Giving Compass' Take:

· At the Chicago Board of Education’s first public meeting, a major topic of discussion included the city's goals to increase diversity of the teaching workforce and how to keep teachers from leaving. 

· Why is teacher diversity so important? How can schools support teacher diversity and encourage retention? 

· Read more about Chicago's efforts to increase teacher diversity and retention.

One question surfaced again and again during the Chicago Board of Education’s first public meeting about better diversifying its teacher workforce: What about doing more to keep teachers from leaving?

“Take care of those who are already in the system,” Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates asked of the district Monday. “Begin to see educators of color as partners and experts in the field.”

Retaining teachers of color is vital for a district where half the teachers are white and 89% of the students they teach are not. Since 2011, black teachers have left the district at higher rates than have teachers of other races. As a result, the city has lost a quarter of its black teaching force over a six-year period. At the same time, more than nine in 10 white teachers remained in the district, and the number of Latino teachers grew, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of district data.

Read the full article about how Chicago plans to retain more teachers of color by Ariel Cheung and Adeshina Emmanuel at Chalkbeat.