A Root Cause of the Teacher-Diversity Problem

“The dearth of black teachers across the country is well-researched and extensively documented. Nationally, federal data shows more than eight out of 10 (81.9 percent) teachers are white, while fewer than one in 10 (6.8 percent) are black. These statistics stand in sharp contrast to student demographics in U.S. public schools, where 47 percent of children are white and 16 percent are black. The number of black teachers would need to more than double—from just over 230,000 to roughly 542,000—if their share of the educator force were to match that of black students relative to the public-school population. A growing body of evidence suggests that black teachers benefit black schoolchildren, and that students of all races prefer teachers of color, adding urgency to efforts to resolve the disparity.”