Next up for men of color? A place at the front of the classroom.
| Cambridge, Mass.
Principal Damon Smith remembers a time when his students at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Massachusetts had a black principal, black assistant principal, black mayor, black governor, and black president 鈥� all at the same time. But he sees a need for black men to push open the door to the next frontier: the kindergarten classroom.
鈥淲e need more practitioners of color, particularly black male teachers, in our classes K-12.鈥澛爃e explains in his office on a recent afternoon. 鈥淧resident Obama is just a step. It shows you what is possible,鈥澛�
His school district has made teacher diversity a priority in recent years. Ahead of this past school year, Cambridge Public Schools had 89 job openings, 44 percent of which were filled by people of color. For the coming school year, more than 44 percent of new hires for the high school alone will be people of color, according to district officials.
Why We Wrote This
Role models, particularly those in schools, have a big impact on children. Persistent efforts to recruit and retain men of color are aimed at striking a real-world balance for school staff.
A national push for more diversity among teachers has been prompted in part by research conducted since 2015 showing the positive impact that relationships 鈥撀燽etween students, and teachers who look like them 鈥� can have. At a time of racial division in the United States, educators say it is increasingly important for all children to be exposed to role models of different races.
鈥淲e know that teacher diversity has a positive impact not just on children of color, but on all children,鈥� said Cassandra Herring, founder and chief executive officer of the Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity, speaking to reporters in Los Angeles during a recent panel discussion on the subject. 鈥淓arly interactions with other people helps to dismantle racism鈥� [Teacher diversity] is an academic imperative but it鈥檚 also a moral imperative.鈥�
More than聽聽US teachers are white and the percentage of black teachers has over the past three decades, despite . Black men make up only聽听苍补迟颈辞苍飞颈诲别.
To address this, a combination of grassroots and district-level programs have formed across the US in recent years to help recruit 鈥� and keep 鈥� black men in education.
In 2015, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio launched NYC Men Teach, aimed at helping 1,000 men of color to become classroom teachers within three years. NYC Men Teach has surpassed its goal, bringing 646 male teachers of color into the district and adding 759 to the 鈥減ipeline鈥� of those poised to enter the profession within the next two years. This past school year, 11 percent of new teacher hires were men of color 鈥� an increase from 8 percent at the launch of the program.
The same year in Philadelphia, a group of black male teachers formed an organization called聽, which hopes to have 1,000 black male educators in Philadelphia schools by 2025. Co-founder and CEO Vincent Cobb says the group has already made 鈥渟ignificant progress,鈥� with 100 to 150 interested applicants showing up each year at a job fair sponsored by The Fellowship.
These join older efforts such as Clemson University鈥檚 Call Me MISTER program, which started in 2000 to encourage more black men to enter and stay in teaching by providing support groups and tuition assistance. Call Me MISTER has since spread to聽聽in South Carolina and聽.听
A way to stem dropouts
Teacher diversity makes economic sense, says Nick Papageorge, an economist at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. Having at least one black teacher in elementary school reduces a black student鈥檚 probability of dropping out by 29 percent, and among low-income black males, having at least one black teacher reduced their dropout rate by 39 percent, Dr. Papageorge found聽.听聽
鈥淗aving a bunch of high school dropouts because they didn't have a black teacher? That seems so wasteful,鈥� says Papageorge. 鈥淪how me an economic model where wasted potential is better.鈥�
Currently, only 聽are black. And once they enter the profession, minority teachers leave teaching聽聽than their white peers.
Black teachers quit, observers say, because of discrimination by peers, isolation, and frustration with the US education system. Black and Hispanic teachers are disproportionately employed in low-income schools with a majority of students of color, a 2016 Department of Education study found.
Much of the recruitment struggle is circular, says Papageorge. To really change teaching鈥檚 demographics, almost every black person who graduates from college would need to enter education. This is unrealistic as well as undesirable 鈥� it would take black graduates away from other professions where diversity is also needed. The long-term solution, he says, is to have more black college graduates 鈥� but that means more black high school graduates, and a major barrier to higher graduation rates is the absence of black teachers.
Manuel Fernandez, the head of school at Cambridge Street Upper School, will be celebrating 40 years in education this fall. The absence of black teachers from his own education has fueled his life鈥檚 work, which Mr. Fernandez sees as an extension of what he wishes he had had as a child.
鈥淚f I don't see people who look like me, I get messages that say, 鈥業'm not to be an educator. I am not going to be a physicist. Those are not for me,鈥� 鈥� says Fernandez. 鈥淲e have to open up the opportunities for children in very distinct ways鈥� have people who look like them say, 鈥榊ou can do this, because I did it.鈥� 鈥�
Needed: morale boosts
Principal Smith says he entered teaching because he wanted to support young men marginalized by the education system, but at the same time he resents expectations, both stated and unstated, that black male teachers鈥� can 鈥渃ontrol鈥� black young men.
鈥淭here is an opportunity because of shared experience, histories, and neighborhoods鈥�. But that doesn鈥檛 mean that by virtue of being 鈥榯he black principal鈥� that all of the black boys will all suddenly fall in line,鈥� says Smith. 鈥淭hat is too heavy of a responsibility and it releases everybody else from having to do the work that needs to be done.鈥�
Black male teachers say talking about teaching together improves their morale. Christopher Godfrey is a teacher in the all-black, all-male math department at Cambridge鈥檚 Putnam Avenue Upper School. He says it has recharged him as a teacher.
鈥淏eing able to see myself reflected in my work... I can鈥檛 put into words what that has done for me,鈥� says Mr. Godfrey. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the coolest thing to be around.鈥�
Congress and the US Supreme Court have gradually narrowed the tools available to improve teacher diversity, says Catherine Lhamon, chair of the US Commission on Civil Rights. Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action over the last five decades have weakened 鈥渢he lawful use of race鈥� to create any remedy, she notes. And education funding cuts by Congress and local governments often result in teacher layoffs, which typically cut the last teachers hired 鈥� many of them teachers of color.听聽
鈥淚t鈥檚 an issue of equity,鈥� says Ms. Lhamon. 鈥淲e need to retain a focus on the issue and how much it matters for student learning.鈥�
Forging ahead in Cambridge
In Cambridge, Superintendent Kenneth Salim aims to increase the district鈥檚 teachers of color to 30 percent by the fall of 2020.
鈥淸T]his is about making sure that our students are successful,鈥� he says. 鈥淎 diverse educator workforce is one important pillar of that effort.鈥�
At present in Cambridge Public Schools, 鈥� compared to almost 60 percent of the student body 鈥� are people of color. It鈥檚 a dramatic mismatch, yet still enough to make the district second in the state for staff diversity and is six percentage points higher .
鈥淥ur goal of 30 percent feels challenging, particularly challenging given that we know that less than 30 percent of New England graduates from teacher training programs are teachers of color,鈥� says Ramon De Jesus, CPS鈥� program manager for diversity development, who was hired this past October to help the district reach its hiring goal. 鈥淏ut we can鈥檛 hide behind that when our students are asking us, 鈥楧o more鈥� and we have not exhausted all the possibilities.鈥�
Mr. De Jesus says the city has become more strategic by looking for candidates from outside Massachusetts. Dr. Salim and De Jesus also say they have taken a hard look at implicit bias in their recruitment process. Looking for preconceived notions of 鈥渞igor鈥� and 鈥済ood schools鈥� on resumes may exclude qualified candidates of color 鈥撀� and job descriptions with long lists of requirements might dissuade them from applying in the first place.
Last month, a diverse group of educators met for the first time in Cambridge as part of the district鈥檚 new . The gathering, meant to promote discussion about race among teachers, is聽聽CPS is taking to help retain its teachers of color.听
Smith, the principal, is optimistic about the district being a leader in teacher diversity moving forward.听
鈥淵ou come back here in four or five years,鈥� he says with a nod. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a lovely thing.鈥�
Correction:聽This story has been updated to clarify the nature of the employee meetings provided by Cambridge Public Schools.
