Minority teachers in U.S. more than doubled over 25 years — but still fewer than 20 percent of educators, study shows - The Washington Post

Minority teachers in U.S. more than doubled over 25 years — but still fewer than 20 percent of educators, study shows - The Washington Post:

Minority teachers in U.S. more than doubled over 25 years — but still fewer than 20 percent of educators, study shows

The number of minority teachers more than doubled in the United States over a 25-year period but still represent less than 20 percent of the country’s elementary and secondary school teaching force, a new statistical analysis of data shows. And black teachers, while seeing an increase in the number of teachers, saw a decline in the percentage they make up of the overall teaching force. (See full report below.)

From 1987 to 1988 and 2011 to 2012, researchers found that the teaching force became much larger, by 46 percent; more diverse, though minority teachers remain underrepresented; and less experienced.  There were, however, large differences among different types of schools and academic subjects.

For example, the number of teachers in English as a second language, English/language arts, math, foreign language, natural science and special education all grew at above-average rates, while the fields of general elementary, vocational-technical education and art/music each had below-average growth.

[The nation’s teacher force lacks diversity, and it might not get much better]

In addition, the teaching force in high-poverty public schools in the United States grew by nearly 325 percent and jumped from about 8 percent to 22 percent of the entire teaching force. Meanwhile, the number of teachers working in low-poverty public schools declined by one-fifth, and that group went from being 60 percent of all public school teachers to 33 percent.

The report, titled “A Quarter Century of Changes in the Elementary and Secondary Teaching Force: From 1987 to 2012,” was completed by Richard Ingersoll, a professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior research specialist at the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, and Lisa Merrill of the Research Alliance for New York City Schools at New York University. Ingersoll has long studied teachers, including the Minority teachers in U.S. more than doubled over 25 years — but still fewer than 20 percent of educators, study shows - The Washington Post: