All students benefit from a diverse educator workforce. But teachers in the United States don’t yet mirror students’ racial and ethnic diversity. In Washington state in 2017–18, 46 percent of K–12 public school students identified as students of color, but only 11 percent of educators identified as teachers of color. To help increase the state’s teacher diversity, the Washington Professional Educator Standards Board and the Teacher Testing Barriers Workgroup partnered with us to study where teacher candidates—especially teachers of color—leave the pathway to becoming an educator.

Download the study and infographic showing its key findings, including the six steps of Washington’s teacher preparation and career pathway and how many candidates of various backgrounds passed each step. We also include lessons learned and potential next steps for policymakers who want to follow in Washington’s footsteps and for teacher preparation programs that want to better support teachers of color.

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