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Teachers College Record Volume 120, 130303, 2018, 26 pages
Copyright © by Teachers College, Columbia University
0161-4681
Schools in Transition: Creating a Diverse
School Community
DONALD EASTON-BROOKS
University of South Dakota
DERRICK ROBINSON
University of South Dakota
SHENEKA M. WILLIAMS
University of Georgia
U.S. public schools are becoming increasingly diverse. By 2025, it is predicted that students
of color will make up more than 55% of the school population across the United States.
However, teachers and leaders of color make up less than 20% of the education workforce
across the country. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015) establishes a policy goal
to increase the number of educators of color. Yet, the policy must go beyond simply increasing
the number of educators of color; rather, the policy must assist schools in transitioning and
engaging with a new generation of public school students and teachers of color. This study
employed a qualitative approach informed by a narrative case study design to explore the
challenges schools face in increasing the quantity and quality of racially diverse educators.
The researchers examined a school district facing a rapid demographic change over a rela-
tively short period. The findings showed challenges at multiple levels and cultural/racial
systematic challenges facing many U.S. public schools. The researchers conclude with rec-
ommendations to multiple stakeholders (i.e., public schools, teacher preparation programs,
leadership preparation programs) who impact the process of leading schools through the
transition into highly diverse communities of learning.
Recent studies have shown that the United States is becoming more
racially and linguistically diverse (Easton-Brooks, 2013, 2015). In turn,
U.S. public schools are becoming diverse at a much greater rate than the
United States as a whole (Boser, 2011; Ingersoll & May, 2011). Through
efforts aimed toward helping schools respond to the diversification
of our nation’s schools, such as the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act
(ESSA, 2015), many states, districts, universities, private agencies, and