NC has a teacher diversity problem. Here’s how it hopes to attract educators of color.
Multiple groups are calling on North Carolina leaders to recruit more teachers of color as a way to improve the education of the state’s increasingly diverse student population.
On Monday, a task force created by Gov. Roy Cooper adopted a report with 10 recommendations ranging from helping more minority students get into college to changing how would-be teachers are licensed. Supporters of the effort say it makes sense because all students, but particularly students of color, will benefit from having a more diverse teacher workforce.
“We want to work to make this vision that you have for a strong, qualified, effective, diverse educator workforce in North Carolina that will help us complete my mission statement for North Carolina, which is a state where people are better educated, healthier and they have more money in their pockets,” Cooper said at Monday’s meeting.
In North Carolina, 52% of the state’s 1.5 million public school students are non-white. But their teachers are 78% white and overwhelmingly female. This mirrors a nationwide diversity gap.
The report from the DRIVE (Develop a Representative and Inclusive Vision for Education) task force comes as more groups say the lack of diversity in the state’s teacher workforce is holding North Carolina back.
Last month, the General Assembly’s research division issued a report saying the lack of a dedicated state-level effort is challenging the state’s capacity to increase teacher diversity. A legislative committee will meet next week to consider draft legislation on how to diversify the teaching workforce.
The judge overseeing the long-running Leandro school funding lawsuit backed a consultant’s report calling for the state to add more teachers of color.
Benefits of diverse teaching force
Advocates say there’s mounting evidence of the value of having teachers who look like their students. Research has shown that students of color have higher test scores and are less likely to drop out if they have a teacher of color.
“The evidence is quite clear that for students of color there is a tangible benefit, and life opportunities benefit of having a teacher of color,” former U.S. Education Secretary John King said at Monday’s meeting.
Studies have also shown that teachers of color have a positive impact on scores for all students, according to Anthony Graham, chairperson of the task force and the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Winston-Salem State University, a historically Black university in the UNC System.
But Graham said white students account for 81% of those seeking to become teachers in the state’s education preparation programs. Teachers of color often feel devalued by their mostly white administrators and leave the profession at a higher rate than white educators, according to Graham.
“If we really want to move the state of North Carolina forward from an economic development standpoint, then we have to give greater attention to bringing more teachers of color into the classroom,” Graham said at last week’s State Board of Education meeting.
Recruiting more teachers of color
The task force says the state needs to do more to expand the pipeline of potential teachers of color. In particular, the report notes how Black students who graduated with an education degree have more student loan debt than white students.
The report recommends offering affordable postsecondary access through scholarships, loan forgiveness and tuition reimbursement. Along with that, the report recommends providing more money, through public and private sources, for teacher preparation programs at colleges and universities that serve large numbers of minority students.
The N.C. Teaching Fellows program provides scholarships to people who want to teach in the fields of science, technology, engineering, math or special education. No historically Black colleges and universities are among the five University of North Carolina schools and private institutions in the program.
The report recommends adding an HBCU now that state lawmakers agreed to add three more schools to the program.
Teachers of color have a lower passing rate than white students on state licensure exams. The report recommends giving aspiring teachers multiple ways to demonstrate that they are ready to become teachers.
The task force also recommends:
▪ raising pay for all teachers, but particularly for teachers of color to help keep them in the profession.
▪ boosting anti-racism training for school employees.
▪ creating diversity goals for schools and districts and publishing an annual statewide Educator Diversity Report to show what progress is being made.
Opposition predicted
Over the years, efforts to make the workforce more diverse has drawn opposition. Javaid Siddiqi, president and CEO of the Hunt Institute, warned the task force that some people will want the group’s work to fail.
“When seeking to overturn a system that has been deliberately designed to exclude or marginalize people of color, pushback from those in positions of power likely means we are moving in the right direction,” Siddiqi said Monday.
Graham said the task force should be prepared for both positive and negative reaction to the report.
“Will you remain in the arena fighting to diversify our teacher workforce?” Graham asked at the end of the meeting. “Will you stick with the plan when things get rocky? And let’s be real, things will get rocky.”
