Strengthening and Diversifying the Teaching Profession

All children deserve a rich, engaging, and high-quality public education that gives them the knowledge and skills necessary to graduate high school with academic and career options. One of the most important elements of a high-quality education is a strong, diverse, and well supported teaching profession.

In New Hampshire and nationally, schools are facing a critical shortage of qualified educators, school staff, and school leaders. And, New Hampshire is among the states with the smallest proportion of educators of color in the classroom, despite the growth in diversity in the state. 

Our state and our communities must come together to think about how we can recruit and retain great teachers, great staff, and great leaders, so that our young people can thrive in the classroom and in their communities.

Reaching Higher NH is supporting these critical conversations by:

  • Collecting and analyzing state-based data and educator voices
  • Advancing ideas on how our state can attract and retain qualified school staff
  • Demonstrating how school staff that is reflective of its students and communities is essential to creating an inclusive, supportive learning environment
  • Finding out what motivates educators and school staff to move between schools, districts, and careers
  • Identifying how our schools and communities can support school staff at all levels

Reaching Higher NH will kick off this work in Fall 2022, with the release of our statewide survey of educators and school staff who are changing positions or leaving the profession, which was administered in Spring 2022 in collaboration with 15 professional education organizations in New Hampshire. To keep informed about the survey results, sign up for our newsletter to get alerted when we publish the findings.

Learn more: 

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Educator Survey

Reaching Higher, in partnership with 15 professional organizations, has recently completed a statewide survey of educators and school staff who are changing positions or school districts, leaving the state, or leaving the field altogether. The survey closed in late June 2022, and we expect to publish results in Fall 2022.

Fostering inclusivity and high-quality instruction: Strategies for diversifying the educator workforce

Research suggests that efforts to recruit and retain teachers in NH should include an emphasis on increasing educator diversity.

Teacher Salary Report

These two 2020 policy briefs include district-level salary data on variations in first- and fifth-year teacher salaries for teachers with a bachelor's degree and with a master's degree.

Photo by Allison Shelley/The Verbatim Agency for EDUimages