Desiree Carver-Thomas

Researcher and Policy Analyst

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650.562.6147

Desiree Carver-Thomas is a member of LPI’s Educator Quality team. Her work focuses on how educator quality, teacher diversity, and leadership development can promote equitable opportunities for teaching and learning. She has authored several LPI reports, including Diversifying the Teaching Profession: How to Recruit and Retain Teachers of Color. She also leads LPI’s Racial Equity Leadership Network team.

Before joining LPI, Carver-Thomas taught in New York City public elementary schools, where she had experience in bilingual education, special education, and as a mathematics lead. As a graduate student fellow with the Center for Cities and Schools at UC Berkeley, she worked with the City of Richmond on implementing a full-service community schools initiative. She conducted similar work with the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

Carver-Thomas holds 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 25 resources

Brief

Adequate and Equitable Education in High-Poverty Schools: Barriers and Opportunities in North Carolina

Jeannie Oakes,

Peter W. Cookson, Jr.,

Janel George,

Stephanie Levin,

Desiree Carver-Thomas,

Fred Frelow,

Barnett Berry

Jun 18 2021
|
The conditions in and around high-poverty schools and communities result in far too many students not being educated adequately to participate in the global economy or become active, informed citizens. An analysis in North Carolina offers four sets of evidence-based recommendations to provide students with the resources and opportunities they need and put high-poverty schools on a path of equitable improvement.

Topic Equitable Resources and Access
Report

California Teachers and COVID-19: How the Pandemic Is Impacting the Teacher Workforce

Desiree Carver-Thomas,

Melanie Leung,

Dion Burns

Mar 04 2021
|
A year into COVID-19, critical teacher shortages may jeopardize the safe reopening of schools. Research from interviews with California urban and rural district leaders sheds light on sustainable strategies including high-retention pathways and financial supports.

Topics Educator Quality, Educator Quality: Recruitment & Retention, Equitable Resources and Access, COVID-19
Tool

Districts Advancing Racial Equity (DARE) Tool

Maria E. Hyler,

Desiree Carver-Thomas,

Marjorie Wechsler,

Larkin Willis

Dec 29 2020
|
The Districts Advancing Racial Equity tool provides a practical and accessible resource for understanding, assessing, and advancing racial equity within school districts. The tool captures research-informed, high-leverage aspects of schooling that school leaders can use to create systems that build on the strengths of and respond to the needs of students of color.

Topics Equitable Resources and Access, Deeper Learning
Brief

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

Desiree Carver-Thomas,

Tara Kini,

Dion Burns

Nov 10 2020
|
In the fall of 2019, hundreds of thousands of California’s students were learning in classrooms staffed by teachers who were not fully certified. Shortages vary across the state and by subject and are likely to be further impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a number of policy solutions have the potential to mitigate ongoing shortages.

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

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

Desiree Carver-Thomas,

Tara Kini,

Dion Burns

Oct 15 2020
|
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
|
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
|
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
Report

Long Beach Unified School District: Positive Outliers Case Study

Desiree Carver-Thomas,

Anne Podolsky

Sep 10 2019
|
Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) educates approximately 72,200 students, 90% of whom are students of color, while 65% are from economically disadvantaged families and 15% are English learners. LBUSD employs critical practices and policies to promote learning, making it one of California’s “positive outlier” districts in which students performed better than predicted on California state tests from 2015 through 2017.

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
|
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

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.

Pages

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