Teach for America is seeking out more minority teachers to better match the diversity of the students they teach.

Patricia Leon Guerrero, Teach for America's Senior Managing Director said during its 25th anniversary summit that while 25 percent of America’s students identify as Latino, only 7.8 of all teachers do.

"How can we get a teaching force that is more reflective of the community?” she asked, according to NBC News.

The underrepresentation of minorities is also felt in Teach for America, an organization that recruits college graduates and places them in schools across the country. The graduates commit to the two-year program to build their skill sets and be trained into optimal teachers.

Guerrero says that out of 50,000 corps members, only 4,000 are Latino, and that a major focus of the organization moving forward is to recruit more.

"The organization is actively seeking to recruit more college graduates to serve as teachers and leaders in low-income communities across the nation beginning with a two-year commitment to teach in high-need schools,” NBC News said.

These graduates, the organization hopes, will be a better reflection of the students in these communities.

"I think that by emphasizing the power of being bilingual, and taking pride in being Latino/Latina or Hispanic, that is a way that I am able to help my students find their voice in the classroom,”said corps member Natasha Borja Chavarro to NBC News.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

3/1/2016