“There’s a growing imbalance between what our teachers look like and our students,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said at the TEACH campaign event, a national effort that features speaking tours and a website—TEACH.gov—meant to attract more students to the field of education.
While the discussion focused largely on raising the esteem of the teaching profession, it also heavily touted the need to get more individuals from minority groups, particularly men, to become teachers, especially in areas of education where such groups are typically underrepresented. The Education Department says, while African-American and Latinos represent 17 and 21 percent of the student population, respectively, they each represent only 7 percent of the nation’s teachers.
“Our young boys, young boys of color, need great role models,” Duncan said. “Not just at the high school level but the elementary level.”
