By Travis J. Bristol, Photo: Allison Shelly/American Education, EdSource, March 30, 2022
There is a demographic mismatch between teachers and students across California’s public schools. The most recent data from the California Department of Education indicated that while 77% of students are Asian American, Black, Latino, and/or Native American, only 39% of their teachers are.
Why should we care about teachers of color in our California classrooms? A compelling body of research continues to highlight the positive impact teachers of color have on all students. One study found that Asian American, Black, and Latino students were less likely to receive an out-of-school suspension in years that they had a teacher of the same racial/ethnic identity. Another study found that all students, regardless of race, reported feeling both academically challenged and cared for by their teachers of color. While parity is not the ultimate goal, the public should seek to redress a disparity whenever it is seen in the public sector.
For the past year, I have been working with a group of California teachers, administrators and faculty in teacher and leader preparation programs as well as nonprofit education leaders and representatives from the California Department of Education and the Commission on Teacher Credentialing on the department’s educator diversity advisory group. We consulted extensively with the educators closest to the problem — including holding four virtual convenings with more than 100 teachers and administrators from across the state and meetings with educators from rural counties such as Lassen and Kern, suburban spaces like Marin, and urban centers such as Los Angeles and Oakland.
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