PHILADELPHIA — The share of students of color in Pennsylvania is growing far faster than the diversity of the state’s teaching force, resulting in one of the widest gaps in the country, according to a new report.
While students of color make up nearly 37% of Pennsylvania’s public school enrollment — up from 30.5% eight years ago — among teachers, that figure is only 6.2%, an increase of less than a percentage point over the same period, according to the report by Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based education research group that has been tracking teacher diversity in the state.
And in Philadelphia — where most of the state’s teachers of color are concentrated — the number of Black teachers has actually been shrinking, the report found. The city has 1,200 fewer Black teachers compared with 20 years ago, though the overall number of teachers — 12,000 — hasn’t changed. (While the school district historically has employed more Black teachers than charter schools, which make up one-third of the city’s public school enrollment, the current share of Black teachers in the two sectors is similar, with 23.5% in the district and 24.1% in charters.)
