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Outstanding educators raise student achievement, close opportunity gaps and set up their students to succeed in college and careers. An educator workforce that advances equity is one that is also diverse. Research clearly demonstrates the positive impact that teachers of color have on all students, especially students of color.

And yet, schools are struggling to retain teachers across the country. More than 300,000 public school teachers and school staff left the field between February 2020 and May 2022. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 44% of new teachers left the classroom within their first five years of teaching. Historically, these turnover rates have been higher for Black and Hispanic teachers than the national average. To recruit and retain teachers of color, it is imperative that districts support their wellbeing, which is associated with higher rates of teacher commitment and lower rates of burnout and attrition.

That’s where the Equitable Decisionmaking for the Retention of Diverse Educators Toolkit comes into play.

We have designed this free Toolkit to support school and district leaders in their efforts to:

• Develop a deep and nuanced understanding of the experiences and challenges of classroom educators related to the social and emotional dimensions of learning, wellbeing and relationships
• Collaborate with educators and school leaders to co-design solutions that will address the root causes of decreased teacher morale and retention in their schools.

This Toolkit does not provide answers or solutions to the challenges facing teachers, but rather provides a step-by-step process for school and district leaders to craft solutions specific to local context and needs, supported by stories and research from educators across the country.

Throughout a robust equitable decisionmaking process, school and district leaders will gather empathy data to better understand the specific challenges facing teachers in their buildings and will then work alongside those teachers to design solutions for the challenges specific to their context.

Sign up for the Equitable Decisionmaking Toolkit here!

The Equitable Decisionmaking Toolkit contains all of the activities, materials and resources a school or district leader needs to complete this process on your own. If you’d benefit from having an Ed First coach walk you through the process, however, please reach out to Kelly James!

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Source: (Gershenson et al., 2017); (Rosen, 2018); (Dixon et al., 2019); (Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific, n.d.); (Education First, 2020); (Dill, 2022); (Will, 2018)