A missed opportunity to diversify the teaching force
The fact that the N.C. Teaching Fellows Program has returned is great news for the State of North Carolina. The Old North State no doubt stands in dire need of a steady supply of great teachers in the most challenging schools and subject areas. While there is ample cause for a celebration, there also appears to be a missed opportunity. The state needs way more teachers of color, and thus far little has been done to fix that.
As North Carolina grows more racially and ethnically diverse, this shift has not yet been reflected in the teaching population. Traditional public school enrollment is now majority non-white; however, less than 20 percent of the teaching population are persons of color. That means four out of five teachers in the state are white. This is particularly poignant given the teaching fellows program is targeted at high-need schools. Such a noble pursuit is missing some glaring measures to ensure equity for students of color. What is commonly referred to as the “racial achievement gap” is more the result of a racialized gap in social mobility and economic opportunity. Consequently, many of the underperforming schools are also overwhelmingly black and brown. The educational value of placing teachers who come from the same communities as their students cannot be overstated.
A growing body of research using N.C. Department of Public Instruction data shows that students of color do better when they have a teacher of the same race at some point in their educational career. These teachers can not only serve as role models for students of color, but they have been shown to have higher expectations and a better cultural understanding of these students. For low-income black boys, having at least one black teacher in elementary school decreases rates of dropout and increases rates of sitting for college entrance exams. Teachers of color have also been shown to suspend students of color less, which has significant implications for the “school-to-prison” pipeline.
Recently, much has been made about the fact no historically black colleges or universities were selected for the N.C. Teaching Fellows Program. While it is clear only one HBCU applied, the larger argument for racial equity still stands. The criteria in the legislation for schools and individual candidates could have been bolstered by prioritizing more teachers of color as a stated area of need. The problem of teacher diversity is widely acknowledged in education circles, yet in North Carolina no tangible remedy has been offered. HBCUs are an underutilized resource for diversifying the teacher workforce. For so many black, Latino and Native American students, the probability of having a teacher who looks like them is small, but the potential impact is large. The N.C. Teaching Fellows Program would have been the perfect place to help change that reality. Until practical policy steps are taken to ensure educational equity for students of color, the disparities in their access to a sound basic education will likely remain unchanged.
James E. Ford is an award-winning educator and consultant on issues of equity in education. He is the former North Carolina Teacher of the Year. He lives in Charlotte. Constance A. Lindsay, Ph.D, is an education policy researcher who lives in Washington, D.C. Lindsay researches a variety of K-12 education policies, with a focus on teacher diversity and closing racial achievement gaps.
This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 12:39 PM with the headline "A missed opportunity to diversify the teaching force."