TEACHER DIVERSITY

Between 2002 and 2011, the share of Hispanic male teachers was small and stable (remaining at about 3 percent
of all teachers in Chicago), and the share of Black male teachers declined modestly. At the same time, the share
of Hispanic female teachers increased modestly, while the share of Black female teachers declined considerably
(by nearly 9 percentage points).
4. ARE NEW HIRES CONTRIBUTING TO TEACHER DIVERSITY IN CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
In Chicago, during the time period for which we have linked teacher-level data, new-hire rates (or, more accurately,
the hire rate of teachers who were new to the sectors—see “About the City Profiles”) averaged around
8-9 percent annually. In district schools, these rates were 2-4 percentage points higher between 2003 and 2007
than they were between 2009 and 2011, most likely due to recession-related budget cuts (see Tables CHI-A and
CHI-B). As in almost all of the cities included in this study, hiring (and leaving) rates were considerably higher
in the charter sector (around 30 percent per year). As a result, despite the fact that only about 1 in 10 teachers in
our dataset was employed in the charter sector between 2009 and 2011, charters account for roughly one-third
of total hires during these years.
Figure CHI-6 compares the proportion of teachers new to the city each year, by race and ethnicity,with the
overall proportion of the city teaching force in that sector the previous year, also by race and ethnicity. 1 In the
district sector, the proportion of new hires who were Black was consistently and meaningfully lower (by about
11 percentage points, on average) than Black representation among the city’s teachers in the previous year. (Note
that the rates in a given year express the proportion of that year’s White, Black and Hispanic teachers who were
not in the district in any subsequent year.)
FIGURE CHI-6: PERCENT OF NEW HIRES COMPARED WITH PERCENT OF ALL TEACHERS IN PREVIOUS YEAR, BY
RACE AND ETHNICITY AND SECTOR, 2003–2011
Charter Schools
District Schools
Decreasing Stable Increasing
20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
15.1
-8.2
-7.7
17.9
-3.1
-12.7
Decreasing Stable Increasing
20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
9.1
9.4
1.1
1.8
-11.6 -11.4
White Black Hispanic
White Black Hispanic
The opposite pattern holds for new White teachers in the district sector, who were consistently overrepresented
vis-à-vis their share the previous year (by more than 9 percentage points every year). As for Hispanics, the
share of new-teacher hires tended to mirror the existing teacher force. In the charter sector, it is harder to glean
a pattern as we are using only four years of data (three new-teacher cohorts) and are limited by smaller sample
sizes. That said, the representation of White teachers among new charter hires consistently was significantly
higher than their share of the previous year’s teaching force, and new Hispanic and Black teachers were consistently
underrepresented.
5. ARE SECTOR LEAVING PATTERNS SERVING TO DIVERSIFY CHIGAGO PUBLIC SCHOOL
TEACHERS?
Teacher “leaver rates” (or, more accurately, “sector leaver rates”—see “About the City Profiles”) in Chicago
1 Note that, unlike in our other districts, teachers are not identified as new hires if they previously taught in the opposite sector, nor are they
identified as leavers despite return to the opposite sector at some later point. See the Data Appendix for more details.
ALBERT SHANKER INSTITUTE 40 THE STATE OF TEACHER DIVERSITY