This study examines and compares the recruitment, employment, and retention of minority and nonminority school teachers over the past quarter century. Results point to a persistent gap between the percentage of minority students and the percentage of minority teachers in the U.S. school system. This gap is not due to a failure to recruit new minority teachers, but rather due to departures of minority teachers from the teaching field. Over the past two and a half decades, from 1987 to 2012, the number of minority teachers has more than doubled, outpacing growth in both the number of nonminority teachers and the number of minority students. In contrast, organizational and working conditions in schools were strongly related to minority teacher departures. Over the past two and a half decades, turnover rates among minority teachers have been significantly higher than among nonminority teachers.
U.S. Department of Education
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