Oregon’s Diversity Gap in the Classroom
How progressive is Oregon?
In 1989, (ODE had to go way back to make the numbers look bigger) 2.1 percent of Oregon teachers were minorities. Ten years later the number increased to 4.1%. Today…5.5%!
That’s right, in almost 20 years Oregon has only increased diversity in the classroom by 3.4%.
Compare that to the change in the student population. The minority student population was 11.2% in 1989 and it’s 29.8% now.
The gap between the percent of minority students and the percent of minority teachers has become wider. (Oregon Statewide Report Card 2008/09)
It’s no wonder that students of color continue to suffer from disproportionate rates of discipline, over-representation in special education and under representation in gifted programs.
5 comments
Your final paragraph underlines how this is really a self-perpetuating problem, as students who do not succeed in school are not going to go to college to become teachers. Oregon (and especially Portland, where most of the minority folks in this state live) can choose to (1) focus on helping the schools that minority children attend in a MEANINGFUL way (no grants from Gates and Broad!) OR (2) recruit minority teachers from other states/countries.
Since #2 is the easier solution, that’s the one I’m betting on.
Lest you think this is only rhetoric, an example of the “meaningful way” to help a school would be to redesign (doncha just love that word?) the Portland Schools Foundation to create a sister schools program, pairing up wealthy schools with poor ones so they share resources, including volunteers. This is not a new idea—it has been done successfully elsewhere—but it doesn’t involve philanthro-capitalism, which may be why PPS doesn’t want to hear anything about it.
Zarwen, I know from my experience working in PPS HR department that there is strong resistance to hiring minorities. I still have a copy of a letter that I gave to Vickie Phillips outlining my concerns about discrimination in the department. I never received a response from her or anyone else regarding my concerns.
Early in my employment with PPS, I was part of a team sent on a recruiting trip to a college in California. The college was selected because of the high percentage of minority teacher graduates. We identified strong candidates and PPS paid for them to visit Portland. One particular candidate was a standout and two PPS principals were prepared to hire him. HR administrators delayed making him an offer then said PPS couldn’t hire him because he’d never had his own classroom. No shit. That’s what happens when you recruit from a college.
In my first position in HR, I was responsible for collecting and tracking the college information of PPS paraprofessionals. No Child Left Behind requires papraprofessionals to have 2 years college or meet NCLB requirements through an alternate route.
Prior to my arrival in the department, foreign transcripts were completely ignored. This left many paraprofessionals concerned about losing their jobs because they didn’t meet NCLB requirements.
I found that many bilingual educational assistants had college degrees from other countries. Many were teachers in their home countries.
NCLB allows the use of Title I funds to create career ladder programs for educational assistants to become teachers. It seemed like a no brainer to support the bilingual educational assistants in getting their teaching licenses. I pushed the idea but none of the HR administrators were interested in doing that.
HR’s HRIS had the capacity to track staff language but PPS didn’t even utilize that feature.
PPS has a 20 year history with the Portland Teachers Program (program developed to increase the number of teachers of color) but treated the program like a bastard. They kept transferring responsibility of the program to new staff. Often staff that had no experience living in or working with communities of color.
PPS isn’t having any genuine courageous conversations because the leaders (superintendent and the board) don’t have any courage.
Zarwen, I think your idea about pairing up schools is a great idea!
Thanks, Carrie, but I cannot take the credit. As I mentioned, the idea is not new and has been successful elsewhere, but since it would require rich and poor people to work together, I fear it has less than a snowball’s chance in hell—which makes me wonder whether Portland IS hell and God just never told us?
For years I have offered to help PPS set up a program with ideas I have about increasing its minority hiring numbers. One time someone listened but nothing came of it. Last year I left a message with HR saying I had the name of a terrific African-American teacher candidate who would seriously consider working in Portland. I left my number — nobody called. Too bad, she was a heck of a teacher.
Zarwen — interesting to hear some place else has come up with my pairing idea. I didn’t know that. Houston used my minority hiring idea years ago. Didn’t get it from me, of course.
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