There are thousands of Latino students in classrooms across the Kansas City region, but most aren’t taught by educators who look like them.
A new study from the Latinx Education Collaborative shows that’s steadily changing. The report, set to be published this week, found that the percentage of Latino teachers in the region has nearly tripled since 2019, reaching 2.7 % in the 2024-25 school year.
The number of educators of color has also increased to 12% in the 2024-25 school year, up by two percentage points from the 2022-23 school year.
Edgar Palacios, the Latinx Education Collaborative’s executive director and founder, said that’s exciting growth — but more can be done.
“That’s still a lot of work for us to do to ensure that our young people have access to educators that understand their culture, are from the community, and reflect who they are,” Palacios said.
The number of Latino students is growing across the metro, but a 16-point gap between teachers and students persists. The Latino student population reached 18.5% of the Kansas City area’s total enrollment in the 2024-25 school year, according to the report.
Another 32-point gap exists between students of color and teachers. Students of color make up 44.5% of Kansas City’s enrollment.
The report comes as St. Louis University researchers find Latinos have become the city’s largest minority demographic. About 15,000 Hispanic or Latino residents moved to the Kansas City area between 2023 and 2024.
Jonathan Oregel, a first-year teacher in the Kansas City, Kansas, School District, said when he was young, he had few teachers who reflected his culture.
He participated in the Futuros educator pipeline program, where he said he learned about the profession from other longtime teachers. The program aims to add 50 Latino educators to Kansas City by the end of 2027.
Oregel previously worked as a graphic designer, but said he has always been passionate about being involved in his community and giving back. He said it's an honor to have a role in students’ lives now.
“It feels good to have that representation, and to be able to speak Spanish to kids and see the smile on their face when they get something because they didn't understand in English,” Oregel said.
Increasing representation in Kansas City area schools
The report found educators of color are concentrated in schools located in urban areas, while suburban and rural areas lag behind. Nearly a third of the region’s Latino educators are employed by Kansas City Public Schools and Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools.
Charter schools, while smaller, lead in the areas of proportional representation and growth. The report found about a fourth of teachers are Latino at Guadalupe Centers Schools and more than half of educators are nonwhite at several charters.
Palacios said school districts with the most success in recruiting Latino teachers are willing to admit there’s a problem — and invest in solving it.
“When we don't try to address the issue, when we try to push it under the rug, then we can't address it. We can't have real conversations in the community,” Palacios said.
At Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, nearly 60% of students identify as Hispanic or Latino and more than 60 languages are spoken within the school district.
Randy Lopez, the board of education president, said the district works to ensure all educators — but in particular their Latino and Black educators — feel supported and have the resources they need to be successful.
“We want to make sure that we support them, but it starts with retaining those talented individuals, retaining those talented staff that we have to ensure that our students and scholars feel seen and represented in the classroom,” Lopez said.
Human resources staff in Kansas City Public Schools said they use a pipeline to recruit high school students as future educators in the district by working with the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Institute of Urban Education’s “Grow Your Own" program.
Staff said they are also working on housing solutions and student loan forgiveness to attract members from the community to work in their schools.
Michelle Aguirre Hill, principal at the Foreign Language Academy, said she focuses on retaining teachers on a building level. About 44% of the school’s teachers are native non-English speakers — a point of pride for her so students can learn languages and cultures firsthand.
She said representation also matters for students’ families.
“It's very challenging at times for families to connect and to partner as deeply as they want to, if they don't see themselves represented in the building. That becomes another barrier for them,” Aguirre Hill said. “Having people in those roles that can facilitate that, being creative about ways in which we can help them connect, is also something that we are working on.”
The Shawnee Mission School District is also seeing its number of Latino educators increase.
Dr. Jeremy Higgins, the district’s assistant superintendent of human resources, said about 2.5% of its educators were Hispanic in the 2021-22 school year. This year, it’s up to 4%.
He said that’s not a lot by percentage, but it represents almost double the amount of Latino certified teachers in the district. It’s not the district’s goal, but he said it’s progress as they try to have a workforce that is reflective of their community and students.
Higgins said the district also has a teacher pathway for students at each high school.
“That’s one of the parts that we're really trying to be intentional on focusing on to create that pipeline of future teachers, just so that we can spark that interest and that inspiration early on and hopefully reap the benefits several years later down the road,” Higgins said.
‘We have to have the courage’
But Palacios said recent policies and legislation is making this work more difficult.
In January, a Virginia-based group, Parents Defending Education, filed a complaint alleging that Kansas City Public Schools’ effort to hire more Black and Latino teachers is discriminatory.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed an executive order in February banning state agencies from considering diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring decisions. Just days before, the U.S. Department of Education directed schools to stop using race as a hiring factor or risk losing federal funds.
Palacios said his group doesn’t receive federal dollars so it has more flexibility, and it plans to use that freedom to speak up.
“Because ultimately, we have to advocate on behalf of our young people,” Palacios said. “We understand the data, we understand what representation does for the future trajectory of a young person, and so we have to have the courage.”
Numerous studies have found sharing a race or ethnicity with a teacher improves student learning, graduation rates and discipline.
Oregel said he hopes more prospective teachers are able to join programs like the Futuros pipeline. He said kids are at school the majority of their day, and it may be the one place they’re treated with dignity.
“The more I do this daily, the more I see that sometimes I'm the only person that might smile or treat these kids nicely, show them a little bit of love,” Oregel said. “So I love it, and I want to keep doing it. I appreciate it.”
