ABSTRACT
Over the past ten to fifteen years, there has been a simultaneous decline in the number of African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American teachers in our nation’s schools and an increase in the number of students among these same groups of people of color. A shift in the demographics of our nation coupled with special attention toward our nation’s educational goals as we approach the year 2000 have created a fertile opportunity for creating change in our teaching force in order to meet the needs of the classrooms of the twenty-first century. At the same time that this demographic shift has directed national attention to a number of concerns that surround the issue of how many teachers of color there are currently in the teaching force and how many will be needed in the future to equal the percentage of students of color, we must continue to recognize the tremendous value that diversity brings to us. Our schools must work diligently to expand the scope of this situation beyond the issues surrounding number balancing and bring out the positive value gained from a diversity that reflects the population of this democratic nation.
