In fact, this school year marks a milestone: Minorities are now the majority in the classrooms of Utah's capital.

But when those same students look back at their teachers, they see - with rare exception - one color: white.

Turns out, teachers of color make up just 8 percent of the district's instruction force, according to a 2004 Utah State University study on teacher supply and demand.

"What I'd give for more minority teachers," says Mountain View Elementary Principal John Erlacher, whose west-side school is one of the most diverse in the city with four racial and ethnic groups making up 86 percent of enrollment.

To help close the diversity divide between teachers and students, Erlacher has been urging teacher aides - Latinos and Pacific Islanders - to go back to college, earn their teaching credentials and help the school do better at connecting with the dozens of cultures and languages represented by their pupils.

"I keep telling [the aides] that's what we need: People of their culture working in the teaching ranks," Erlacher says. "It gives a whole lot more credibility in convincing kids to go on to college."

In many ways, Cristian Mendoza is that credibility.

The 21-year-old is one of those Mountain View aides who works with English learners in the mornings and catches up on reading for her afternoon teacher-preparation classes at the University of Utah during breaks.

Curious sixth-graders ask her if she really has to keep going to classes after high school to become an elementary teacher. Of course, she tells them, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

"My dad wasn't able to finish high school, and I think to myself, what if all these kids don't ever finish school?" she says. "My dad has always been there encouraging me to do well in school, and I think these kids need to have that person who tells them the same thing."

Does race matter? School districts nationwide, particularly in urban areas, are battling the same teacher-student disparity as Salt Lake City.

According to 2001 figures from the National Center for Education Statistics, 40 percent of U.S. students are minority, compared with just 10 percent of teachers. As recently as 2004, however, no large-scale studies examined the impact of teachers' ethnicity on student achievement.

The National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force found that existing research is limited to case studies and similarly small samples that cannot be generalized.

Although more numbers are needed, those studies share common themes:

* Teachers of color expect higher performance of students from their own ethnic group.

* Teachers from different ethnic groups have demonstrated that minority students' academic performance improves significantly when they are taught with techniques that draw from familiar cultures, as well as approaches normally reserved for the gifted and talented.

Anecdotally, many minority families find it less threatening to deal with teachers who look like them.

"The Latino population can feel more close to you, more comfortable," says Maria Elena Tiburcio, a Mexico-born kindergarten teacher at Salt Lake City's Escalante Elementary. "I know my culture very well, so I can deal with any kind of problems."

Educators say there are broader benefits to having adults of various racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds working within multicultural classrooms.

That's one reason Northwest Middle School teacher Ellie Brady organized a tutoring program that matches bilingual University of Utah students with English learners at her Salt Lake City school.

The college students help middle-schoolers navigate the system, understand expectations and practice their skills. They also act as living examples of the possibilities education can bring - even for English learners.

Tutor Derek Braeden huddled recently with seventh-graders Brenda Ponce and Luis Alfredo Juarez in the corner of Brady's classroom to catch up on reading about the human body.

Ponce and Juarez took turns reading the book in English - naming the bones, describing the heart's function - while Braeden listened for pronunciation.

"When you run, your heart bets. . ." Ponce starts.

"Beats," Braeden says.

Ponce tries again.

"When you run, your heart beats faster to pump more blood."

"Good job."

As a business-marketing major with a minor in Spanish, Braeden has the choice of earning one required credit hour by writing a thesis or volunteering for 45 hours at Northwest.

It was an easy decision.

"It's refreshing to get out in the community and actually use the Spanish rather than be tucked in books all the time," Braeden says. "It's fun to see the kids progressing so fast."

School administrators say teachers of color help provide cultural links between families and schools.

"They're role models, and they bring an understanding of families within those cultures," Erlacher says. "There are things that go on in the Tongan community that I'm not aware of in terms of social grace."

Oftentimes, school staffers learn as they go.

During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Mountain View allowed Muslim students to pray or read in an empty classroom so that they could fast according to their religious traditions.

"It's not easy to fast if you're around people eating all the time," Erlacher says.

Even with those kinds of accommodations, the world of the Utah's school system couldn't be more foreign to some students.

Northwest's tutors help here, too.

"They can talk about their experiences in being successful academically in a much different way than someone who has gone through our school system," Brady says. "They've conquered the language. They've conquered the educational system."

Why the shortage? Ethnic minorities always have been underrepresented in higher education and too few become teachers.

A 1999 report by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education showed 8.8 percent of students in bachelor-degree education programs were black, 5 percent were Latino, 1.4 percent were Asian or Pacific Islander and 0.8 percent were American Indian.

Barriers may be part of the problem.

Tiburcio, the Escalante Elementary teacher, was a teacher in Mexico for two years before she moved to Utah with her husband. She wanted to return to the classroom as soon as possible, but it took longer that she anticipated.

"I spent five more years in college and also worked really hard on my English," she says. "It's worth it."

Minority teachers tend to work in urban areas where enrollment is diverse, according to the collaborative's 2004 report, "Assessment of Diversity in America's Teaching Force: A Call to Action."

"The highest representation of teachers of color are in districts with the highest numbers of students of color," the report says. "Ironically, disparities between the representations also are highest in these districts."

The same holds true in Utah, according to USU's study of teacher supply and demand. Statewide, less than 7 percent of teachers are non-Anglo, compared with 15 percent of the student population - a 1-to-2 ratio. In Salt Lake City, the gap is three times as wide.

"Everywhere there's a shortage of teachers who are representative of students," says Cristelle Estrada, Salt Lake City School District's director of professional development.

At the same time, a teacher's ethnic background is no guarantee of classroom success.

"It doesn't necessarily mean that if you're of that same group, there's a connection," Estrada says. "You also have to have the teaching skills and abilities across cultures. That's what a global society is. It's understanding that diversity is a value."

Cultural competence: Perhaps more important than teachers' racial and ethnic background is what experts call "cultural competence" - the ability to infuse instruction with examples from many cultures.

"You have to learn the culture to understand the best teaching methods," says Bobbie Kirby, an African-American principal at Riley Elementary. "You don't know if their family was blown up by a mine. You don't know if they fled from a civil war. You just don't know."

Beverly Harding, a sixth-grade teacher at Riley, makes a point of visiting her students at home before the school year begins.

"You really need to know the family, and I want them to know me," she says. "I can see if they're staying with Grandma or if they watch a lot of TV or play a lot of video games."

She also gets a sense of how strongly the home supports her students' learning. And that, in many cases, differs among cultures, socioeconomic levels and any language barriers.

This year, her class comprises a range of cultures, including Somali, Tibetan, Thai, Vietnamese, Mexican, Tongan and American Indian.

That's not uncommon at Riley and other west-side schools, which tend to get the students relocated to Salt Lake City through refugee-resettlement programs.

All those languages, cultures and educational histories can complicate a primary teaching task: helping students achieve the academic standards demanded by the state and federal governments.

For years, the district has pumped millions into teaching teachers how to reach children of multiple cultures. Hundreds of teachers are endorsed in instructional strategies that work well with English learners.

Teachers and administrators also participate in "REACH" (Respecting Ethnic And Cultural Heritage) training to enhance their cultural sensitivity.

"You can have students from countries that have had conflict over a 100-year history together in the same class," Assistant Salt Lake City Superintendent Charles Hausman says. "What are the implications for how you work with other kids in the class? What does it mean when you have Bosnians, Croatians and Serbs in the same class? What about Bantus who were normally subservient to Somalis?"

Most important, administrators say, are teachers who choose to lead diverse classrooms.

"They have to want to be here and love teaching kids of color," Kirby says. "This is a hard job. Kids aren't going to learn in spite of you."

rlynn@sltrib.com