NCLB Imperils Minority Hiring, Group Asserts

Washington

The federal focus on teachers’ knowledge of their subjects threatens to push aside the important aim of bringing more minority candidates into a workforce that is overwhelmingly white, contends a report released here last week by a coalition of teacher and higher education groups.

The report charges that the failure to win greater racial and ethnic diversity in the teacher ranks hampers achievement among minority children and weakens the ability of schools to serve all comers.

“Studies have indicated that students of color have higher academic, personal, and social performance when taught by teachers of their own ethnic group,” said Rushern L. Baker III, the executive director of the...