Interethnic Competition for Classroom Teacher, Assistant Principal, Principal, and Administrator Jobs in Multiethnic U.S. School Districts, 2002-2008

Abstract

Previous research on interethnic competition has not examined public school jobs across the United States. We use U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data to answer two research questions. What are the levels of under- and over-representation in various public school jobs among African Americans, Latinos, and White non-Latinos? And, is there interethnic competition for these positions? Answers to these questions have implications for resource distribution and the future of representational equity. Based on analysis of 267 multiethnic U.S. school districts for 2002 and 2008, we find that Latinos are underrepresented in all four job categories and that non-Latino Whites are overrepresented or achieve near-parity in all four categories. On average, Blacks are overrepresented among assistant principals and principals but underrepresented among classroom teachers and administrators. Competition between minorities and non-minorities is more prevalent than competition between Blacks and Latinos. Among districts in which we find competition between Blacks and Latinos, competition does not heavily favor one group over the other for assistant principal, principal, and administrator positions; however, among classroom teachers, districts with Latino gains and Black losses outnumber those with Black gains and Latino losses by greater than 2 to 1. In low Latino growth districts, Latinos outpace Blacks in competition for teacher positions, but in high Latino growth districts, Blacks outpace Latinos for administrator positions.