ABSTRACT
Teacher and principal racial and ethnic diversity has become an important subject of education policy conversations at the federal, state, and local levels. This chapter reviews the evidence on educator diversity on two fronts. First, it synthesizes the evidence from multiple disciplines on the benefits of a diverse educator workforce for public school students. An accumulating body of rigorous evidence suggests that these benefits, particularly for students of color, are substantial and span multiple outcomes, including achievement, discipline, absenteeism, and assignment to gifted education. Second, it presents the state of knowledge on recruiting and retaining educators of color. The challenges in this area are substantial and require intentional, multifaceted strategies to be implemented to diversify the workforce and realize the benefits of educator diversity. Because K-12 education shares many characteristics with other human services areas, these bodies of research on educator diversity provide important insights for other areas of public administration and policy.
