Classroom and Behavior Management
Universal Design for Learning
Evidence-Based Practices for Students with Severe Disabilities
Inclusive Education
MTSS for Mathematics
Evidence-Based Reading Instruction Grades K-5
School Leadership for Students with Disabilities

This brief is designed to show how high-leverage practices (HLPs) and evidence-based practices (EBPs) can be used together to advance educator preparation and practice. The brief defines HLPs and EBPs and shares examples of how educator preparation programs are integrating them in their candidates’ learning opportunities. The brief concludes with an illustration of how they can be seamlessly integrated into instruction provided as part of multi-tiered systems of support.

The Georgia Department of Education supports a High-Leverage Practice (HLP) Resource Hub that offers Georgia preparation providers and educators resources related to HLPs, from introduction through application, along with an accompanying HLP/edTPA Rubric Crosswalk.

NCII has developed a series of professional learning modules intended to assist district or school teams involved in initial planning or implementation of data-based individualization (DBI) as a framework for providing intensive intervention in academics and behavior. The modules include an overview of the DBI process and more in-depth exploration of the various components.

This tool outlines key competencies for effective inclusive principal leadership within the framework of the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) 2015. It also includes actions states can take to ensure all principals are prepared to create and lead learning environments that meet the needs of students with disabilities.

The Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) assesses teacher candidates’ readiness in relation to the state Professional Standards for Teachers, which include a standard for teaching all learners. Successful completion of CAP is required for all Massachusetts candidates to complete a teacher preparation program.

The ECPC (Early Childhood Personnel Center) offers resources for higher education faculty and professional development providers that are designed to facilitate the integration of the Initial Practice-Based Professional Preparation Standards Early Interventionists/Early Childhood Special Educators. The series includes a module for each of the seven standards.

The Network for Transforming Educator Preparation (NTEP) established partnerships between state education agency and higher education colleagues across states to create change in policy areas related to transforming licensure policies and systems, transforming program approval policies, systems, and standards, transforming data systems to support continuous improvement of educator preparation, and engaging stakeholders to develop and implement this new system of educator preparation. This report summarizes lessons learned from the first two cohorts of NTEP states.

This planning framework guides and supports educator preparation programs (EPPs) to integrate evidence-based and high-leverage practices within and across coursework and field experiences. The roadmap highlights the major guidelines that EPPs should consider throughout the reform process and provides supporting facilitation guidance, examples, resources, and tools from EPPs that have engaged in and benefited from this process. The roadmap is designed to emphasize a systemic approach to reform through a collaborative, ongoing analysis and continuous improvement process.

This brief provided by the Center for American Progress offers recommendations for teacher licensure or certification processes to address the increasing number of students with disabilities in general education classrooms and general education teacher preparation programs’ need to ensure that teachers are adequately prepared to guide students with disabilities to success in the classroom and beyond.

This policy and practice portrait describes how technical assistance tools and services from the CEEDAR Center can help educator preparation programs generate evidence in support of review and reporting requirements from CAEP and other accrediting organizations.

This policy synopsis presents information on the manner in which states license special education teachers. The first table presents information on licensure patterns for teachers of students with sensory impairments and teachers of preschool-aged children with disabilities. The second table describes how states license teachers to work with school-aged children with all other disabilities.

This policy synopsis provides brief descriptions of a selected group of dual certification programs in special education. ResourceDescriptions include general information about the program, coursework, and field experiences.

CEEDAR’s interactive state policy map provides information about state policies that support the preparation and development of teachers and leaders in meeting the needs of students with disabilities. Each state policy profile includes information about teacher and leader standards, preparation, certification and licensure, induction, and professional development standards.

This policy analysis report from the CEEDAR Center investigates the extent to which states have standards for teachers and school leaders and the extent to which these standards address what teachers and leaders need to know to effectively educate students with disabilities and other diverse learners. The report includes a section on certification policies for teachers generally, for special educators in particular, and for school leaders.

This report highlights five diverse educator preparation programs  (one for urban teachers, one for early childhood education, one single-year residency program, and two dual credential) that take innovative approaches to special education teacher certification.

TNCompass is a web platform created by the Tennessee Department of Education that provides prospective teachers with access to comprehensive information related to licensure and educator evaluation.

The Minority Teaching Fellows Program is intended to encourage talented minority Tennesseans to enter the teaching field in Tennessee. The award is $5,000 per year for students who pursue a teacher certification at an eligible Tennessee college or university.

This program aims to increase the number of minority teachers in Florida to better reflect the state’s diverse population by providing individuals of color scholarships to complete state-approved educator preparation programs. Recipients are required to teach in Florida public schools for a time equivalent to the number of years funding was received.

Minnesota colleges and universities with state-approved teacher preparation programs may apply for this grant to fund recruitment efforts for individuals of color, particularly American Indian individuals.

The Recruiting Washington Teachers program, led by the State of Washington Professional Educator Standards Board, seeks to grow a diverse future teacher workforce by introducing high school students to careers in education through teacher academies.

This guidebook from the Connecticut State Department of Education’s Talent Office is intended to support districts and schools across Connecticut to increase the racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity of their teacher and leader workforce.

This report from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education outlines research-based promising practices for the recruitment of male teachers of color. The report highlights the Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Teacher Networked Improvement Community, a program that pilots innovative solutions to increase recruitment of teachers of color. 

The U.S. Department of Education’s Supporting and Elevating the Teaching Profession initiative engages teachers, school and district leaders, teachers‚Äô associations and unions, and state and national education organizations in national conversations about attracting, preparing, and retaining effective teachers.

The #IAmTXEd social media campaign, led by the Texas Education Agency, helps attract prospective teachers by sharing the ongoing success stories of Texas teachers.

South Carolina’s “Dedication to Education” campaign provides guidance and resources to individuals interested in becoming educators. The South Carolina Department of Education launched an advertising campaign in 2018 via television, YouTube, and social media to improve the image of public schools and to attract teachers.

This campaign from the Louisiana Department of Education attracts high-quality educators by providing information about traditional and alternative pathways to teacher certification.

Teach.org is a nonprofit organization operated by the U.S. Department of Education and Microsoft that provides information, guidance, coaching, and ongoing virtual support to individuals seeking options for educator certification.

The TeachStrong campaign is a national coalition of more than 60 education organizations dedicated to modernizing and elevating the teaching profession. The campaign calls for states to invest in and develop policies that better recruit, develop, support, and compensate teachers throughout their careers.

Created by Seattle Public Schools, #teachseattle is a campaign to raise awareness for local teaching opportunities and routes to certification. The campaign also promotes recruitment activities through social media.

TeachPalmBeach is a social media campaign that helps attract prospective teachers by highlighting success stories of local teachers who have made differences in their communities.

The Relay Teaching Residency program is a two-year experience that provides aspiring teachers with a supportive, gradual introduction to teaching. Residents serve as a full-time teacher-in-residence supporting a lead classroom teacher in their first year while earning teaching certification and a master’s degree. After completion of the first year residents receive support finding a position as a fully-licensed lead teacher.

This issue brief from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education provides detailed information about degree trends since 2009–10 in teaching specialties, which the U.S. Department of Education has identified as in high demand around the country, including special education, mathematics and science education, teaching English as a second language, and foreign language education.

In this video, Building the Special Education Pipeline, leaders in educator preparation consider comprehensive approaches to increasing the pool of highly qualified special education teachers through enhanced practices for recruitment , preparation, and retention.

Fontbonne’s Paraprofessional Pathways to Teaching offers individuals employed as a paraprofessional or teacher assistant in a special education school setting a pathway to become a special education teacher, simultaneously earning a master‚Äôs degree and K‚Äì12 mild/moderate cross-categorical certification.

This state policy brief provides an overview of various legislation proposed and enacted in states to attract teachers to high-need schools and subjects through targeted recruitment efforts.  

This program, funded by the California Local Solutions to the Shortage of Special Education Teachers Grant, creates a pathway for current general education teachers and related instructional personnel to earn a special education teaching credential at San José State University at no cost.

This bill addresses teacher shortages by increasing the frequency of annual stipends for teachers in the state of Montana, with additional financial incentives for educators who work in districts with critical shortages.

This bill establishes a program offering loan forgiveness to teacher candidates who enter multi-year service agreements to teach in Arkansas districts with critical shortages.

The Traineeship Program allocates federal professional development funds to provide tuition assistance for special educators and preschool teachers to obtain certification in the area in which they are teaching. A major focus of the Traineeship program is on teachers seeking alternative certification, emergency or probationary certification, and working toward full certification while enrolled in a Kentucky institution of higher education.

This article describes a collaborative effort between the Portland Educational Association and Portland Public Schools to negotiate a salary schedule that rewards teacher participation in a wide variety of professional learning opportunities.

This program combats teacher shortages by setting minimum starting salaries, offering supplemental earnings through critical shortage area signing initiatives, and providing visas to attract international educators.

The goals of Iowa’s Teacher Leadership and Compensation System are to attract promising new teachers with competitive starting salaries, reward effective teachers with leadership opportunities and increased compensation, and foster greater professional collaboration between teachers.

This report describes promising approaches to develop a “portfolio” of financial incentives, including performance bonuses, loan repayment, scholarship programs, and performance-based incentives, to boost recruitment and retention in hard-to-staff schools and subject areas.

This report summarizes research on the effect of monetary incentives on teacher recruitment and retention and how compensation-based incentives can be used to address both subject-level shortages and school-level shortages.

This brief from the Leaning Policy Institute summarizes research on the effectiveness of loan forgiveness and service scholarship programs for prospective teachers and provides examples of promising programs.

This research brief from the Learning Policy Institute describes evidence-based policies for creating competitive, equitable compensation packages for teachers.

This report outlines strategies for addressing critical teacher shortages, including financial incentives for high-needs teaching position transfers.

This program, established by Colorado Senate Bill 19-003, offers loan repayment for educators who complete qualified educator preparation programs and serve in rural districts, or serve in a content shortage area as defined by the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

This report summarizes the effects of Florida’s statewide program to increase the supply of teachers in designated “hard-to-staff” areas, such as special education, math, and science. The study found that the loan forgiveness component of the program was effective, but that the impact of loan forgiveness varied with the generosity of payments. When fully funded, the program reduced attrition of special education teachers by 12.3 percent, but did not have a statistically significant impact when funding was substantially reduced.

North Carolina Teaching Fellows is a collaboration between several North Carolina universities that aims to increase the pool of teachers serving in special education or STEM roles in North Caroline public schools. Participants receive up to $4,125 per semester for up to eight semesters.

The Teacher Opportunity Program (TOP) offers tuition reimbursement grants to Arkansas teachers and administrators. Teachers and administrators may apply for reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses paid for up to six college credit hours completed for each academic year, not to exceed $3,000.

This program from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission offers tuition exemptions for up to 250 students seeking initial licensure in special education at an accredited Illinois university. This program will exempt candidates from paying tuition and mandatory fees at an eligible institution for up to four calendar years, given they commit to teach in Illinois in the field of special education.

This article describes efforts by a school district in Arkansas to attract special education teachers by offering a $4,500 signing bonus over 3 years, in addition to a $2,500 annual stipend.

This bill aims to improve teacher recruitment and retention in Hawaii by providing housing vouchers to full-time public school and charter school teachers who teach in hard-to-fill positions.

This bill supports efforts to mitigate teacher shortages in rural Colorado school districts by offering retired educators additional benefits for re-entering the workforce to serve as teachers or other school personnel positions.

This bill provides the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing with funding to administer a competitive grant program that assists local educational agencies in attracting and supporting the preparation and continued learning of teachers, principals, and other school leaders in high-need subjects and schools.

This study, commissioned by the Oklahoma State Regents of Higher Education, examines how patterns of supply and demand vary by teaching subject area and geographic location in Oklahoma.

The Teacher Recruitment & Retention Grant program supports efforts to recruit, select, train, and retain highly effective teachers to teach in Indiana public charter schools. Funding is available for LEAs to conduct teacher recruitment and retention activities, especially for hard to recruit/retain teaching staff and in areas that have historically struggled with teacher recruitment and retention.

This guide, written by the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Teacher Recruitment & Quality, provides an overview of the job search, interview, and hiring processes for prospective teachers in New York City.

This toolkit, created by the Mid-Atlantic Comprehensive Center, was developed to assist Delaware districts in identifying immediate actions and long-term strategies to hire and retain effective educators.

The STAR Program provides high school juniors and/or seniors an opportunity to learn about teaching as a career through one-credit courses offered at their high schools that may be used for college credit in the field of education.

This program addresses California’s teacher shortage by offering financial assistance to classified school employees to complete an undergraduate program and earn their teaching credential.

This summary describes the Hawaii’s efforts to increase the pool of teachers in the state by establishing different pathways for out-of-state educators to become certified in Hawaii at the provisional, standard, or advanced levels.

North Dakota’s reciprocity agreement establishes requirements for out-of-state teachers seeking certification to take coursework in Native American studies, cultural diversity, strategies for creating learning environments that contribute to positive human relationships, and strategies for teaching and assessing diverse learners.

This database provides information about how states approach specific teacher licensure reciprocity policies, including detailed information on the requirements for each state’s reciprocity agreement for teachers seeking to transfer their teaching credential to another state.

This block grant provides funding for educator preparation programs, districts, and candidate conditional loan scholarships to support alternative route programs.

The University of Delaware’s alternative certification program supports candidates to earn a teaching degree and certification while being concurrently employed in public schools as full-time paraeducators and later as teachers serving students with disabilities.

The American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence offers online, self-paced teacher certification programs aimed at full-time working professionals. Online programs leading to certification are available for 15 states.

The New Teacher Project (TNTP) Teaching Fellows is a national alternative certification program focused on recruiting recent college graduates and career changers and providing them with rigorous inservice training and coaching supports.

Teach For America recruits and trains college graduates to become teachers in high-needs schools in over 50 regions across the country.

This bill contains specific provisions related to the operation and funding of alternative teacher preparation programs in Wisconsin.

Boston Teacher Residency is an AmeriCorps-supported program that combines a yearlong classroom apprenticeship with targeted master’s level coursework. The program includes co-teaching with collaborating teachers and experienced teacher educators, earning an MA Initial Teacher Licensure, and receiving a living stipend and health benefits.

This grant supports Minnesota’s efforts to increase the diversity of the educator workforce by expanding alternative educator preparation programs in a variety of licensure areas to attract a more diverse pool of candidates.

Ohio’s Intensive Pedagogical Training Institute (IPTI) creates an alternative route for certification for educators in Ohio by offering pedagogical content online modules for an Ohio Alternative Resident Educator License, providing instruction in topics related to student development and learning, formative and summative assessment processes, curriculum development, and classroom management.

For individuals already employed in an approved special education setting, the Utah Special Education and Rehabilitation Department offers three alternative teacher preparation programs. The programs include courses required for licensure to work with students with mild or moderate and severe disabilities and with preschool children with disabilities in districts across the state.

The Oklahoma State Board of Education offers individuals who already hold a four-year degree a 150-hour alternative certificate program, known as “Boot Camp”, to obtain a provisional certificate to teach in the area of mild to moderate or severe to profound disabilities. The program includes 120 hours of pedagogy training and culminates in 30 hours of field experience.

Teach NOLA is an alternative preparation program in which teacher candidates receive rigorous coaching while completing preservice training and additional certification coursework during their first year in service.

This report shares examples from California of partners working together to bring local resources to their residencies to improve sustainability. The report sets the California context and briefly describes how securing funding for residencies can help to address teacher shortages, while increasing the diversity of the teaching workforce. The report also provides concrete strategies that programs can use to move toward long-term sustainable funding, with examples of how specific programs in California have successfully implemented select strategies.

This series of four professional learning modules from the College & Career Readiness & Success Center and partners supports state education agencies, local education agencies, educator preparation programs, and community organizations interested in developing and implementing Grow Your Own programs in their state, region, or district.

This article describes efforts at three community colleges to implement pathways for K-12 teaching careers, including implementation strategies such as high school dual enrollment and outcomes related to college transition such as the need for remedial courses.

TechTeach Across Texas is a one-year teacher preparation program combining focused clinical experiences with applicable online courses in district-based partnerships around the state. TechTeach Across Texas allows students to complete a Bachelor of Science degree and earn teacher certification in one calendar year.

This program helps address teacher shortages in rural Colorado schools by offering a fellowship to teacher candidates who complete their clinical experience in a rural school district.

This grant program helps local education agencies in Texas establish Grow Your Own programs with a focus on developing high-quality education and training courses at the high school level to increase the recruitment pipeline and attract diverse teacher candidates.

This program established a partnership between the University of Central Missouri and four Missouri school districts to provide paraprofessionals with opportunities to obtain a degree in education while continuing to work full time.

This article describes the efforts of North Kansas City School District to combat teacher shortages by partnering with a local university to establish a Grow Your Own program aimed at recruiting high school students to pursue teaching licensure.

This resource guide outlines core elements, considerations, and tools to help Missouri districts create Grow Your Own models aimed at recruiting and supporting students to become teachers in their home district.

This program supports New Mexico’s “Grow Your Own Teachers Act” by providing scholarships for educational assistants in public schools to pursue teaching certification through an educator preparation program.

This grant supports the Tennessee Department of Education’s effort to increase the diversity of the educator workforce by providing awards to school districts to create Grow Your Own programs aimed at recruiting minority teachers.

This pilot program supports several districts in the state of Washington to build an educator workforce that is representative of their student populations.

This initiative from the Minnesota Department of Education supports efforts to increase the racial diversity of the teacher workforce by providing grants to school districts with significant populations of students of color to develop innovative Grow Your Own programs.

This program supports prospective teachers by providing funding as well as academic and emotional support to individuals completing preparation programs in exchange for a commitment to teach in a high-needs school or high-needs position for at least 5 years.

This pathway cultivates highly skilled educators by providing young people with dual enrollment credit, beginning and high school, and providing blended coursework focused on building understanding of diverse learners, extending through college and into the profession. 

The Go Teach program builds partnerships between university athletic and academic departments and provides the tools needed to recruit qualified student athletes into the teaching profession.

Educators Rising is a community-based model, in which chapters at schools feed teacher preparation programs at institutes of higher education with the support of state departments of education and local funders and foundations. These entities come together to provide a clear pathway to increase teacher diversity and teacher quality.