The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, October 30, 2018
The gap between student and teacher demographics in Pennsylvania is among the highest in the country.
More than 60 years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, an analysis of state data shows persistently stark racial disparities in the demographics of Pennsylvania’s teachers and students — among the widest gaps in the country.
Just 5.6 percent of Pennsylvania’s teachers are persons of color, compared to 33.1 percent of its students.
The data also show that 55 percent of the state’s public schools and 38 percent of its school districts employed only white teachers. Among the districts in the Philadelphia suburbs, more than half have no black teachers.