State of the States 2023: Policies to Increase Teacher Diversity

Teachers of color have a positive impact on all students and make a particularly pronounced difference in the lives of students of color. For students of color, having a teacher of color can increase academic achievement and advanced course-taking, reduce discipline incidents, improve attendance, increase high school graduation and college-going, as well as increase social-emotional outcomes like grit and sense of self-efficacy. The national movement for teacher diversity--driven by both a national reckoning around racial injustice and mounting research on the positive impact that teachers of color have on students--is clearly ascendant. This is a policy area that will require sustained commitment from states to achieve progress and increase the number of teachers of color in the workforce. So to what extent is this commitment reflected in state policies and funding? In National Council on Teacher Quality's first comprehensive scan of state teacher diversity policies, this report takes stock of key trends across 50 states and the District of Columbia. [This report received funding from the Belk Foundation.]