Dive Brief:
- The racial and ethnic makeup of students in college teacher training programs in Washington generally resembles the diversity breakdown in the state's general population, according to The Seattle Times — but that's not the case nationwide.
- The newspaper noted that the Urban Institute, which previously reported that the diversity issue is largely a problem of minority education students "falling out of the teacher pipeline," has now released a report highlighting how various colleges succeed at enrolling and maintaining a diverse group of students in those training programs. The report includes a chart that allows users to search for diversity data for education programs in various ways, including by institution.
- The report showed that at Central Washington University, which graduates the most teachers in the state each year, the number of minority students was very close to their ratio in the population — including about 12% Hispanic, the largest minority. Other Washington colleges did similarly well in matching the state breakdown.
Dive Insight:
Several studies have shown that minority students perform better when they have a teacher like themselves. Another Urban Institute report has indicated behavior problems decrease, graduation rates go up and the school culture improves with a diverse staff. A series of articles from the Brookings Institution has also confirmed both the benefits of having minority teachers and the gap between the number of minority teachers and students.
However, the "pipeline for minority teachers" too often leaks, according to Brookings. While about half of American students are minorities, their instructors comprise just about 18% of the teacher workforce.
Universities have tried to resolve the problem with better recruiting and supports for minority students once experts identified retention as a big factor, but a Center for American Progress report suggests hiring and retaining minority teachers won’t do enough to decrease the gap, which varies widely from region to region, making it a difficult issue to resolve with a single strategy. It suggests training programs also are not selective or rigorous enough and recruitment efforts are not as effective as they could be.
New strategies have also been attempted at the school district level, where experts say part of the problem originates.