A quarter of all
students are Latinx, but less than 8 percent of the nation’s teaching
workforce identify as such. Today, the Center for American Progress
released new state-by-state figures
showing that there is a Latinx teacher diversity gap in 40 of the 41
states with available data. In fact, the teacher diversity gap is larger
for Latinx students than for other ethnic minority groups, and now the
careers of tens of thousands of DACAmented teachers—and the education of
hundreds of thousands of students—hang in the balance.
The states with the largest Latinx
gap—California, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas—are also the states with the
largest percentage of Latinx students. Teacher diversity, however, is
becoming increasingly important in rural areas with fast-growing Latinx
communities where diverse teaching workforces are extremely low.
“The benefits of teacher diversity are
clear, yet too many Latinx students with unique cultural and linguistic
needs rarely encounter teachers who share and understand their ethnic
background,” said Sarah Shapiro,
research assistant for K-12 Education at the Center for American
Progress.
“Diversifying the teacher workforce is critical for improving
educational outcomes for Latinx students, in addition to supporting
students of color. We must improve the Latinx educational pipeline by
increasing financial aid for Latinxs in college and teaching credential
programs and provide new avenues for alternative certification, not
threaten, the DACAmented teachers now at risk of deportation.”
“Latinx students are the largest minority
group in American schools, yet they rarely have a chance to be taught by
someone from their community,” said Lisette Partelow,
director of K-12 Strategic Initiatives at CAP. “We can and must do more
to recruit, develop, and retain Latinx teachers as an important
strategy for improving the educational outcomes and attainment of all
students. In addition to permanent protections for DACAmented teachers,
reducing the debt burden of prospective Latinx teachers and continuing
to recruit Latinx teachers to high-quality alternative certification
programs can help increase the number of Latinx teachers.”
Yet, systematic educational achievement
barriers, compounded by the Trump administration’s rescinding of DACA
and drastic proposed cuts to federal education spending, will exacerbate
an already pressing problem—the shortage of Latinx teachers in our
schools—and continue to keep teachers of color out of the classroom.
This paper provides the following policy recommendations for increasing the number of Latinx teachers:
- Pass a clean Dream Act
- Increase federal funding to attract more Latinx students to education colleges
- Attract Latinx students to high quality alternative certification
Click here to read “The Latinx Teacher Diversity Gap is Large and Growing: Here’s How to Fix It” by Sarah Shapiro and Lisette Partelow
Related resources:
- “Revisiting the Persistent Teacher Diversity Problem” by Catherine Brown and Ulrich Boser
- “America Needs More Teachers of Color and a More Selective Teaching Profession” by Lisette Partelow, Angie Spong, Catherine Brown, and Stephanie Johnson
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