Diversity

Report: Room For Improvement On Teacher Diversity. The Christian Science Monitor (9/18, Jackson) reports that the Shanker Institute this week “released an in-depth report on teacher diversity, or the lack thereof, in the US.” The report found that while the share of minority teachers has increased over the last 25 years, it has not come close to keeping up with demographic changes. The report found that the problem is not “training or recruitment,” but instead may be “teacher turnover.”

Report: Teacher Diversity Not Keeping Pace With Student Diversity. The Christian Science Monitor (9/17, Jackson) reports the Shanker Institute released a report showing that the growth in the diversity of teachers has failed to keep pace with the growth in the diversity of students. From 1987 to 2012, minority teachers rose from 12% to 17% of the workforce, far less than the percentage of minority students today. The Shanker Institute report concludes that high teacher turnover is responsible for the large gap. Turnover is especially high in struggling schools with larger numbers of minority students and minority teachers. If minority teachers are more likely to work at schools that are inadequately resourced, then they may be more likely to turnover and leave the field.