Stanislaus County school districts want to diversify their teacher workforce. Here’s why

Students of color seeing themselves reflected in their K-12 teachers has been shown to have a positive effect on learning, graduation rates and college enrollment. But despite schools in Stanislaus County hiring a greater percentage of teachers of color, most districts don’t have faculty that represent the diversity of their student populations.

Modesto City Schools, Turlock Unified and Ceres Unified—the three largest school districts in Stanislaus County — have a majority of Hispanic students, but have not reached parity in teacher staffing.

Jessica Riojas is one of the only Latina speech language pathologists at Ceres Unified Preschool for three years. She said parents have connected with her because of her background.

“I’ve helped embrace cultural competence with my students,” she said. “ I’m one to advocate for bilingualism and share with staff and students on language differences rather than disorders. I also support cultural sensitivity, which includes having toys and material that represents a wide range of cultures, such as dolls, instruments and board games.”

Riojas recalled in one of her classes, a Spanish-speaking student lit up when she saw a loteria — a game often referred to as Mexican bingo — on the table when working on vocabulary. Because of instances like this, she said, it’s important for students to relate to staff members to promote relationship building.

“Even though many of my students have disabilities, they should not be labeled primarily by their learning impairment,” she said. “Instead they should embrace their strengths, such as their culture.”

Lange Luntao, the director of external relations at the nonprofit educational equity organization The Education Trust-West, said the presence of educators of color on school campuses and having a diverse workforce is good for all students. He also said it is incredibly meaningful to see students’ own backgrounds reflected in those of their educators.

He recalled, growing up in Stockton and identifying as Filipino, he only had one teacher that came from his background but her presence helped him.

“She exposed me to relevant and inclusive stories about Filipina and Filipino leaders in my hometown of Stockton and helped me make sense of my own family’s journey to California,” he said. “It can be harder for schools to make these connections with all students when certain racial, ethnic, and linguistic communities are left out of the teaching workforce.”

A 2022 study by the American Economic Association found Black students who had at least one Black teacher in grades K-3 were 13% more likely to graduate from high school and 19% more likely to enroll in college compared with their Black classmates who did not.

Just as there is research that shows positive outcomes of having diverse teaching staff, Luntao said, there are also negative outcomes when educators don’t understand their students.

“Having fewer teachers of color on staff can affect school climate, leading to more issues with suspension and expulsion, lower attendance rates, and academic achievement more broadly,” he said.

According to the California School Dashboard, Modesto and Turlock had higher rates of suspension than the state average, while Ceres was slightly below in 2023.

Around 6.7% of Black students and 6.8% of Pacific Islander students were suspended at least one day at Modesto City Elementary School District compared to 4.5% of white students and 4.2% of Hispanic students. Modesto City High School District was also indicated with high rates of suspensions, with around 12.8% of Black students suspended at least one day compared to 4.9% of white students and 5.9% of Hispanic students.

In Turlock Unified, around 13.2% and 10.7% of Black and American Indian students were suspended at least one day compared to 5.5% of white students and 8% of Hispanic students. In Ceres Unified, 9.4% of Black students were suspended at least one day compared to 4% of white students and 3.1% of Hispanic students.

A recent survey by the Black Educator Advocates Network found 68% of those surveyed said their school did not provide group spaces or resources specifically for Black educators to feel heard. The respondents shared they faced challenges expressing their cultural identity, discomfort with colleague’s comments and administration not addressing racism in their schools.

To get more teachers of color into the field, Luntao believes school districts and the state need to adopt clearer goals and share more reliable data on educator diversity.

He also said districts and the state need to address major issues around compensation and cost of living, difficult pathways into the classroom and provide more support for new teachers once they are on campuses.

“The state of California has not released teacher demographic data on race, ethnicity, and language skills since 2018-19, despite the fact that they collect this data annually,” he said. “This needs to change. We can only increase the number of teachers of color in the classroom if we know how far we still have to go to achieve parity with the rich diversity of our state.”