The Mount Pleasant school district in East San Jose came under fire recently for not having a single Latino principal even though 74 percent of the students are Latino.
But Mount Pleasant is hardly alone.
A Mercury News analysis of the ethnic makeup of Santa Clara County's public school administrators found that most of the county's 32 school districts with a large majority of Latino, Asian and African-American students are mostly led by white principals and vice principals.
In five large selected districts where white students make up 50 percent or less of the student population, more than 80 percent of principals and vice principals are white, the analysis shows. In one of those school districts where minorities make up almost two-thirds of all students, Campbell Union Elementary, all but three of 17 administrators are white.
The analysis paints a picture familiar to school districts across the state. It is one that resonates in particular with Latinos, who have become California's largest single group of students but are poorly represented among administrators.
While the number of Latino administrators in California has grown over the years, the increase has not kept pace with the burgeoning number of Latino students in public schools.
State figures on all administrators - the pool includes superintendents, principals, vice principals, administrative assistants, driver education coordinators and various kinds of employees - showthat more than two-thirds, or 69 percent of public school administrators statewide, are white; 17 percent are Latino, 8 percent African-American and 4 percent Asian. To get a truer picture of the top administrators who interact regularly with students, the Mercury News analyzed only the numbers and ethnic makeup of principals and vice principals in Santa Clara County.
Latino leaders and advocates for diversity argue that having more Latino principals and vice principals will be important to help bridge the lagging achievement of Latino students, who now make up 48 percent of California's 6.2 million public school students. Demographers say they will become the majority in 2010.
"When you look at who's sitting in our classrooms, we should be reaching out to folks who can be those role models," said Fernando Elizondo, a former principal and retired Salinas school superintendent who is now executive director of the California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators, or CALSA. The state program pairs emerging Latino administrators with school principals.
But Mount Pleasant is hardly alone.
A Mercury News analysis of the ethnic makeup of Santa Clara County's public school administrators found that most of the county's 32 school districts with a large majority of Latino, Asian and African-American students are mostly led by white principals and vice principals.
In five large selected districts where white students make up 50 percent or less of the student population, more than 80 percent of principals and vice principals are white, the analysis shows. In one of those school districts where minorities make up almost two-thirds of all students, Campbell Union Elementary, all but three of 17 administrators are white.
The analysis paints a picture familiar to school districts across the state. It is one that resonates in particular with Latinos, who have become California's largest single group of students but are poorly represented among administrators.
While the number of Latino administrators in California has grown over the years, the increase has not kept pace with the burgeoning number of Latino students in public schools.
State figures on all administrators - the pool includes superintendents, principals, vice principals, administrative assistants, driver education coordinators and various kinds of employees - showthat more than two-thirds, or 69 percent of public school administrators statewide, are white; 17 percent are Latino, 8 percent African-American and 4 percent Asian. To get a truer picture of the top administrators who interact regularly with students, the Mercury News analyzed only the numbers and ethnic makeup of principals and vice principals in Santa Clara County.
Latino leaders and advocates for diversity argue that having more Latino principals and vice principals will be important to help bridge the lagging achievement of Latino students, who now make up 48 percent of California's 6.2 million public school students. Demographers say they will become the majority in 2010.
"When you look at who's sitting in our classrooms, we should be reaching out to folks who can be those role models," said Fernando Elizondo, a former principal and retired Salinas school superintendent who is now executive director of the California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators, or CALSA. The state program pairs emerging Latino administrators with school principals.
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