U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says one of the big challenges to effective school reform is the lack of diversity among teachers.
"I hate that the nation's teachers don't reflect the diversity of the nation's children," Duncan told some 350 reporters and communications professionals gathered at Stanford on May 2 for the Education Writers Association’s annual national seminar.
Duncan said only 14 percent of teachers are people of color compared with 40 percent of students.
"How we embrace diversity, how we embrace the community, how we make sure this hard work reflects who we are as a nation is hugely, hugely important," Duncan said in response to a question.
Duncan also said that when decisions about schools come from the top down and leave out the voices of parents and communities, "you put a limit on how far you can go."
Duncan's stop at Stanford was part of a swing through the Bay Area, where he visited schools and spoke to education leaders. Duncan is promoting President Barack Obama's $75 billion plan to massively expand early childhood education. He gave the opening address for the Education Writers Association's 66th National Seminar — "Creativity Counts: Innovation in Education and the Media" — which was co-hosted by the Stanford Graduate School of Education, the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) and the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
A dozen Stanford scholars in education were among the featured speakers at the conference, including presentations on achievement gaps, why high-achieving but low-income kids don't apply to selective colleges, online education, charter schools and stereotype threat.
In Duncan's address at Stanford, he highlighted topics he would like to see reporters cover in education — gun violence in schools, professional development, teacher assessment, the role of technology in higher education, for example – and he took questions from reporters on everything from the cheating scandal in Atlanta to the recent online testing problems in Indiana.
Brooke Donald is a writer for the Stanford News Service.
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