Recruitment, Retention and the Minority Teacher Shortage

• In Event: Students, Teachers, and Accountability

Abstract

Our paper presents the results from a research study of the recruitment and retention of minority elementary and secondary teachers. The objective of our study was to empirically assess the status of the minority teacher shortage – the low proportion of minority teachers in comparison to the increasing numbers of minority students in the school system. Our data source is the National Center for Education Statistics’ nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey/Teacher Followup Survey. Our analyses show that efforts over recent decades to recruit more minority teachers, and place them in disadvantaged schools, have been very successful. But, these efforts have also been undermined because minority teachers have lower retention – largely because of poor working conditions in their schools.

Authors

• Richard Ingersoll, University of Pennsylvania

• Henry May, University of Delaware