WASHINGTON POST: Not Enough White Students, But Too Many White Teachers
01/02/2020
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As we’ve all been lectured lately, a great failing of American public schools is that not enough Students of Color go to white-majority schools. This is known as Segregation. We need to bus white students all over the place so that Students of Color won’t be exposed to the sheer hell of going to a school that is majority Student of Color.

The Washington Post follows up on the crisis of Not Enough White Students with a big article about the crisis of Too Many White Teachers. We must rescue Students of Color from the sheer hell of going to a school that is minority Teacher of Color.

America’s schools are more diverse than ever. But the teachers are still mostly white.

By Laura Meckler and Kate Rabinowitz Dec. 27, 2019

… Nationally, a Washington Post analysis of school district data from 46 states and the District of Columbia finds that only one-tenth of 1 percent of Latino students attend a school system where the portion of Latino teachers equals or exceeds the percentage of Latino students.

It’s only marginally better for black students: 7 percent were enrolled in a district where the share of black teachers matches or exceeds that for students. Among Asian students, it was 4.5 percent.

So that’s what accounts for the low test scores of Asian students!

Meanwhile, 99.7 percent of white students attended a district where the faculty was as white as the student body, The Post found.

For example, perhaps the biggest school district that has almost solved the Diversity-Inclusion-Equity crisis is Laredo on the Rio Grande river in Teas. The district is 99% Hispanic students and 97% Hispanic teachers. Granted, Laredo 6th graders score 1.4 grade levels below the national average, but that’s not the point, the point is that the Laredo school district has almost achieved Diversity Inclusion Equity among its paid teachers.

Over time, the ranks of teachers of color have grown. In 1988, 87 percent of public school teachers were white. By 2016, 80 percent were, according to federal data.

Nonetheless, the racial gap between teachers and students has widened as more young people of color have enrolled each year. In 1994, two-thirds of public school students were white; by 2016, fewer than half were. …

At every step on the road from high school student to classroom teacher, people of color fall away.

They are less likely to go to college, less likely to enroll in teacher preparation programs, less likely to graduate and less likely to be certified as teachers, the Education Department found in a 2016 report. …

“Representation absolutely matters and it matters for … almost every educational outcome you can think of,” said Seth Gershenson, a public policy professor at American University. …

A classmate, Sebastien Jean, 17, who is black and Hispanic, remembers that his elementary school teachers were all white, so he started acting what felt like white, absorbing what he called the “Caucasianness of it.”

“I sort of lost my flavor,” he said.

That created tension with his mother. “I would go home and start talking about the weather and gas prices and my mom would be like, ‘Where did you get that from?’ ” …

Also, Teachers of Color are more likely to quit because they are oppressed by being forced to teach more Students of Color:

Creating a diverse teaching corps is not just about hiring. It’s about retention. Black and Hispanic teachers are less likely to remain in the profession than their white peers.

In 2012-2013, 85 percent of white teachers were in the same school as the year before. For black teachers, it was 78 percent and for Hispanic teachers, 79 percent, federal data show.

That’s partly because black and Hispanic teachers are more likely to work in urban schools, where students have higher needs and where burnout is high for everyone, experts say. …

And sometimes, those teachers lose jobs they would like to keep. In recent years, there was a push to close low-performing schools, where black and Hispanic teachers are more likely to teach. …

On the sprawling, 46-acre campus of San Gabriel High School, part of the Alhambra district, the effort to recruit Latino teachers feels urgent. Latino students, who make up about 34 percent of the student body, chronically lag behind Asian students, who make up most of the rest.

That’s puzzling. Are there any other high schools in America where this gap is found?

[Comment at Unz.com]

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