Research Report and Tool

Sharpening the Divide: How California’s Teacher Shortages Expand Inequality

Teacher helping an elementary student with an assignment.
Desiree Carver-Thomas, Tara Kini, and Dion Burns
November 2020 | Learning Policy Institute
Teacher helping an elementary student with an assignment.

Teacher shortages that most severely affect schools serving the least advantaged children have been part of the California education landscape for the last half decade. This brief from the Learning Policy Institute describes how key teacher supply and demand factors vary across the state, and it provides potential policy solutions to mitigate ongoing shortages. The brief also offers insight into how the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to impact teacher supply, demand, shortages, and diversity. This brief is drawn from the report Sharpening the Divide: How California’s Teacher Shortages Expand Inequality and is accompanied by an online interactive map of district- and county-level teacher supply and demand factors.