Mixed Messages and Diversity Management: Misalignment between District Intention and Action Aimed at Hiring Teachers of Color

Purpose: As senior district leaders in US public schools make public statements about the importance of teachers of color for all students, their inaction in designing policies to recruit these educators can undermine diversity progress. This study explores the mixed messaging around one small urban district's effort to increase the ethnoracial diversity of its teacher workforce in response to its increasingly diverse student body. Research Methods/Approach: We draw on semistructured interviews across a purposive sample (n = 41) that included staff members, the superintendent, central and school-site administrators, and teachers in one small northeastern urban school district. Findings: We found that the superintendent's supportive messaging about teacher diversity coupled with his decision to curtail diversity efforts sent mixed messages to district educators about the importance of recruiting teachers of color. These decisions stymied diversity progress across the organization and characterized what we term "mixed-message diversity management." Implications: This article contributes to empirical literature on diversity hiring in US public education by examining the strategic efforts of district and school leaders toward diversifying their teaching force and how these efforts succeed or fail to build consensus and buy-in among educators. Where the best intentions of district and school leaders have failed to make substantive inroads into increased teacher diversity, more deliberate policy efforts to mitigate the personal biases of decision makers may be required. The practice of leadership—whether at the school or district level—demands an awareness of bias, especially unconscious bias, and an openness to critical self-examination and organizational risk-taking.