As a student, I never questioned why an overwhelming majority of my teachers were White women and did not reflect my racial identity; it was the norm. The one thing that I did know was that I had to go to school. I grew up in New York City, one of the most diverse cities in the world, and attended public schools that qualified for Title 1 assistance in the Bronx from kindergarten until my senior year of high school. All of the schools that I attended served mainly students of color. Throughout my entire K-12 education, I only experienced three teachers of color. I was in 7th grade when I met my first teacher of color. In high school, I met two teachers of color who were understanding, compassionate and understood the realities of the students that they taught. Moreover, they incorporated our experiences in the classroom. One of these teachers is even partially responsible for my journey into education.
Over recent years, there has been an increased focus to recruit teachers of color with the goal of increasing diversity among our nation’s teachers. With 80 percent of teacher identifying as White, it’s evident that the racial demographics of teachers does not reflect that of students. Research studies predict that students of color in public schools across the nation will increase by 55 percent by 2020.
Researchers argue that all students, regardless of their own racial identity, prefer teachers of color. Considering the continued increase of students of diverse backgrounds in schools, initiatives such as NYC Men Teach, Today’s Students Tomorrow’s Teachers and the Grow Our Own Teacher Diversity program work to respond to the need for more diversity in the teacher workforce. Many educators and policymakers seem hopeful that an increase of teachers of color will help provide better outcomes for all students. While I agree with the motive to increase racial diversity amongst teachers, I think it is equally important to take a look at the landscape of education. Let’s interrogate why there are such a limited number of teachers of color, to begin with.
Below I discuss three reasons that may contribute to the limited number of teachers of color in the field.
Increased Requirements for Teacher Preparation Programs and Teacher Certification
When we think about how we work to attract the best teachers, one popular solution is to make teacher certification requirements more rigorous. Our initial thought is to accept students into education programs who have the best test scores. The idea is admirable. The ideal logic here is that the smartest people perform the best on standardized exams, and therefore they will automatically be effective teachers in all classroom settings. A handful of states, including New Jersey, have set SAT requirements for students entering teacher preparation programs. If students fail to meet SAT requirements, then they must pass a number of praxis exams before even moving forward in their education coursework and applying for certification. As educators, we question the correlation between high performance on examinations and intelligence even in our own classrooms. Researchers have raised concerns that standardized exams, such as the SATs, demonstrate and promote racial bias against students of color. There continues to be a widening racial scoring gap between students of color and their White counterparts while students who have access to additional resources perform better than less wealthy students. In states like New Jersey, students of color who do not meet the SAT requirements to enter teacher preparation programs are less likely to pursue the field of education considering that they would not want to endure additional standardized testing. We should also recognize that prospective prospective teachers of color may not have access to resources to prepare them for the standardized test or the finances to pay for the standardized tests.
Further, the increased number of standardized testing for pre-service teachers to obtain their teaching certification may also deter teachers of color from pursuing the field of education. EdTPA is a fairly new assessment that pre-service teachers must pass in the 16 states (and counting) that have adopted it. The edTPA is an assessment that is scored by independent scorers who are not teacher educators and have no affiliation to the communities or context where student teachers teach. Additionally, the edTPA costs around $300 and is known to negatively affect the experience of teachers learning to teach. If we want to attract more teachers of color to the field of education, we must interrogate the policies around the criteria for admissions into teacher education programs and the requirements for pre-service teachers to obtain teaching certifications to ensure that equitable policies and practices are being used.
The Profession of Teaching is not Appealing
As an educator who encourages students of color to pursue the field of education, it is difficult to get others to see educational careers as appealing when one has to compete with negative media portrayals. Movies and television depict white teachers as lazy, low-achieving and poor professionals who despise their jobs and the students that they teach. We also seldom see teachers of color in media. In addition to the adverse portrayal of teachers in the media, policymakers and government officials continue to blame teachers for failing students, without critiquing school systems, structures or standardized exams. The public’s perception of a teacher is negative without an accurate understanding of the context of education amid budget cuts, increased responsibilities of teachers, and having to teach to standardized exams, all of which contribute to teacher anxiety.
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