Oregon’s work to diversify its educators is making gains but could be derailed in 2026

Just over half of the nation’s states, including Oregon, are graduating enough people of color from teacher colleges to significantly diversify their K-12 teacher workforce. That’s according to a recent report published by the education research nonprofit National Council on Teacher Quality.

Research has shown that learning from Black teachers, for instance, results in better academic, social and graduation outcomes for all students, not just students of color. And other studies have found that students of color who learn from diverse educators perform better on reading and math tests.

Thirteen-year-old Mykhale Mullen, who is Black and attends Harriet Tubman Middle School in Portland, said the last time he had a teacher who looked like him was in 2024.

“I really connected with that teacher and they would help me with my work when I was behind,” Mullen said at a recent youth conference at Portland State University focusing on education and social equity issues. Portland Community College and PSU hosted the conference in December.

“That teacher would tell me about my grades and say, ‘You got to work on this class,’” Mullen said. “They would really check in with me.”

Evelyn Ortiz, a classmate at Harriet Tubman who presented at the conference, said having diverse teachers helps students feel represented and relevant in the classroom.

“This year, I had a teacher who was Hispanic just like I am,” Ortiz said. “I felt like he pushed me to learn and I was more comfortable in his classroom than I am in other classrooms.”

The nonprofit’s analysis notes that to meaningfully increase educators of color, teacher prep programs at universities and colleges must graduate cohorts of students that are more diverse than the current teacher workforce in any given state.

NCTQ looked at five years of federal higher education graduation data from the 2018-19 through 2022-23 school years. The council compared those numbers to the demographics of new teachers and returning teachers in each state.

In Oregon, the analysis found about 20% of teacher prep program completers identified as a person from a historically disadvantaged group. That’s about 10 percentage points higher than the state’s education workforce from that five-year time period.

These findings mirror a biannual state report from 2024 that showed Oregon has been making gains in teacher diversity but still has work to do to retain teachers of color.

“To promote teacher diversity Oregon should really be supporting colleges of education at community colleges and state universities, where teachers come from,” said Gabriel Higuera, who teaches ethnic studies at Portland Community College and founded the Critical Educators of Color Pathway program.

Higuera said the adoption of educator cohort models would help boost retention of teachers of color.

“There should be wrap-around funding from recruitment into the teacher pathway,” Higuera said. “Students would go through cohorts all the way into their third year of teaching experiences.”

Even though Oregon is on the right track when it comes to diversifying its teacher workforce, the state could soon be derailed.

Over the past year, the Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Education has cracked down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at both K-12 schools and colleges. In April, Oregon leaders said they would not end any DEI initiatives to appease the federal government. Still, education experts believe pressure from the Education Department could chill efforts to educate more teachers of color.

At the state level, the Oregon Department of Education recently proposed eliminating the state’s Educator Advancement Council in a budget cut exercise ordered by Gov. Tina Kotek. The November exercise was in response to a massive $373 million state budget shortfall predicted by state economists last summer.

The EAC coordinates funding and strategies to support the state’s current and future teachers, including Grow-Your-Own teacher training programs, scholarships and grants and teacher mentorship programs. In the last biennium, the council distributed nearly $77 million in state dollars to local school districts, community colleges, universities and tribal communities.

As previously reported by OPB, ODE Director Charlene Williams said at a November legislative informational meeting that part of the council’s mission was to diversify Oregon’s teachers. She said if the EAC is axed next year, the agency may not have the capacity or means to continue that diversity work.

The fate of the EAC is still up in the air, but the state’s budget forecast improved in an updated report released in November. Lawmakers’ next budget update is scheduled for February.

But even more important than funding for teacher diversity, is buy-in from individual schools and school districts, said PCC’s Higuera. He believes it takes a commitment to diversity from the ground up and stronger accountability from state leaders to see meaningful change in schools.

Oregon won’t see real change simply from pumping more money into the problem, he said.

“If we want something different, we have to do something radically different,” Higuera said. “It needs to be a complete rerouting of our priorities and how we see the problem.”