Pennsylvania's school students hail from a variety of backgrounds and ethnicities, but their educators may not reflect that diversity. According to a study by the Center for American Progress, just 4 percent of Pennsylvania's public school teachers are Latino or African American while 96 percent are white. 

Pennsylvania's student body as a whole may not be as diverse as it is in places like Philadelphia, but public school educators are still disproportionately white compared to the state's 71 percent white student body. In the state's largest school district, Philadelphia, just 14 percent of all students identified as white. 

A study published by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) found that while the population of non-whites in the U.S. increased from 23 percent to 34 percent in two decades, the percentage increase of non-white teachers did not rise with the population. In 1988, 12 percent of all teachers identified as non-white. Two decades later, the percentage has risen to 16 percent. In Pennsylvania, just 4 percent of teachers in public schools identified as non-white across the state—2 percent African American and 2 percent Latino. 

The CPRE study examined recruitment and retention of non-white, public school educators across the U.S. The report found that non-white teachers are more likely to work in high-poverty schools that are disproportionately African American and Latino. The study also found that African American and Latino teachers left jobs at a high rate, citing the desire to obtain a better job or career as the top reason for leaving.