Framingham's Diverse Student Population Outpacing Diverse Hiring

FRAMINGHAM, MA — Framingham Schools are on a positive path toward hiring a more diverse staff — the problem is that enrollment is outpacing hiring and not all of Framingham's teachers are staying in the district, according to a report by the Office of Equity, Diversity and Community Development. The report was presented to the School Committee at Wednesday night's meeting and looked at diversity in the district's staff as well as recruitment and retention numbers.

According to the report, there is a 33 percent gap between students of color and teachers of color in the district. Specifically, the gap between Latino students and educators has grown to 20 percent this year compared to the 11 and 12 percent gaps of years past. Joseph Corazzini, Assistant Superintendent of Equity, Diversity and Community Development, said this isn't because the district isn't hiring Latino educators, "Our enrollment is skyrocketing in terms of Latino or Hispanic students and our hiring isn't keeping up with the increase in terms of the demographics," Corazzini said.

This data comes as the district braces for a forecasted uptick in enrollment. Student enrollment is expected to increase by 983 students between 2014 and 2028.

The data showed some blank spots which Corazzini attributed to the competing management systems the district uses to store staff and student data. Because the data is not kept in one system and organized and archived on a regular basis, data from previous years can be harder to obtain and clean, Corazzini said.

Comparing Framingham to similar sized districts, according to DESE standards, the district falls in line with its neighbors in having a majority white staff. Cambridge currently leads the pack of comparable districts in terms of diversity in staffing, but as Corazzini pointed out, the district also has a higher number of students of color. Corazzini said Framingham leads in Latino staff with close to 11 percent of the district's staff identifying as Latino.

Retention in staff of all races and ethnicities saw a steady decline, according to the data. Corazzini said the retention numbers could be attributed to people retiring, looking for better wages or different experiences in other districts. Since the data only tells how much of the staff stayed or left the district, Corazzini said he would need to examine other data to figure out why they left.

Gloria Pascual, Vice Chair of the School Committee and chair of the Racial Equity Subcommittee, brought up the point of organizational culture being a force behind declining retention rates. "I think what I'm hearing and what folks are trying to communicate is that we have an organizational culture which we need to work on," Pascual said.

The report recommends the district remain a presence at college career fairs and expand to historically black and Latino institutions to increase its diversity of hiring. "Our goal is to go where the resources are," Corazzini said. Adding affinity groups in the district for staff is another way the district plans to increase retainment, offering staff a place they feel welcome and comfortable.

Looking to the future, programs aimed at mentoring and recruiting students of color to become educators in the district are also in the works, including the MetroWest Early Scholars Program.

See the full report here.