In public school classrooms across New Jersey, stu-dents and their teachers are looking less and less alike.

The state’s teaching force remains mostly white de-spite a growing number of minority students, an AsburyPark Press analysis found. Minorities made up more thanhalf of the student body last year, up from 45 percent sixyears ago. Even still, only 15.6 percent of certified teach-ers were nonwhite — a slight uptick from 14.4 percent sixyears ago, state data showed.

The diversity gap between students and their teachersis only widening in some communities: counties are seeingsignificant surges of minority students while hiring levelsfor diverse teachers remain largely stagnant.

Consider: » Countywide, 6.1 percent of teachers in Monmouth

County and 3.3 percent in Ocean County were minoritieslast year — similar to rates in 2007-08. Both counties, how-ever, saw the ratio of Hispanic students grow by more than50 percent in the last six years.

THEWIDENINGDIVERSITYGAP

DIVERSITY IN THE SCHOOLS

Monmouth County

31%minority students

6.1%minority teachers

Ocean County

26%minority students

3.3%minority teachers

KAREN YI @KAREN_YI

Monmouth and Oceanpublic schools are morediverse than ever, but thecultural change isn’t seenin their teaching ranks.

“I want the teaching force to be balanced gender-wise and ethnicity-wise tomirror as close as we can the diversity in the student population. So all the kidscan find somebody to say ‘That person is like me. I can be like that person.’ It’s avery powerful thing.”

ROCCO TOMAZIC FREEHOLD BOROUGH SCHOOLS

See GAP, Page 5A

ASBURY PARK PRESS :: MONMOUTH EDITION APP.COM $1.00

WEDNESDAY 08.19.15

VOLUME 136

NUMBER 198

SINCE 1879

ADVICE 5DCLASSIFIED 1ECOMICS 4DLOCAL 3AOBITUARIES 11A

OPINION 14ASPORTS 1CTABLE 1DWEATHER 8CYOUR MONEY 10A

See what people are saying about the hottest stories in APP and join the conversation. “Like” us on Facebook:

facebook.com/asburyparkpress.

NOTHING RADICAL IN TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION IDEAS, OBSERVERS SAY PAGE 1B

BERKELEY — An empty stroller sat on the drivewayof a Bittern Lane house early Tuesday, hours after a2-year-old girl wandered out a back door and drownedin a neighbor’s pool.

The girl was identified by multiple sources as Mad-digan McCarthy. She was found Monday evening inthe shallow end of a next-door neighbor’s in-groundpool, not long after her parents reported her missing.

She slipped out the back door of her home, wan-dered through an opening in a fence, into the neigh-bor’s back yard and into their pool, according to asource with direct knowledge of the police investiga-tion. The girl’s mother was identified as Brigitte Mc-Carthy, 31, and her father as Robert Trella Jr., 41.

The parents reported their daughter missing at8:33 p.m. Monday, according to a news release fromOcean County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Al Del-la Fave. It was not disclosed who, if anyone, was su-

Girl drownsin poolafter goingmissingAuthorities probe deathof Berkeley 2-year-oldSTEPH SOLIS @STEPHMSOLISAND ANDREW FORD @ANDREWFORDNEWS

See DROWNS, Page 6A

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has dropped out ofthe top-10 among Republican presidential contendersin a new CNN poll, but he isn’t dropping out of the race,despite a blog report that he’ll be gone by the end ofthe month.

The nationwide CNN/ORC International pollreleased Tuesday has Christie with 3 percent support,putting him in 11th place. If that ranking holds, Chris-tie will be sidelined in the network’s Sept. 16 debate forthe top-10 candidates as determined by an average ofpolls.

Donald Trump is the leader at 24 percent, with JebBush second at 13 percent.

Christie five days ago was said to be“seriously con-sidering’’ dropping out of the race by the end of Au-gust, according to speculation by the dcwhispers.comblog.

Christie spokeswoman Samantha Smith said theitem is “completely false.’’

Christie drops inCNN poll butstaying in raceBOB JORDAN @BOBJORDANAPP

See DROPS, Page 6A

Finally, a fix for Route 66?Two-lane stretch of busy highwaymay get $12 million widening. 3A