Research Report

Educator Supply, Demand, and Quality in North Carolina: Current Status and Recommendations

Skyline view of downtown Charlotte, North Carolina
Linda Darling-Hammond, Kevin C. Bastian, Barnett Berry, Desiree Carver-Thomas, Tara Kini, Stephanie Levin, and William McDiarmid
December 2019 | Learning Policy Institute
Skyline view of downtown Charlotte, North Carolina

This brief summarizes a 2019 study of educator supply, demand, and quality in North Carolina conducted by the Learning Policy Institute in collaboration with the Education Policy Initiative at Carolina and WestEd. That study supported the state’s ongoing efforts to meet the standard set in the North Carolina Supreme Court’s decision in Leandro v. the State of North Carolina. The study found that access to qualified teachers and administrators was increasingly limited and inequitable in the state. To guarantee that access, it recommended expanding high-quality teacher pipelines and training, updating preparation and professional development, and rationalizing and improving compensation and evaluation.