8. Efforts are made to recruit and retain a racially and ethnically diverse school staff.
More than 75 percent of teachers and school administrators are white. This reality means that it is often not possible to have a racially and ethnically diverse school staff, especially one that represents the racial and ethnic diversity of a given school. Do students learn more from teachers of their own race? While research is thin, the answer appears to be the racial and ethnic fit between students and teachers is correlated with student performance. But other factors may matter more. Teaching competence is the most important of these factors, and the extent to which students and teachers share similar cultural and economic experiences is another. There is some evidence that teachers of color are less likely to overreact to student behaviors and thus are less likely to take disciplinary action that removes students from the classroom. However, staff diversity may provide students of color with positive role models and allow students to witness positive interracial interactions and positive role models.
Teachers who work with students of different races and ethnicities, especially when many of their students are underachieving, face exceptional challenges. Research shows that teacher attrition is correlated with the proportion of children of color in their school. Thus, support for beginning teachers of any race or ethnicity is critical to reducing teacher turnover.
Read about strategies for recruiting and retaining teachers of color.
Learn more about effective induction programs for teachers.
