Minority Teacher Recruitment, Employment, and Retention: 1987 to 2013
Abstract
"This brief summarizes the results from a study of the recruitment, employment, and retention of minority k-12 teachers. The study examines the extent and sources of the minority teacher shortage--the low proportion of minority teachers in comparison to the increasing numbers of minority students in the school system. Using the National Center for Education Statistics' Schools and Staffing Survey/Teacher Follow-Up Survey, we found that efforts over recent decades to recruit more minority teachers and place them in disadvantaged schools have been very successful. But these efforts have been undermined by the high turnover rates of minority teachers--largely because of poor working conditions in their schools. The conditions most strongly related to minority teacher turnover were the degree of teachers' classroom autonomy and input into school decisions--both increasingly important when coupled with accountability pressures."
