Classroom crisis: New York schools struggle to diversify teaching staff

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — Data released Wednesday shows that teachers of color are underrepresented and less likely to stay in New York State public schools than their white colleagues. The New York Equity Coalition crunched the numbers from the New York State Education Department to identify trends and launched a new online tool for visualizing all that data.

Based on NYSED’s most recent figures from the 2023 to 2024 school year, NYEC highlighted persistent disparities. While students of color represented 60% of K-12 enrollment statewide, only 20% of teachers were people of color, a 40 percentage point spread. This representation gap existed despite a small increase in the share of teachers of color since the 2018 to 2019 school year, which at the time was 16% of the workforce.

“Representation in the classroom matters,” said Arlen Benjamin-Gomez, Executive Director of EdTrust-New York, in a press release from NYEC. “When students see educators who share their cultural and racial backgrounds, it strengthens their sense of belonging, engagement, and academic achievement.”

The NYEC’s Educator Diversity Data Tool makes it easy to see that the biggest gaps are in urban districts. In New York City, students of color made up 85% of the student body, while just 38% of teachers were people of color. That’s a 47 percentage point difference.

The Big 4 districts—Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers—had similar student numbers, with 85%. But only 22% of teachers identified as teachers of color, an even larger spread of 63 percentage points. Over three-quarters of teachers were white, compared to about three out of every twenty students.

Charter schools were the only place where more than half of the teachers—55%—were teachers of color. Charter schools were also the only place where a nonwhite demographic—Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders—had a higher proportion of teachers than students, but only slightly. Still, with 88% of their students identifying as non-white, that’s still a 33 point representation gap.

School districts are classified by NYSED as urban, suburban, and rural depending on population, density, and distance from an urban center. High-need districts have high student poverty and low community resources, while average- and low-need districts are wealthier.

There are also gaps in communities outside of the cities. In poor urban and suburban districts, students of color make up 46% of the student body, while teachers of color make up 21% of the workforce. Rural high-need districts have a smaller gap, with 18% students of color and 5% or less teachers of color.

But the struggle to diversify persists even in wealthier communities. Average-need districts have 35% students of color and 7% teachers of color, a 28-point gap. Districts in more affluent low-need communities have 39% students of color and 8% teachers of color, a 31-point gap.

Students and teachers of color are more common in schools with the state’s lowest teacher retention rates, according to NYEC’s analysis. Plus, their previous research found that more than half of all public school students statewide attend schools with no school leaders of color.

Schools have a hard time holding on to teachers of color. Collective retention rates show them leaving the profession more often than their white counterparts. From 2019/2020 through 2023/2024, the five-year rate for teachers of color was 50%, while for white teachers, it was 64%.

For the lowest rates across all racial groups, New York State public schools retained just 45% of Black and Native American teachers over that period. That means less than half reached five years in their districts.

Overall, the statewide average five-year retention rate for teachers of color was 47% for 2023/2024. Latino retention stood at 55% and AAPI retention was 52% across New York. Zeroing in on the Big 4, retention rates were particularly low for AAPI teachers at 44%, with Black teachers at 47%.

Read on for a breakdown of the rest of the data, drawn from the NYEC’s tool and sorted by worst representation gap. “Multiracial” was a category for students, but not for teachers, who could also decline to self-identify.

New York State, 2023/2024

Demographic	Students of color as a percentage of the student body	Teachers of color as a percentage of the workforce	5-year retention rate	Representation gap
Latino	30%	7%	55%	23 percentage points
Black	15%	9%	45%	6 points
AAPI	10%	4%	52%	6 points
Native American	1%	<1%	45%	<1 point
White	40%	75%	64%	(-35 points)
Multiracial	3%
	99%	95%

New York City public schools, 2023/2024

Demo	Students	Teachers	Retention	Gap
Latino	43%	13%	64%	30 points
AAPI	19%	8%	56%	11 points
Black	19%	17%	52%	2 points
Native American	1%	<1%	46%	<1 points
White	15%	53%	66%	(-38 points)
Multiracial	2%
	99%	91%

Big 4 districts (Buffalo, Rochester, Yonkers, Syracuse), 2023/2024

Demo	Students	Teachers	Retention	Gap
Black	38%	12%	47%	26 points
Latino	34%	8%	53%	26 points
AAPI	8%	2%	44%	6 points
American Indian	1%	<1%	65%	<1 points
White	15%	77%	66%	(-62 points)
Multiracial	5%
	101%	97%

Urban-suburban high-needs districts, 2023/2024

Demo	Students	Teachers	Retention	Gap
Latino	46%	10%	61%	36 points
Black	20%	7%	62%	13 points
AAPI	4%	1%	50%	3 points
Native American	0%	<1%	44%	(<1 point)
White	24%	79%	63%	(-55 points)
Multiracial	5%
	99%	97%

Rural high-needs districts, 2023/2024

Demo	Students	Teachers	Retention	Gap
Latino	9%	1%	35%	8 points
Black	3%	<1%	41%	>2 points
Native American	2%	<1%	48%	>1 points
AAPI	1%	<1%	30%	<1 point
White	82%	95%	58%	(-13 points)
Multiracial	4%
	101%	97%

Average-needs districts, 2023/2024

Demo	Students	Teachers	Retention	Gap
Latino	19%	3%	52%	16 points
Black	7%	1%	51%	6 points
AAPI	4%	<1%	48%	>3 points
Native American	0%	<1%	45%	(<1 point)
White	65%	93%	65%	(-28 points)
Multiracial	4%
	99%	97%

Low-needs districts, 2023/2024

Demo	Students	Teachers	Retention	Gap
Latino	16%	3%	54%	13 points
AAPI	14%	2%	52%	12 points
Black	4%	<1%	55%	>3 points
Native American	0%	<1%	65%	(<1 point)
White	61%	92%	67%	(-31 points)
Multiracial	4%
	99%	97%

Charter schools, 2023/2024

Demo	Students	Teachers	Retention	Gap
Latino	40%	18%	14%	22 points
Black	48%	32%	13%	16 points
Native American	1%	<1%	23%	>0 points
AAPI	4%	5%	14%	(-1 point)
White	6%	35%	24%	(-29 points)
Multiracial	2%
	101%	90%

“This new data exposes long-standing disparities and is a clear call to action,” said Samuel L. Radford III, Co-Convenor of the WNY Education Equity Task Force, in the press release. “New York cannot achieve true educational equity without addressing racial gaps in teacher representation.”

Still, “It would be even more helpful to find out why retention rates and hiring rates are not increasing more,” said Republican Assemblymember Brian Maher, a member of the Standing Committee on Education and the Standing Committee on Children and Families, in a statement. “Were exit interviews conducted with teachers who are leaving? Why are these trends taking place? We have to dig deeper if we are going to better define this issue so we can come up with thoughtful and practical solutions that ensure every student has the opportunity to succeed. This is not just about statistics—it’s a broader conversation that requires input from teachers, administrators, parents, and community leaders.”

Reached for comment about teacher diversity, NYSED called it a top priority. In an email, spokesperson JP O’Hare said the department is “committed to leading the way and setting the standard for meaningful change.”

O’Hare said NYSED has several initiatives to strengthen the teacher pipeline and address shortages, including grow your own programs that give teacher candidates real-world classroom experience, which he says will likely increase their retention rates. NYSED guides school districts and BOCES to help them start GYO programs, focusing on:

• Recruiting teacher candidates, including current teaching assistants, from underrepresented demographics
• Creating early recruitment pathways starting in high school
• Finding money to attract and support teacher candidates

NYSED has grant programs to finance its GYO efforts and support teacher candidates. The Teacher Opportunity Corps II program, for example, tries to increase underrepresented individuals in teaching. Since 2016, NYSED awarded $3 million in TOC II grants to 16 colleges, which incorporate retention strategies like providing new teacher mentors.

He also pointed to the TEACH New York recruitment platform, which started in April 2024. According to O’Hare, over 79,000 individuals subscribed to the platform, and 65% identified as people of color.

The Teacher Opportunity Corps II is meant to increase the number of underrepresented and economically disadvantaged people in teaching careers. NYSED also supports Clinically Rich-Intensive Teacher Institutes, which helps with tuition and prepares teachers for certification in English to Speakers of Other Languages and Bilingual Education.

The state also funded a Teacher Diversity Pipeline Pilot program with $500,000 over five years under the 2018/2019 state budget, creating a teacher certification pathway for current teacher aides and assistants in high-need districts.

NYSED’s categories included “Hispanic,” “Asian/Pacific Islander,” and “American Indian/Alaska Native.” NYEC used “Latinx,” “Asian,” and “American Indian.” This article was presented in AP Style, which uses “Latino,” “AAPI,” and “Native American.”