Desiree Carver-Thomas

Researcher and Policy Analyst

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Desiree Carver-Thomas is a member of LPI’s Educator Quality Team. She is the author of Diversifying the Teaching Profession: How to Recruit and Retain Teachers of Color and the lead author of Addressing California’s Growing Teacher Shortage: 2017 Update.

Previously, Carver-Thomas taught in New York City public schools for five years. As a graduate student, she consulted with the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department on strategies for diverting recidivism and with West Contra Costa Unified School District on implementing a full-service community schools’ initiative. She also conducted similar work with the City of Richmond.

Carver-Thomas received an M.P.P. from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, an M.S. in Teaching from Fordham University, and a B.A. in Comparative Ethnic Studies with a concentration in Anthropology from Columbia University.

For more about Desiree Carver-Thomas' work, see list below.

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Showing 1 - 10 of 19 resources

Report

Sharpening the Divide: How California’s Teacher Shortages Expand Inequality

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Tara Kini

Dion Burns

Oct 15 2020
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The entire country is grappling with educational access during the COVID-19 pandemic. Persistent shortages of well-prepared teachers remain a dire concern, and are distinctly worse in districts serving the highest numbers of students from low income families. California has taken steps to address shortages in recent years—this report highlights the primary factors driving shortages and shares research on eight key strategies that can attract and retain well-prepared teachers.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Equitable Resources and Access
Brief

California’s Special Education Teacher Shortage

Naomi Ondrasek

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Caitlin Scott

Linda Darling-Hammond

Feb 18 2020
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The field of special education has long been plagued by persistent shortages of fully prepared teachers. New LPI research finds that the high turnover of special education teachers is associated with such issues as inadequate preparation, professional development, overwhelming workload, low compensation, and inadequate support. What can policymakers do to address this shortage and help recruit, prepare, support, and retain these teachers?

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention
Report

California’s Special Education Teacher Shortage

Naomi Ondrasek

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Caitlin Scott

Linda Darling-Hammond

Feb 18 2020
|
A severe special education teacher shortage threatens the ability to improve outcomes for students with disabilities, who often have the greatest needs but receive the least expert teachers. LPI researchers review the factors contributing to special education teacher turnover and provide evidence-based policy strategies aimed at resolving the shortage.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention
Report

Closing the Opportunity Gap: How Positive Outlier Districts in California Are Pursuing Equitable Access to Deeper Learning

Dion Burns

Linda Darling-Hammond

Caitlin Scott

Taylor Allbright

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Eupha Jeanne Daramola

Jane L. David

Laura E. Hernández

Kate E. Kennedy

Julie A. Marsh

Crystal A. Moore

Anne Podolsky

Patrick M. Shields

Joan Talbert

Sep 10 2019
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This report examines the commonalities among seven diverse "positive outlier" school districts in which students are achieving at higher-than-predicted levels. The seven districts are among more than a hundred California school districts in which African American, Latino/a, and White students achieved at higher-than-predicted levels, controlling for their socioeconomic status.

Topics Deeper Learning, Educator Quality, Equitable Resources and Access
Brief

Teacher Shortages in California: Status, Sources, and Potential Solutions

Linda Darling-Hammond

Leib Sutcher

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Oct 15 2018
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Teacher shortages have been worsening in California since 2015. In response, the state has invested nearly $200 million in programs aimed at recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers, but those programs will take time to yield the desired results. California needs to make additional investments to rapidly build the supply of qualified teachers where they are most needed and create incentives for experienced, effective teachers to re-enter and remain in the classroom.

Topic Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention
Report

Diversifying the Teaching Profession: How to Recruit and Retain Teachers of Color

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Apr 19 2018
|
More and more states and districts are recognizing that recruiting and retaining teachers of color can help meet their students' needs while also helping to curb critical teacher shortages. But prospective teachers of color encounter unique barriers to entering and staying in the profession. High-retention pathways—combining high-quality clinically rich preparation with financial support—can be especially effective at reversing those trends.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Equitable Resources and Access
Brief

Diversifying the Teaching Profession Through High-Retention Pathways

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Apr 19 2018
|
More and more states and districts are recognizing that recruiting and retaining teachers of color can help meet their students' needs while also helping to curb critical teacher shortages. But prospective teachers of color encounter unique barriers to entering and staying in the profession. High-retention pathways—combining high-quality clinically rich preparation with financial support—can be especially effective at reversing those trends.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Equitable Resources and Access
Blog

California Districts Report Another Year of Teacher Shortages

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Feb 22 2018
|
In districts throughout California, many newly hired teachers lack any experience teaching the subject or students they were hired to teach and are not enrolled in a teacher preparation program. That’s according to a survey conducted last fall by the Learning Policy Institute, which found that persistent teacher shortages are once again leading districts to rely on underprepared teachers to fill classrooms throughout the state.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Equitable Resources and Access
Brief

Understaffed and Underprepared: California Districts Report Ongoing Teacher Shortages

Leib Sutcher

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Linda Darling-Hammond

Feb 05 2018
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For the 2017-18 school year, 80% of California districts reported shortages of qualified teachers and 82% reported hiring underprepared teachers, according to an LPI survey completed by 25 California school districts. Those districts collectively serve a quarter of the state’s students and include urban, suburban, and rural areas. This brief examines how districts experienced teacher supply in the fall of 2017.

Topic Educator Quality
Blog

Why Addressing Teacher Turnover Matters

Linda Darling-Hammond

Leib Sutcher

Desiree Carver-Thomas

Nov 13 2017
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Over the last three years, thousands of news stories and dozens of studies from LPI and other organizations have documented teacher shortages across the country. Yet some critics argue that turnover is not generally a problem and shortages may not even be real. In this blog, Linda Darling-Hammond, Leib Sutcher, and Desiree Carver Thomas break down the research and explain that solving turnover and shortages is not a pipedream; it’s a policy question.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention

Pages

Report

Addressing California’s Growing Teacher Shortage: 2017 Update

Feb 08 2017

California’s teacher shortage is worsening as demand continues to outpace the supply of new teachers. The shortage of special education, mathematics, and science teachers is especially severe, prompting an increase in the number of underprepared teachers. Low-income and minority students are disproportionately impacted by shortages, which threaten to undermine academic progress. This report details findings from LPI’s 2017 Update on California’s teacher shortage and offers policy recommendations to address this pressing problem.

Report

A Coming Crisis in Teaching? Teacher Supply, Demand, and Shortages in the U.S.

Sep 15 2016

Widespread media reports of local teacher shortages have become a hot topic in education since the summer of 2015. After years of teacher layoffs, districts began hiring again as the economy recovered from the Great Recession. This report analyzes evidence of teacher shortages, looks at national and regional trends in teacher supply and demand, and investigates policy strategies that might mitigate these effects based on research about effective approaches to recruitment and retention.

Report

Teacher Turnover: Why It Matters and What We Can Do About It

Aug 16 2017

As students return to school this year, many will be in one of the more than 100,000 classrooms across the country staffed by an instructor not fully qualified to teach. This shortage of qualified teachers is almost entirely due to teachers leaving the profession and about 2/3 of teachers who leave do so for reasons other than retirement. This study looks at who is leaving, why, who is impacted, and policy considerations.

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