Report Calls for More Minority Superintendents

By Bess Keller

The already startling underrepresentation of minority superintendents is likely to worsen, and current efforts to increase their numbers are "minimal," a report says.

One-third of the nation's public school students are members of minority groups, compared with just 5 percent of its chief education executives, according to the report released last week by Superintendents Prepared, a program for aspiring urban superintendents. The program is sponsored by three Washington-based organizations: the Institute for Educational Leadership, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and the McKenzie Group, an executive-search firm.

Experts project that while the proportion of minority students will climb for decades, in 2025 only about 3 percent of public school teachers--the pool from which most superintendents are drawn--will belong...