Today, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and TNTP released a foundational report on the teacher workforce in the District of Columbia, sharing comprehensive information about teacher diversity, experience, supply and demand, and retention in DC. The report is the first-ever look at the teacher workforce statewide using individual-level data points, collected from nearly 7,000 teachers working across 50 public and charter local education agencies (LEAs) in 229 schools that served 89 percent of all students in the District of Columbia in the 2018-19 school year.

Key Takeaways from the Report
 

• DC teachers are more racially diverse than teachers nationally; however, the teacher population of the District is still not fully reflective of the student population. This is especially true for Hispanic/Latino population in wards 1 and 4.
• The majority of DC teachers have over five years of experience. Only 11 percent of DC teachers have 1 year of experience or less.
• Almost three in four teachers received an evaluation rating of “Effective” or higher as determined by their LEA, while 17 percent received a rating below “Effective.”
• While DC’s within school retention rate of 70 percent was slightly lower than benchmarks attained by other national or urban school systems; there is evidence that DC is retaining our strongest teaches. DC retained 78 percent of teachers that are rated Effective or higher, compared with 48 percent of teachers rated below Effective.
• The subject areas with the highest number of unfulfilled vacancies were Elementary and Special Education.

Every student deserves to have a great teacher in the classroom, and with this report we are excited to continue the conversation about how we can continue to strengthen the teacher workforce in the District.

Related Content: Faculty and Staff Data Collections | Data and Reports