Oregon Schools Show Modest Progress In Teacher Diversity

By Rob Manning (OPB)
Portland, Oregon July 10, 2015 12:45 a.m.

Oregon has increased the diversity of its teaching ranks in recent years, but not as quickly as the student body is diversifying, according to a new report.

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Oregon has a goal to increase by 10 percent how many its administrators and teachers are linguistically or culturally diverse.

Rosa Parks teacher Nicole Holden reads in front of her classroom's whiteboard.

Rosa Parks teacher Nicole Holden reads in front of her classroom's whiteboard.

Rob Manning / OPB

The 131-page

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Educator Equity report

finds that Oregon met one part of the goal — with an 11.6 percent increase among administrators  — but the state's schools fell just short with teachers at about 9.7 percent.

Hilda Rosselli, the college and career readiness director of the Oregon Education Investment Board, said the teaching force is far less diverse than the student population.

"Will we ever quite keep up with the pace of increased diversity for our K-12 students?" Rosselli asked. "I'm not sure, because that number will continue to grow."

Rosselli said those diverse students could be future teachers. She pointed to efforts underway in some districts to attract potential teachers, as early as middle school.

The report mentions programs in the Hillsboro, Salem-Keizer and Springfield school districts and efforts by community colleges and universities to forge those early connections. But it's an uphill climb to diversify who's heading into the teaching profession.

The teacher-candidate pools at Oregon's colleges of education got less diverse, in the equity report's two-year snapshot.

Editor's Note: an earlier version of this story misstated Oregon's goal for diversity among its teachers and administrators. OPB regrets the error.

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