NCTQ–Brookings Report Offers Gloomy Outlook on Teacher Diversity
A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) and the Brookings Institution explores the teacher diversity shortages that persist throughout the United States. To illustrate the current imbalance between teacher and student demographics, the report notes that in order to reach uniformity between the two populations, some 1 million White teachers currently in the profession would need to be replaced with approximately 300,000 African American teachers and over 600,000 Hispanic teachers.
Pointing to problems that exist throughout the teacher pipeline, the authors predict that resolving the imbalance in teacher demographics will continue to be challenging. As the nation’s diversity continues to grow, so too will the pressure and struggle to address teacher workforce diversity, they say, requiring a long-term approach to improving it.
The report offers five strategies to help close the gaps, including improving the rate of college completion among minority students and persuading them to pursue a career in teaching. The authors also warn against lowering teaching standards in an attempt to diversify the workforce, stating the long-term harm caused by weakening teacher quality is not worth the short-term benefit of closing the diversity gap sooner.
For more information, visit the Brookings Institution’s website.
Tags: diversity, research, teacher quality
