WNC behind state average in educator diversity Wednesday, April 28, 2021 A report issued by the DRIVE task force says N.C.’s educators don’t sufficiently reflect classroom diversity. File photo
North Carolina has about 1.5 million public school students, and according to a report from the Department of Public Instruction, 52.3 percent are minority students, while only 20.5 percent of teachers are minorities.
It’s a disparity Gov. Roy Cooper hopes to improve with the creation of the DRIVE (Develop a Representative and Inclusive Vision for Education) Task Force, which he created in 2019 to work toward increasing diversity in education.
According to the task force’s report issued in January 2021, studies have shown that teachers of color improve the test scores of all students. There is also evidence to suggest that students of color are less likely to drop out if they have a teacher of color.