When boys of color walk into a classroom, there's a good chance their teacher won't reflect their race and gender. White women represent more than 60% of all teachers, whereas only 1.3% of teachers are Black men. The number of male teachers shrinks in the lower grades, where they represent about one in ten teachers.
As many parts of the country grapple with teacher shortages, this mismatch suggests that schools and teacher preparation programs could do a better job recruiting people of color and men.
A fellowship program is training young Black men to become literacy aides in preschool classrooms across the country, with cohorts in cities that include Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta, Cincinnati and Milwaukee. It aims to tackle several problems at once: a shortage of early educators, a dearth of Black male teachers and the acute challenges Black boys face in schools because of their race and gender.
A growing body of research suggests Black students who have Black teachers have better outcomes on standardized tests, in high school graduation and college attendance, in part because they're more engaged with their learning. There's been no comparable research done for Latino and Native students, but schools have made efforts to recruit educators with these identities because they have language skills and cultural understanding that white teachers may lack.
Black male teachers are a rarity in preschools. This pioneering program wants to change that.
Schools are not required to collect or provide this data, but many do anyway. If they decline to provide it, the Pew Research Center has analyzed federal data to come up with state-by-state estimates of teacher diversity.
Comparing the demographics of teachers and students, you can evaluate how well the school system works on teacher diversity. You can also compare the demographics of teachers to those of the surrounding community.
Highlight the research behind teacher diversity. School districts approach diversification of the teacher workforce with varying degrees of urgency. But plenty of research suggests it can have measurable impacts on students' outcomes.
Don't forget about men. There is a new push to recruit more men — of any race — into teaching, and in particular into teaching elementary school. Only 3 percent of kindergarten teachers are men. Male teachers in lower grades sometimes face stigma and suspicions over their interest in working with younger children. But advocates say excluding men from these roles is based on outdated gender stereotypes. Some parents, too, appreciate male teachers in the lower grades because it's a chance for their kids to see a man in a nurturing role.
Take a solutions-based approach. Many entities are working to improve teacher diversity in novel ways. Some school districts are helping teacher aides, a group that tends to be more diverse than teachers, get college degrees and teacher training for free while working for the district through apprenticeship programs. Others are recruiting teachers from overseas. About half of Black public school teachers graduate from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, so examining their efforts to nudge more students into teaching could be worthwhile.
Explore the experiences of students and educators of color. Black and Latino teachers have reported feeling pigeonholed and devalued. Black teachers also report they are often tasked with handling students with challenging behaviors, and Spanish-speaking teachers say they are tapped for translation needs. Talking to teachers of color about why they went into teaching and about their experiences can illuminate an important story. Research shows students of color are more likely to show up for class when they have teachers who share their lived experiences. Understanding the views of teachers, students and families of all races is also important.
Cover attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion through the lens of the teacher workforce. In the wake of a Supreme Court decision that outlaws race-based admissions in colleges, programs that aim to recruit more people of color into teaching could become vulnerable. Fights over DEI initiatives are sometimes viewed as an ideological battle between liberals who value diversity and conservatives who believe that some race-based initiatives discriminate against white people. But reporters can dig deeper by talking to researchers about whether teacher diversity is worth pursuing, and other researchers can speak to the barriers that some people face when pursuing the teaching profession.