Well, No Kidding

From the Chicago Sun Times: U.S. teachers are nowhere near as diverse as their students.

Almost half the students attending public schools are minorities, yet fewer than 1 in 5 of their teachers is nonwhite.

New studies from the Center for American Progress and the National Education Association are calling attention to this “diversity gap” at elementary and secondary schools in the United States. The groups want more to be done to help teachers more accurately mirror the students in their classrooms.

Teachers are always pushing their students to excel, said Kevin Gilbert, coordinator of teacher leadership and special projects for the Clinton Public School District in Clinton, Mississippi.

It becomes easier for students to believe “when they can look and see someone who looks just like them, that they can relate to,” said Gilbert, a member of the NEA’s executive committee. “Nothing can help motivate our students more than to see success standing right in front of them.”

More than minority students would benefit from a more diverse teacher corps, said Ulrich Boser, the author of the center’s report.

“Even in a place like North Dakota, where the students aren’t particularly diverse relative to the rest of the country, it’s important for our social fabric, for our sense as a nation, that students are engaging with people who think, talk and act differently than them but can also be just as effective at raising student achievement in the classroom,” he said.  http://www.suntimes.com/27234090-761/us-teachers-nowhere-as-diverse-as-their-students.html#.U2dPgX7n-1s

As a teacher (for the time being) in an inner city school in Vegas and also in Milwaukee, WI. yeah, it is pretty much true that there are few minorities in the teacher corp and very few of those minority teachers teach in ghetto areas.

Like most white teachers, minority teachers don't want to teach in ghetto schools, where it is very difficult to teach students, no matter what race of the students are.

It would be nice to see more Black or Hispanic teachers would teach in inner city schools, but union rules allow them to to transfer to easier schools and they will.

Who wants to teach in ghetto areas where teachers are disrespected and it is harder to teach.