The College Fix

An Albert Shanker Institute study has found that “[t]eachers of color continue to be underrepresented” in the United States, with, notably, nine large cities seeing drops in the number of black teachers between 2002 and 2012.

In Philadelphia, for instance, three out of every four students is black or Hispanic, while only a bit over one in four teachers is.

Since diversity is the end-all to be-all in education, this represents a severe crisis.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:

“This report is an indictment,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Researchers for the nonprofit institute, which is connected to the national teachers union, examined teacher diversity in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Washington.

“It’s important to have a diverse workforce, because the teachers and staff in schools should look like America,” said Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

A diverse teaching force benefits all students, research suggests, but in particular, students of color need to see “people who look like them who have earned degrees, who have professional positions, and who understand their culture,” said Jordan.

Weingarten said white students benefit just as much.

“Minority educators have distinctly higher quit rates – turnover rates – than do nonwhite [sic] teachers,” said Richard Ingersoll, professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education and a researcher on the report.

The problem lies with retention. Generally, over the last several decades, there has been a significant increase in the minority teaching force, though the percentage of minority students in U.S. schools far outstrips the percentage of minority teachers.

And while minority teachers tend to be concentrated in urban areas and in schools serving poor children from minority communities, the report found, teachers leave not because of the needs of students they serve, but because of working conditions, the report said.

Not only that, other areas of employment are aggressively recruiting minority candidates. The education field finds it hard to compete, especially in terms of salary and (as noted) working conditions.

And, yet again we see the inverted “logic” of what’s known as “educational diversity”: The AFT’s Weingarten says minority students need to see “teachers who look like them” in order to succeed, and adds that “white students benefit just as much.”

So, in other words, minority pupils don’t really get a boost from diversity (white teachers), and white students don’t need to see teachers who look like them …? (Don’t try to figure it out — you’ll go nuts.)

Read the full article.

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