A new study by researchers at the Urban Institute examines which colleges and universities with teacher training programs are doing the best job of producing a diverse pool of graduates who will become teachers in our nation’s public schools. The study found that many teacher education programs are less diverse than the colleges and universities that house them.
A majority of teacher education programs studied had a disproportionately large share of White students, relative to their universities, and a disproportionately small share of Black students. For example, at Eastern Michigan University, Black students make up 21 percent of the student body but only 10 percent of the students in education programs. In contrast, Blacks make up 13 percent of the student body at the University of Detroit Mercy. But Blacks are 31 percent of the students in education programs at the university.
Many of the institutions that are doing well at both enrolling and graduating potential teachers of color are minority-serving institutions. These colleges also produce an outsized share of teachers of color.
