Over the summer, the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) announced an increase in the number of newly issued teaching credentials in the 2023–24 academic year, signaling a promising development in addressing the state’s teacher shortage.
Hispanic educators represented a significant number of those new teachers now in classrooms throughout the state. According to the California Department of Education (CDE), the number of Hispanic teachers increased 19 percent, growing from 61,518 to 73,400 since the 2019–20 school year.
Research shows that students taught by educators who reflect their cultural backgrounds and understand their lived experiences see stronger academic and social-emotional gains as well as improved discipline outcomes. Better yet, all students, not just Latino students and English learners, have been shown to benefit from being in classrooms with more diverse educators.
According to the CDE, 56 percent of the K-12 student population was Hispanic in the 2023–24 school year.
However, certifying new teachers isn’t enough to improve student outcomes. Local educational agencies recruitment and retention strategies are crucial to ensuring new educators have the tools and resources necessary to grow.
National Hispanic Heritage Month, which takes place annually from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, is a great time for LEAs to examine policies and resources, such as professional development, residency, mentoring and more that research shows can improve both recruitment and retention efforts.
California’s shifting staff demographics
In the 2022–23 school year, almost 40 percent of the 17,337 newly enrolled teacher candidates that year were Hispanic, according to CTC data.
In addition to the increase in Hispanic/Latino teachers, there was also a 21 percent increase in the number of Hispanic administrators and a 48 percent increase in the number of Hispanic school nurses, counselors and other pupil services positions during the 2023–24 school year.
Various state efforts to diversify the pool of teacher candidates have shown success, including the California State University system’s Center for Transformational Educator Preparation Programs, which seek to recruit, prepare and retain teachers of color.
“At a time when schools across the nation are facing teacher shortages, the growth in California’s newly credentialed teachers indicates that state investments in teacher recruitment are beginning to pay off,” CTC Executive Director Mary Vixie Sandy said in a statement when the CTC’s latest data was released. “While these findings are a bright spot for California’s education system, we recognize the significant shortage of qualified teachers that still exists and encourage those interested in positively impacting our state’s youth to consider teaching as a profession.”
Resources for LEAs
Nonprofits including Californians Together and Latinos for Education — which offers a Latinx Teacher Fellowship program to support beginning teachers and paraprofessionals at its Bay Area branch — have many resources available to help LEAs develop policies to strengthen and diversify their teacher workforce.
Other resources available include:
- UnodosUS — Policy Memorandum: Closing the Achievement Gap by Recruiting and Retaining Diverse Educators
- Sage Journals — Recruitment and Retention of Latinx Teachers Is Top Priority: So Why Are New Teachers Saying ¡Adiós!?
- National Association of State Boards of Education — Seeking a Shared Vision for Teacher Diversity in California
- American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education — The Black and Hispanic/Latino Male Teacher Networked Improvement Community: Promising Practices to Recruit and Retain Male Teachers of Color
- National Research Center on Hispanic Children & Families — Informal and Formal Supports May Affect Hispanic Early Educators’ Physical and Mental Well-Being
