TEACHER DIVERSITY

Teacher and Student Diversity
in Phildadelphia Public Schools
1. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
In 2012, 3 in 4 Philadelphia students were Black or Hispanic,
compared with just over 1 in 4 teachers. During the period
PHILADELPHIA DATASET
of time for which we have data, the White share of the
district teaching force increased modestly, the Black share
decreased modestly, and Hispanic representation, historically
small, remained roughly the same. In terms of changes
in actual numbers, the number of White and Hispanic
teachers increased, while Black teachers experienced a
population loss of nearly 19 percent. These trends were due
in part to hiring patterns in district schools, in which new
White teachers were consistently overrepresented while
new Black teachers were consistently underrepresented, as
well as comparatively high sector leaver rates among Black
Type of data
Years available
Linked b/w years
Multiracial category
Total sample size
District
Teacher level
2001–2012
Yes
No
127,046
Charter
Teacher level
2007–2012
Yes
Yes
14,083
teachers working in charter schools particularly in the last years of our data.
2. SNAPSHOT OF TEACHER AND STUDENT RACE AND ETHNICITY IN PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC
SCHOOLS
In 2012, our most recent year of data, about 3 in 4 students attending Philadelphia public schools (district and charter
sectors) were Black (59 percent) or Hispanic (18 percent), as shown in Figure PHI-1. In the same year, about 69 percent
of the Philadelphia teaching force was White, about 25 percent was Black and about 3 percent was Hispanic.
FIGURE PHI-1: SNAPSHOT OF STUDENT AND TEACHER RACE AND ETHNICITY, 2012
Teachers
2.6% 0.2% 0.3%
3.1%
White
6.3%
2.8%
0.2%
0.3%
14.1%
Students
White
Black
Black
24.8%
Hispanic
17.8%
Hispanic
Asian
Asian
American Indian
69.0%
American Indian
Multiracial
58.5%
Multiracial
Other
FOOTNOTE TO FIGURE: The “Multiracial” response was available to charter but not district school teachers in 2012, but it is retained in the
figure above.
The representation gap between Black students and teachers was higher in charter schools than in district
schools in 2012, whereas the gap between Hispanic students and teachers was similar across sectors (see Tables
PHI-A and PHI-B).
3. TRENDS IN PHILADELPHIA’S PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT BODY AND TEACHING FORCE
As Figure PHI-2 illustrates, from 2001 to 2012, the proportion of the Philadelphia teaching force that was White
ALBERT SHANKER INSTITUTE 77 THE STATE OF TEACHER DIVERSITY