Prioritizing Educator Diversity Research

This April 2018 report examines the leaks in Pennsylvania’s teacher pipeline contributing to a lack of diversity and highlights promising practices found across the country that could increase teacher diversity and identifies the appropriate agencies and levels of policymaking that could implement these practices.

This December 2020 report presents the findings of RFA’s examination of seven years of teacher demographic data in Pennsylvania.

This September 2021 report provided RFA’s evaluation of the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s A2E pilot, which was designed to diversify and develop the teacher workforce. The report describes the goals and overall structure of the pilot, activities that took place, highlights and innovations, and learnings that can inform the creation of similar initiatives.

This booklet accompanied a Teach-In hosted by RFA in April 2022, in FDR Park in Philadelphia. The booklet highlighted findings from RFA’s past studies, with updates for 2020 -21 data on the state of teacher diversity in Pennsylvania as a whole and in Philadelphia. Also included were several new analyses, including how teacher diversity has changed in Philadelphia over the past 20 years. A key finding was that Philadelphia public schools, (district and charter schools combined) employed nearly 1,200 fewer Black teachers in 2020-21 than 20 years ago, even as numbers increased for other race or ethnicity subgroups.

This 2022 study centers the perspectives from a sample of 30 current or former Black teachers in Philadelphia about systemic factors that contribute to Black teacher attrition and the elements that sustain teachers who persist in teaching despite challenges. The report includes participant recommendations for specific supports, systems, and resources needed to address barriers to recruitment and retention and ultimately increase educator diversity in Philadelphia schools.