Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Research has shown that minority students benefit from having minority teachers in terms of both academic and disciplinary outcomes. As the student population has grown more diverse, the teaching workforce has remained predominantly White, and little is known about how to attract and retain teachers more representative of the students in their classrooms. We will use administrative data from Massachusetts to track diversity in the state’s teacher pipeline, starting when prospective teachers take the state’s certification test (MTEL) and following them through the start of their careers in Massachusetts public schools. In particular, we will measure racial differences in MTEL passing and retaking rates and eventual teacher licensure, job placement, and early career retention. We will also ask whether racial differences in retention can be explained by characteristics of the students or principals at the schools where teachers start their careers. Preliminary results suggest that racial gaps in MTEL retaking are partially responsible for reducing the proportion of minority teachers in the Massachusetts teacher pipeline. Further results can inform Massachusetts’s and other states’ efforts to intervene in the teacher pipeline to make the teaching workforce more reflective of student demographics, which research suggests would result in long-term benefits for minority students.