Race and Ethnicity of Public School Teachers and Their Students

 

The National Center for Education Statistics released a new Data Point report entitled Race and Ethnicity of Public School Teachers and Their Students. The report includes the following findings: In the 2017–18 school year, 79 percent of public school teachers were White and non-Hispanic. About 9 percent of teachers were Hispanic (of any race), and 7 percent were Black and non-Hispanic. Two percent of teachers identified as Asian and non-Hispanic, 2 percent as Two or more races and non-Hispanic, and less than 1 percent as Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native, non-Hispanic. Teachers of a given race/ethnicity were more often found in schools where their race/ethnicity matched a majority of the student body. For example, at schools in which a majority of students were Black, about one-third (36 percent) of teachers were Black, non-Hispanic. This was higher than the percentage of Black, non-Hispanic teachers at schools with other student body racial and ethnic compositions. At the same time, in schools where the majority of students were not White, the majority of teachers tended to be White. The majority of teachers were White in schools where a majority of students were Hispanic (54 percent), Black (54 percent), Asian (60 percent), or American Indian/Alaska Native (61 percent). That is, a larger percentage of teachers were White than were of the same race/ethnicity as the majority of students.