A new report by the New Teachers Project (TNTP) reveals a lack of diversity in teach preparation programs.
Titled “A Broken Pipeline,” it highlights the diversity gaps within each state and offers recommendations to address the issue.
“This is the time in the midst of our national reckoning about race and racism to really collectively tackle this problem,” said Dan Weisberg, chief executive officer at TNTP, adding that it is important to “commit both at the individual university level, the state level and national level to start drawing in a much more diverse pipeline of teachers into preparation programs from a much wider pool of talent.”
Students of color make up 53% of the population in the United States. However, 80% of teachers are White. In 40% of public schools, there is a complete absence of any teachers of color, according to the report.
In general, teacher preparation programs have a larger White population in contrast to public schools. Those registered at teacher preparation programs are almost 64% White compared to 47% at public schools. This trend was consistent across 48 of the states, the report found.
“To have a teacher workforce that matches the student body, we need an additional one million teachers of color,” said Jacob Waters, director of external communications at TNTP. “This is not about blaming individual universities, but about coming together to acknowledge that we have a huge, systemic problem here and committing to fixing it.”
Within 43 states, the diversity gap is 10% or higher. The gap reaches 20% or higher in 21 states, while Washington, D.C., Louisiana and Mississippi’s gap extends to 30%, according to the report.
