Recruitment and Retention Key in Diversifying Faculty at Public Schools

by Jamaal Abdul-Alim, Diverse Issues in Higher Education

Washington — The longstanding demographic mismatch between America’s public school teachers and the students they serve got a fresh airing Tuesday at Howard University, where a panel explored the nature of the problem and discussed a variety of potential solutions.

Acting U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. said the lack of diversity among America’s teachers emanates from problems of recruitment and retention.

Read the story here.

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• Why Teach for America Is Scrapping Its National Diversity Office (The Atlantic)

Tinder, But For Diversity: Can Code Help Silicon Valley Find And Retain Minority Engineers?

By Salvador Rodriguez, International Business Times

SAN FRANCISCO -- If lack of diversity is Silicon Valley’s problem, is there a tech solution? While creating a diverse workforce with proportionate women and minorities may seem like the ultimate human problem, some believe there's a fix that involves code.

Read the story here.

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• Tech Diversity: Coding Boot Camps Bringing Higher Percentages Of Women, Minorities Into Tech, Study Finds (International Business Times)
• How to diversify your IT hiring pipeline (CIO)

The number of black teachers has dropped in nine U.S. cities

By Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post

The number of black public school teachers in nine cities — including the country’s three largest school districts — dropped between 2002 and 2012, raising questions about whether those school systems are doing enough to maintain a diverse teaching corps, according to a new report to be released Wednesday.

The study by the Albert Shanker Institute, a think tank funded by the American Federation of Teachers, looked at teacher data from nine cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland, New Orleans, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The research found that each city saw a drop in the number of black teachers in traditional and charter schools.

Read the story here.

Click here for the official Albert Shanker Institute report on teacher diversity.

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• Failing Grade: Why There Aren’t More African-American Teachers in Classrooms (Diverse Issues in Higher Education)

University of Pennsylvania Program Seeks To Boost Enrollment of Black Men In Ph.D. Programs

Diverse Issues in Higher Education by Maria Eugenia Miranda , March 30, 2011 When Malcolm Marshall and several other Black and Latino students were sent letters excluding them from a Harvard University information session at their public high school in Georgia, Marshall’s outraged mother called the university. Recruiters assured her that it was not their policy to exclude students and that all those who had been banned from attending were allowed to join in. Marshall, now a junior at Rutgers University, remembers the vice principal of his high school telling him, “It’s so hard to get in. You probably won’t get in anyway.” Marshall credits his mother for helping him reach his educational goals, saying she never took no for an answer. He is now in the process of applying to graduate programs in education, with the goal of promoting access to higher education for students of all backgrounds. He hopes to work as a college administrator or in the U.S. Department of Education. Full Story: http://diverseeducation.com/article/14968/