Conclusion and Appendices

There is no shortage of ideas about how to increase the number of racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse teachers and administrators in our region’s schools. Admittedly, many of the strategies we outline in this report are not new. In fact, schools and districts across New England and the country are indeed making inroads to diversify the education workforce. What we hope we have conveyed in our report, though, is that we will not be able to make a significant difference unless leaders from all sectors employ a strategic and comprehensive approach and implement recommendations in all five phases of an educator’s career trajectory. Equally important is the need for leaders to have the moral courage to lean in, recognize, and publicly acknowledge the historical costs and harms embedded in our past practices, and adopt an antiracist approach to this work.

Implementing the strategies we have outlined will not be easy. It will require resolve, collaboration, and innovation—ingredients we know are aplenty within the diverse community that spreads across New England. We call on leaders to utilize their influence and authority to act now so that the education system in which we operate cultivates an interest in the profession, ensures educators are well prepared and licensed, recruits and hires without bias, and retains and promotes teachers and administrators. Doing so will result in a dramatic increase of racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse educators in our region’s schools. Our students and our communities need them—now more than ever.