A coalition of civil rights and education groups released a scathing report Wednesday that questioned the city’s commitment to hiring and retaining teachers of color.
Although the city is under a decades-old court order to increase the diversity of its teaching staff, the school department has seen the percentage of black teachers in the system decline over the last ten years. Modest increases in the percentages of Latino and Asian teachers have not offset the losses of black teachers, leading to a slight increase in the percentage of white teachers, according to the report, titled Broken Promises: Teacher Diversity in Boston Public Schools.
The increased proportion of white teachers comes despite the district’s 2016 Opportunity and Achievement Gap Policy, which included goals to recruit and retain “employees at all levels who reflect the demographics of the District’s students.”