Federal Federal File

Minority Workers at the Ed. Dept.

By David J. Hoff — December 08, 2008 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The number of high-level managers who are members of racial and ethnic minority groups is rising across much of the federal bureaucracy, but not at the Department of Education, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

Of the 66 people in the Senior Executive Service or other top nonpolitical executive positions at the Education Department in September 2007, 10 officials, or 15 percent, were members of minority groups, the GAO said in a Nov. 26 report.

By comparison, 13 of the 60 people, or 21 percent, in SES and other high-level Education Department positions on Oct. 1, 2000, were members of minorities, the GAO reported.

The Education Department and two others were the only ones out of 24 executive agencies where the proportion of minorities in upper-level career jobs decreased from 2000 to 2007, the GAO found.

“The improvements reported by GAO are good, but [federal employers] need to do more to create a truly diverse corps of senior executives and SES candidates,” Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, said in a statement. “I am hopeful that the next Congress and administration will aggressively confront these remaining deficits.”

Sen. Akaka, who is the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees government management, said he would introduce a bill in the upcoming Congress to ensure that more minority-group members are represented in high-level civil service jobs.

Since last year, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has appointed nine people to SES positions, and four of them are African-Americans, department spokesman Chad Colby said in an e-mail. That raises the proportion of minorities in such jobs to 19 percent, he said.

The department has increased the diversity of its workforce by recruiting minorities at lower levels, he said. That will result in more minority candidates for upper-level jobs in the future, he predicted.

Of the 6,555 workers in the SES late last year, 16 percent were minority-group members, up from 14 percent in 2000, the GAO said. Of 150,000 people in the SES developmental pool, 22.5 percent were members of minorities. That’s 4.5 percentage points more than in 2000.

A version of this article appeared in the December 10, 2008 edition of Education Week

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal Biden Calls for Teacher Pay Raises, Expanded Pre-K in State of the Union
President Joe Biden highlighted a number of his education priorities in a high-stakes speech as he seeks a second term.
5 min read
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington.
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on March 7, 2024, in Washington.
Shawn Thew/Pool via AP
Federal Low-Performing Schools Are Left to Languish by Districts and States, Watchdog Finds
Fewer than half of district plans for improving struggling schools meet bare minimum requirements.
11 min read
A group of silhouettes looks across a grid with a public school on the other side.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
Federal Biden Admin. Says New K-12 Agenda Tackles Absenteeism, Tutoring, Extended Learning
The White House unveiled a set of K-12 priorities at the start of an election year.
4 min read
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona participates in a roundtable discussion with students from Dartmouth College on Jan. 10, 2024, on the school's campus, in Hanover, N.H.
Steven Senne/AP
Federal Lawmakers Want to Reauthorize a Major Education Research Law. What Stands in the Way?
Lawmakers have tried and failed to reauthorize the Education Sciences Reform Act over the past nearly two decades.
7 min read
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., left, joins Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, as Starbucks founder Howard Schultz answers questions about the company's actions during an ongoing employee unionizing campaign, at the Capitol in Washington, on March 29, 2023.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., left, joins Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., left, at the Capitol in Washington, on March 29, 2023. The two lawmakers sponsored a bill to reauthorize the Education Sciences Reform Act.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP