Latino Teachers Needed For Classroom Role Models

Latino Teachers Needed For Classroom Role Models: ...While there’s little definitive research linking student performance to teacher ethnicity, the sense that shared cultural backgrounds is a bellwether for classroom motivation is making the U.S. government and influential education organizations seriously examine the disparity between the exploding number of Latino students in classrooms and the small number of Latino teachers leading them.

"We know that students benefit when they can learn from teachers who look like them and who can be strong role models," Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told The Huffington Post. "That’s why recruiting more Latino teachers is part of our overall effort to strengthen the teaching profession and ensure that students are learning from a diverse group of great teachers."

Education officials and policymakers are engaged in a polarized, ideological debate about teacher quality and the ability of teachers to help overcome poverty. As those thoughts are translated into state laws, a generation of teachers prepares to retire, providing what Duncan and the Department of Education with what they see as an opportunity to create a new breed of teacher.

One piece of that puzzle is recruiting enough minority and Latino teachers so that the people standing in front of the classroom begin to look like their students.