Letter to Oregon legislators representing parts of the Portland Public School District,
At the 2/5/19 work session of the Portland Public Schools Board, there was a presentation of “Human Resources Workforce Metrics.” The data presented show that PPS needs to flip about 24.4% or 895 of its White teachers to one of the categories of diverse teachers to get a teacher workforce equal in diversity to its student population.
The following is my tabulation from the above presented chart plus calculations of the number of addition diverse teacher PPS needs to gain to have teacher percentages equal to students percentages in the various categories of diverse students.
The following chart from the PPS presentation shows the past eight years of progress in diversifying their teacher workforce.
PPS’s progress in diversifying its teacher workforce has been slow. Here is my presentation of the data show in the above “Educator Race October 2011`-2017” chart.
Note that over the past eight years PPS has only reduced its percentage of White teachers by 3.8%. At that rate (0.475% per year), it would take 51 years for the PPS teacher workforce to equal its student population in diversity.
PPS needs help from the Legislature. PPS’s lack of diverse teachers is just part of a much larger problem. Based on data from the 2018 Oregon Educator Equity Report, I have calculated that Oregon needs to have a net gain of 9,100 diverse teachers.
From the 2018 Oregon Educator Equity Report:
My calculations from data in the report.
The 2018 Oregon Educator Equity Report says that Oregon added a net 195 diverse teachers in 2016-17. At a net rate of 195 per year, it would take 46.6 years to raise the percentage of diverse Oregon teachers to the same percentage as Oregon students. In 2015-16, all 17 Oregon schools of education graduated 245 diverse teachers. At a net rate of 245 diverse teachers per year, it would take 37 years to raise the percentage of diverse Oregon teachers to the same percentage as Oregon students. Oregon needs to do much more.
There are proposals are proposals before this legislative session to assist in diversifying the teacher workforce. They do not do enough.
Please ask for a long term plan, articulated in sufficient detail, for how Oregon will equalize the demographics of its teachers with the demographics of its students. Also ask on each specific proposal haw many additional diverse teachers the proposal will add to the teacher workforce in what period of time.
You are all Democrats. How would you characterize the current Oregon educational system with almost 90% monolingual White teachers overseeing and teaching a student population that is approaching 40% students of color? I call it “structural racism.” How long do you think such a system should continue? I say no more than fifteen years. So how does Oregon gain 9,100 diverse teachers in fifteen years?
Thank you.
Sincerely – Dave Porter
House districts that include parts of PPS: 27: Sheri Schouton, 33: Mitch Greenlick, 34: Ken Helm, 35: Margaret Doherty, 36: Jennifer Williamson, 38: Andrea Salinas, 41: Karin Power, 42: Rob Nosse, 43: Tawna Sanchez, 44: Tina Kotek, 45: Barbara Smith Warner, 46: Alissa Keny-Guyer, and 48: Jeff Reardon.
Senate districts that include parts of PPS:14: Mark Hass, 17: Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, 18: Ginny Burdick, 21: Kathleen Taylor, 22: Lew Frederick, 23: Michael Demrow, and 24: Shemia Fagan