10/26/08 thoughts / Minority Employment

I was very interested in the presentation on employing minority teachers. The statistics that were shown of the minority students in the districts when compared to the minority teachers made me understand the need to encourage more minority individual towards the teaching profession. Does anyone know the statistics on the number of minority students that are going through teacher education programs when compared to non-minority students? Is it a problem that they are not going in to the profession or are they not getting hired? If it is that they are not going through the teacher education programs and selecting education as a profession then the emphasis really needs to be placed on the grow your own programs.