This brief from the National Association of State Boards of Education discusses grow-your-own programs that aim to address teacher shortages and retention issues by recruiting and preparing community members to become teachers. These programs typically target high school students, classified staff, career changers, and local leaders. The article emphasizes the importance of adopting state-level equity criteria for these programs to ensure equity in teacher development. Equity criteria focus on four key areas: structural, disciplinary, cultural, and interpersonal. These criteria are essential for state education policymakers to address in order to overcome the barriers that community members face when entering the education profession.