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New Data Show Few New York Teachers of Color in the Pipeline

Educators blame cumbersome paths to certification, insufficient respect for the profession and low starting salaries.

New York school districts have long sought to diversify their teaching ranks, which are mostly white overall, to better reflect the backgrounds of their students.

A new study of the pipeline of potential staff highlights the difficulty of making headway.

At teacher preparation programs statewide, only 11% of people who completed master’s degrees in education were Hispanic, 8% were black, and 5% were Asian in 2016, the latest year for comparable data collected by the Education Trust-New York, a nonprofit that advocates for equity. About 63% of the roughly 10,500 who earned such master’s degrees were white.

The imbalance was particularly acute among men of color. Only 215 Latino men, 145 black men and 110 Asian men finished master’s degrees in education statewide that year.

“The lack of diversity is a huge challenge in the education workforce,” said Lester W. Young, Jr. , a member of the state Board of Regents. “There needs to be a highly coordinated, clearly articulated strategy to identify potential teachers of color and stick with them through certification and placement.”

In the Education Trust’s analysis, about half the people of color who earned a master’s degree attended just seven institutions, including several campuses of the City University of New York. The group has a new online tool showing the demographics of students completing 64 master’s programs, typically a step toward certification.

Districts nationwide have long struggled to diversify their teaching ranks. Educators blame cumbersome paths to certification, insufficient respect for the profession and low starting salaries, an extra barrier for potential teachers carrying student debt.

These factors feed into shortages of teachers from all backgrounds, especially in high-demand subjects, such as math and science, where industry jobs pay far more. National research shows attrition hurts as well, particularly in high-poverty schools with harsh working conditions, where minority teachers are often concentrated.

In New York City, only 16% of teachers were Hispanic compared with 40% of students, by city data for the school year ending in 2018. About 18% of teachers were black, compared with 26% of students. And 7% of teachers were Asian, compared with 16% of students. Those ratios have barely budged in 15 years.

Such gaps pose a challenge as the city seeks to offer more “culturally responsive” education. City leaders adopted a formal policy this month spelling out this approach, which aims to have lessons better reflect students’ backgrounds and experiences. Some teachers say it is easier for those who come from students’ own communities to connect classwork to their real lives.

The city and state are trying a range of ideas for recruiting, including subsidizing college courses for teachers’ aides to help them get certified. Such financial assistance helped Michael Simmon become a teacher five years ago at age 43.

Mr. Simmon, who teaches U.S. history to eighth-graders at IN-Tech Academy in the Bronx, said he wants to serve as a role model for his students, who are mostly black and Hispanic.

“I can see the change in them, by giving them more self-esteem, hope and purpose,” Mr. Simmon said. He tells them about how he DJ’d, played basketball and traveled, so “now they say, ‘I can relate to him, let me pay attention.’”

The city Department of Education says it is pursuing recommendations from the city’s School Diversity Advisory Group, such as exploring a teaching career pipeline for high-school students. It has partnerships with historically black colleges, attends career fairs and posts jobs on websites intended to reach diverse candidates. In 2015, it launched an initiative called NYC Men Teach to bring 1,000 men of color into the pipeline and mentor them.

“We have a holistic approach to recruiting a workforce that reflects the diversity of our city,” said spokesman Will Mantell.

Many teachers say diversifying their ranks will help close achievement gaps, by giving children stronger connections to the adults at the front of the class. A 2017 study published by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, an independent research group, found that having at least one black teacher in third through fifth grades significantly increased a black boy’s probability of finishing high school, particularly among very low-income students.

One teacher preparation program that has attracted many candidates of color is Relay Graduate School of Education, which recruits at historically black colleges, fraternities and sororities. Its two-year residency program offers an apprenticeship in a classroom under mentor teachers, with a path to a permanent position.

“It’s a guaranteed job if you do well,” said Mayme Hostetter, president of Relay. “It gives the teacher and school a chance to try it out.”

Jacob Easley II, dean of the graduate school of education at Touro College in Manhattan, said his admissions team reaches out to minority candidates and is flexible with applicants who may have weak scores on the GRE, a standardized test for graduate school entry. “We don’t have compelling evidence that the GRE is a predictor of teacher effectiveness,” he said.

Article Credit: https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-data-show-few-new-york-teachers-of-color-in-the-pipeline-11565648552?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=20

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HOW IS THIS RELEVANT TO MANAGING AND UNDERSTANDING DIVERSITY?

WHAT IS YOUR REACTION TO THIS ARTICLE?

Answer 1

The above case describes the difficulty faced in understanding and managing diversity among teaching faculty. It is noticed that majority of the teachers are white. The others i.e. Hispanic, Asians, etc. are not proportionately represented in the field. Thus causing problems in achieving cultural diversity which is the objective of government. There must be equality among all citizens. In order to accomplish this task, diversity is important. Hence, it is important that the government re-introduces the field as lucrative and promising for future career development as well as economic stability. Also, the importance of the field can be propagated to attract individuals from diverse backgrounds.

This article displays the importance of diversity at any workplace. Thus, it incites a need or an initiative to help shape future to facilitate this growth and development in the community.