Few Minority Teachers In Classrooms, Gap Attributed To Bias And Low Graduation Rates

Minority students will likely outnumber white students in the next decade or two, but the failure of the national teacher demographic to keep up with that trend is hurting minority students who tend to benefit from teachers with similar backgrounds.

Minority students make up more than 40 percent of the national public school population, while only 17 percent of the country's teachers are minorities, according to a report released this week by the Center for American Progress.

"This is a problem for students, schools, and the public at large. Teachers of color serve as role models for students, giving them a clear and concrete sense of what diversity in education--and in our society--looks like," the report's authors write. "A recent review of empirical studies also shows that students of color do better on a variety of academic outcomes if they're taught by teachers of color."

Using data from the 2008 Schools and Staffing Survey, the most recent data available, researchers found that more than 20 states have gaps of 25 percentage points or more between the diversity of their teachers and students.

California yielded the largest discrepancy of 43 percentage points, with 72 percent minority students compared with 29 percent minority teachers. Nevada and Illinois had the second and third largest gaps, of 41 and 35 percentage points, respectively.

In a second report, the CAP notes that in more than 40 percent of the nation's public schools, there are no minority teachers at all. The dearth of diversity in the teaching force could show that fewer minorities are interested in teaching or that there are fewer minorities qualified to teach.

"Increasing the number of teachers of color is not only a matter of a philosophical commitment to diversity in career opportunities. Teachers of color provide real-life examples to minority students of future career paths," the researchers write. "In this way, increasing the number of current teachers of color may be instrumental to increasing the number of future teachers of color. And while there are effective teachers of many races, teachers of color have demonstrated success in increasing academic achievement for engaging students of similar backgrounds."

This large discrepancy between minority teachers and minority students can be attributable to low graduation rates among many minority groups, according to the report. While high school graduation is a minimum requirement for the teaching profession, just over half of black, Latino and Native American students finish high school. College entrance and completion rates are similarly low -- with only 56 percent of black students and 64 percent of Latino high school graduates going on to college. Less than half of both black and Latino students finished college in 2007.

In addition, the high cost of college also drives many minority students away from pursuing higher education.

In an August Huffington Post report, Enrique Murillo, a professor of education at California State University, San Bernardino, said the disparity "has created a cultural and linguistic gulf" that especially hurts students who take English as a second language. Murillo is also commissioner of the California Student Aid Commission and executive director of Latino Education and Advocacy Days.

"There's so few of us in general in the educational pipeline, so the pool is really small," Murillo told HuffPost. "It stems from the overall crisis in Latino education. The main crux here is that there's a mismatch between school and home, and Latino educators are bridge builders that help close that mismatch."

CAP's paper reports several case studies of initiatives that aim to increase teacher recruitment and retention among those groups, including Teach for America and The New Teacher Project-Fellowship Programs.

Among the center's recommendations for closing the teacher-student diversity gap:

• Increasing federal oversight of and increased accountability for teacher preparation programs. This is the first step in ensuring that minority teachers emerge from teacher preparation programs with the skills needed to be effective teachers. The federal government can also take the lead on requesting programs to report on diversity efforts.
• Creating statewide initiatives to fund teacher preparation programs aimed at low-income and minority teachers.
• Strengthening federal financial aid programs for low-income students entering the teaching field.
• Reducing the cost of becoming a teacher by creating more avenues to enter the field and increasing the number of qualified credentialing organizations.
• Strengthening state-sponsored and nonprofit teacher recruitment and training organizations by increasing standards for admission, using best practices to recruit high-achieving minority students, and forming strong relationships with districts to ensure recruitment needs are met.

Comments

[jvonkorff]

09:30 PM on 12/07/2011

Children deserve great teachers, black or white. When the day comes that there is a super abundance of great teachers, black or white, perhaps we can worry about picking and choosing to achieve racial balance. Right now, what we need is just plain more outstanding teachers, led by outstanding principals, in schools that project a college going culture.

There are many schools where the teachers are predominantly African American and the kids are failing abysmally. And, there are many schools led by and predominantly taught by African Americans where the kids are excelling. African American teachers, principals and superintendents are fully capable of running third rate schools, of presiding over indefensibly poor schools. Other African American teachers, principals and superintendents fight heroically for their students in an atmosphere of excellence.

Absolutely, it is wonderful when students have role models who look like them. But Lord preserve us from role models who project an atmosphere of mediocrity. The most important element of a quality school is teachers of any color who do a great job, who insist on an atmosphere of success and high expectations. We need more of such educators, and we can't afford to waste the opportunity to hire great teachers of any race.

[User1234567]

09:10 PM on 11/28/2011

..... But were does this leave the white people? Mexican, Asian, and Black teachers teaching Mexican, Asian, and Black students so they can succeed, but the white teachers becoming the minority? Now that just seems unjust and unfair. No

[Astro Girl]

03:14 AM on 11/20/2011

Is it just me or is "minority" really means Black. I mean how many Asians or Arabs teachers do you know?

[Gilbert Albright]

10:08 AM on 11/19/2011

WHAT LOAD OF CRAP! Trying to blame the lack of Minority Teachers for the failure minorities to excel in school!

I'm sick of all these contrived excuses for the failure of Minorities to succeed! IT'S THERE OWN DAMN FAULT!

STOP BLAMING SOCIETY AND WHITE PEOPLE FOR ALL THEIR PROBLEMS!

[noudidnt]

08:14 AM on 11/19/2011

I hopemore childrenofcolor continue to carry hidden cameras into the classroom.

[noudidnt]

08:13 AM on 11/19/2011

I thinkwe have MORETHANENOUGH examples on this websitethatcaucasiansshould NOT be in a room alone with childrenofcolor, let alone teaching them anything.

[Eric Daniels]

08:35 PM on 11/17/2011

Integration has been a grand failure and we as African- Americans should educate our own children. You don't allow your enemy to educate your child, nobody would ever allow a person who discriminated ,assaulted and violated their human rights to all of the sudden educate them after 365 years. Let's ask the Serbs would they trust the Bosinians to educate their children.

[eastdem]

08:17 PM on 11/18/2011

", nobody would ever allow a person who discrimina­ted ,assaulted and violated their human rights to all of the sudden educate them after 365 years."

Nobody lives to be 365 years old.
A person is a individual not a immortal bearing the collective guilt of the action of people who look like them..........

You' re a living example of failed education.

[Eric Daniels]

12:41 PM on 11/19/2011

"Nobody lives to be 365 years old.
A person is a individual not a immortal bearing the collective guilt of the action of people who look like them......­...."

Typical American mythology of "Rugged Individualism" ask the Serbs or European Jews living during the second World War would they trust Germans who killed them to the tune of 6 million or White Europeans who ignored the genocide or the Tutsi in Rwanda if they should trust their former oppressors. You call it collective guilt, I call it being a reasonable human being who knows what a majority population will do when crossed.

You' re a living example of failed education.

So I have a failed education because I think that American Racism is a permanent part of the how this society functions and the best way to conquer that is for African- Americans to practice the same 'ethnic xenophobia" that Whites (I assume you are white) and that is to you don't send your children your most valuable commodity to be educated by your racial enemy or to live in a ghetto and be massacred by black criminals or systemic racism.

You turn

[BrokenArrowz]

07:35 AM on 11/20/2011

Eric, I wholly agree we should educate our own. We should turn of the rap, the TV, the footbal, basketball, etc and allow our kids to develop their intellect. Fun has a place, but fun is the only thing too many of our kids do. The color of the teachers' skin would not matter if our kids go to school with the attitude that they're there to learn. " Cane we watch a movie?" " Why don't you just give us the answer?" among others are questions I get from time to time by too many students.....not just black ones. Too many kids come to school just to socialize. Unfortunately, some irresponsible adults got doctorates for telling teachers kids must have fun in school. The fun movement has given rise to lots of meaningless, but busy hands-on activities. Reading has been replaced with videos. Why learn to read when you can watch a video? Why are parents not taking the initiative and demanding better for their children? There are inadequate teachers of every color in classrooms. Let's not jump on the color bandwagon to suit someone's political agenda. I think its time we think for ourselves, don't you?

[Kym Lewis]

01:36 PM on 11/17/2011

That much was apparent to me when i saw the Wisconsin protests.

[constitutional 1]

04:40 PM on 11/16/2011

"Minority students will likely outnumber white students in the next decade or two"
Won't the white students then be the minority, then we will have more teachers for minority students and less for the majority population. What about mixed race teachers and mixed race students? do they get their own classification? How about trying to find great teachers?

[acumenguy]

09:16 PM on 11/16/2011

Ahhhhh ...
The vooice of sound reason.

[Say Hello To The Fox]

03:18 AM on 11/18/2011

There is no such thing as a mixed race. Race by definition can produce themselves whereas the term mixed race implies other races are needed to create the person. That means it is not dominant and will never be so. But I do agree that those who wish to identify as mixed race should finally fight for themselves instead of riding off everyone's coattails.

[BrokenArrowz]

07:44 AM on 11/20/2011

There is one race......the human race. The so-called races are social constructs coined by whites to validate their bloodthirsty, thieving activities that led to stealing lands from natives and colonizing them. We no longer invade other countries, steal their lands, and enslave their native people. Time to do away with this ridiculous social construct.

[tosc]

09:38 AM on 11/16/2011

collectively, the new minority our individuals of European heritage or commonly referred to as "white." So do "white" minority students perform poorly if they have a teacher of another race, ethnicity or skin color? Studies and surveys are great....they serve to motivate further inquirey. My statistic's professor once told us that statistics and the surveys that substantiate them are merely tools to perpetuate a particular perspective.

[TheNextVoiceofYouth]

10:07 PM on 11/15/2011

This is crap! Not too long ago, I was in high school and I had an African American literature teacher and other black kids besides me in the class and they still did bad while I and one or two other African American student passed with an A or B. Why? I loved to read and write, the two other students worked hard, and the rest of the students were unmotivated to learn because it wasn't "cool" to get good grades. Sometimes though, there is another reason entirely: insecurity and low self-esteem. I read an article in a local teen newspaper about a black classmate who wishes his peers would reach their full potential by gaining self-respect and going outside the musician and sports trends they see adult blacks revered for. The problem isn't the teachers; it's the pressure to conform to stereotypes and societal norms.

[Smitzo]

08:35 AM on 11/16/2011

Yours is a voice of reason. I hope that the majority of your generation is intuitive to your line of thinking. I like your idea of self accountability. Keep at it. with an attitude like you have you will succeed and go far. Good luck and God bless. F&F.

[TheNextVoiceofYouth]

02:04 PM on 11/17/2011

Thank you, Smitzo.

[acumenguy]

09:21 PM on 11/16/2011

I've said the same sooooo many times on HP. (They usually delete it. I guess this idea doesn't fit the moderators agenda.)
But ... when it comes from the mouth of a student, it carries 10X's the weight.
Glad to hear a young person whou has their "stuff" together.

Grown ups have been saying this for years. You, young person, have the moxie to make it stick.
Persue your career, and keep posting.

[TheNextVoiceofYouth]

02:00 PM on 11/17/2011

Thank you, sir.

[OldSchool4942]

08:14 PM on 11/15/2011

This is not a new story.
Every time a minority student at college excells, he or she is gone to private industry, where the pay and benefits are so much better. Can't blame them. Teachers face a grim future with people who don't have a clue, constantly complaining about things they don't understand.

[Busterman]

06:53 PM on 11/15/2011

Most of the posts say it's too hard and college should be easyer. So teachers should not be smarter than the students only older.

[George Bischoff]

06:25 PM on 11/15/2011

Just a thought here...with all the negative press that teachers get, is anyone surprised that the "best and brightest" are looking to other fields? While I think that assumption is false, it is the perception of many. When I ask in my classroom, I get few responses of "I want to be a teacher," regardless of ethnicity or gender. Most of my students say that they wouldn't put up with what they see me deal with each and every day. THIS is a national issue, that, as a country, we are not giving education the value it needs, the respect for the professionals working in it, for true change to occur. It is not that people cannot handle the requirements of the profession, it is that they choose not to go there.

[OldSchool4942]

08:16 PM on 11/15/2011

How true. For the last few years I discouraged people from entering the teaching profession.

[BrokenArrowz]

08:00 AM on 11/20/2011

George, I think a person has to want to become a teacher. High achieving graduates who become teachers are excellent teachers. People who become teachers as fall back career do not stay in teaching, they leave for better wages elsewhere. Those who stay are of the worksheet, homework that does not relate to what was taught in class, copy from textbook, busy work, non-learning type. People who want to be teachers have high expectations for students and will stay with the profession because they feel they make a difference regardless of all the mudslinging.

[harriettubman]

05:22 PM on 11/15/2011

Here's what I think some of the problems are for not recruiting, retaining and/or having more teachers of color:

1) There are no reciprocal national education standards for the 50 states so you get some college students better equipped than others. The education standards that some colleges have is geared toward "weeding" out. Has anyone seen the entrance tests to get into some of the teaching programs then the one they have to take again before they graduate? Even some tenured teachers told me it was hard. There are many subjects on there they've never had and don't pertain to their majors.

The local university here requires an entrance exam to get into their special education program. If a student fails any part of it, they must retake that section again. The universities in the neighboring state don't require that for their special education program.

2) The math portion of the certification test is what most students tell me they can't pass. If someone is going to teach addition, subtraction & multiplication, I don't see the need for college algebra. Sorry, I know they want to fill the algebra class; not necessary.

3) There should be more to selecting quality teachers than test scores.

A tenured teacher told me the certification for the state of NJ is so tough. She passed it but couldn't believe it was so hard. Why is it so difficult? There were many questions on it that didn't pertain to what she was teaching.