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State leaders from California, Mississippi, New York, and Texas joined LPI to discuss their states’ approaches to tackling teacher workforce issues. Their experiences may offer lessons for other states seeking to use legislative actions and financial incentives to better prepare and retain educators.
Linda Darling-HammondJonathan KaplanMichael A. DiNapoli Jr.
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Recent NAEP data reveal widening achievement gaps, especially for the lowest-performing students. What’s the path forward? Research makes it clear: well-targeted investments boost outcomes, narrow disparities, and support long-term success.
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California has made significant progress in aligning K–12 education policies, but successful implementation of new standards, particularly in math and English language arts, requires sustained and comprehensive teacher professional development. To build instructional capacity at scale, investments in ongoing teacher training, digital tools, and embedded professional learning are needed.
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In his sixth decade of education policy, Michael W. Kirst looks to the past and future, reflecting on policy reforms enacted during his four terms as California State Board of Education President and elevating lessons that can inform a new roadmap to build instructional capacity in all California classrooms.
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Teacher shortages are widespread, yet layoffs occur annually. This paradox stems from converging factors such as state and local funding decisions, fluctuations in public school enrollment, and the impending expiration of federal ESSER funds.
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The science of learning and development reveals how to design high schools so that learners can thrive in environments that support individualized development; where they have strong, supportive relationships; and where their social, emotional, physical, and cognitive needs are met.
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In 2022, nearly 13.8 million students were chronically absent—missing 18 days of school or more. Students miss school for a wide range of reasons, and frequent absences can cause students to fall behind. Community schools are a research-based strategy that schools can adopt to address the issues underlying chronic absenteeism.
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Each year, approximately one in six public school teachers across the United States leaves their school or leaves the profession altogether, contributing to teacher shortages and costing districts considerable time, energy, and resources to find and train new teachers. The Learning Policy Institute’s updated calculator can help educational leaders to estimate the cost of teacher turnover.
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Teacher shortages continue to impact schools and districts in all 50 states and Washington, DC, driven in part by financial barriers that prevent candidates from accessing comprehensive preparation. New AmeriCorps rules will potentially unlock a meaningful source of funding for comprehensive preparation programs and the candidates they prepare.
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Teacher shortages continue to be a huge issue in many states. Yet states differ in their education policies and in the ways that teachers are prepared, compensated, and supported. These differences can result in dramatically different levels of student access to a diverse, stable, and well-qualified educator workforce.
