Teacher Preparation Programs Failing to Diversify Teaching Force

For years, the conversation about America’s teaching force has circled back to the same reality: the adults standing in front of the classroom increasingly look nothing like their students. More than half of the nation’s children are of color, but 80% of teachers are white.

And it turns out the teacher preparation programs offered at the nation’s schools of education might be part of the problem. 

That’s the conclusion of a new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality, which shines a light on the role teacher preparation programs — college-level courses required to qualify to become a certified teacher —  play in getting more people of color into the teaching profession. 

According to the report over 40% of U.S. teacher preparation programs are graduating cohorts that are less diverse than their state teacher workforce — they’re “actively making the workforce less diverse.” 

It’s a finding that echoes what Black educator advocates have warned about for years. Sharif El-Mekki, founder and CEO of the nonprofit Center for Black Educator Development, says the report should be a wake-up call. 

“We all have to do better,” he says, “but the only way we can do better is really to analyze where we are, look at the data, listen to diverse pre-service teachers — listen to them to see what their experiences are, how they experience in our leadership — and then make adjustments.” 

What Difference Do Black Teachers Make? 

“Teachers of color bring benefits to all of their students, including better test scores, lower absence rates, and positive impacts on students’ social-emotional competence,” the report’s authors wrote. 

Although Black educators aren’t a silver bullet, research shows that Black students taught by a Black teacher are more likely to attend college and experience academic, social, and emotional growth. 

“Black students who have just one Black teacher in grades K–3 are 13% more likely to graduate from high school and 19% more likely to go to college,” the report noteds.

But NCTQ scanned about 1,500 U.S. teacher preparation programs and found that while schools hired a more diverse group of teachers annually between the 2018-2019 and 2022-2023 school years, the overall share of diverse teachers in the workforce barely grew during that time span.  

A mix of factors, including low pay, burnout, and racial discrimination, has made it harder for teacher preparation programs to recruit diverse cohorts. And after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned affirmative action in 2023, policymakers, schools, and education leaders now face even greater challenges diversifying the teaching profession without running afoul of the law. 

How can these programs turn things around?

“Teacher preparation programs need to focus on recruiting diverse cohorts and supporting all candidates, including candidates from historically disadvantaged groups, to meet high state standards and earn their teaching credentials,” the report’s authors wrote. 

Though NCTQ doesn’t officially align with any political party, in the education world, it’s widely viewed as a right-leaning organization. Founded in 2000 with support from the conservative Fordham Foundation, NCTQ built its reputation on producing reports that challenged the legitimacy and efficacy of schools of education. That puts it at odds with some education advocates, faculty groups, and teachers’ unions. But in recent years, NCTQ has embraced the idea that teacher diversity benefits America’s children.

An Example of What’s Possible

The report spotlights several organizations focused on diversifying the teaching profession as examples of what’s working, including El-Mekki’s organization, the Center for Black Educator Development.

The center’s Teaching Academy, a year-round high school career and technical education course for students interested in teaching, has been implemented in high schools in nine cities across the nation, including in Harlem and Rochester in New York; Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia,  El-Mekki says.

The program exposes students to a teaching framework that emphasizes Black empowerment, anti-racism, and social justice.

“The most powerful feedback we receive from students is that they see not only the importance of the contributions of Black educators across time and space, but they also see how education has been used as a tool for liberation as well,” El-Mekki says. 

Students who complete the Teachers Academy are eligible to enter the center’s Future Teachers of Excellence Fellowship. The Fellowship helps support college students looking to become teachers. Fellows can get up to $5,000 annually for four years, $20,000 stipends upon their fifth year of teaching, and academic support and coaching. 

Over 150 students have been involved in the fellowship since its inception, coming from colleges such as Morehouse College, Howard University, and the University of Virginia. 

Success at Public State Schools

Only 26 states have a teacher preparation program in which the graduating class is more diverse than the new teachers that are in the classroom, and the share of those new teachers is more diverse than that of more veteran teachers, the report said.

Larger teacher preparation programs, which are usually found at state colleges, not only produce a larger share of new teachers but also tend to have more diverse graduates, the report stated. The largest 10% of these programs account for 47% of graduates across the U.S., and 54% of those who finish are from diverse backgrounds. 

“While the challenges are significant, diversifying the teacher workforce remains both essential and within reach,” the authors wrote. “Moving the needle requires investment in policy and programs that create opportunity and remove barriers for people of color to consider teaching. And it’s critical to start at the beginning: teacher preparation”.

This story was originally published on Word In Black on December 9th, 2025