Toolkits & Guides

Local Education Agencies (LEAs) have the unprecedented opportunity to utilize federal funds to make investments for the future health and vibrancy of teaching and learning. PEDC encourages all LEAs to invest in efforts to recruit, mentor, develop, support, and retain teachers of color and culturally relevant and sustaining educators. This guide offers practical suggestions for investments in all areas and detail opportunities for Grow Your Own, Residency, Para to Teacher, scholarship, loan forgiveness, and other innovative programs.

Checklists and tables in this toolkit guide school and district leaders through assessment of the policies and practices within their buildings that impact the willingness of teachers of color to stay in the classroom and the profession.

Mentorship is an essential strategy for any recruitment or retention initiative. This toolkit provides background on the essential elements of mentorship and case studies from Pennsylvania programs that support the mentorship of potential future teachers as well as pre-service and in-service teachers of color.

This toolkit identifies 5 strategies for recruiting high school students into teaching. Case studies that describe collaborations between Pennsylvania school districts and teacher education programs are included.