“It sounds so simple. Take a person who wants to teach and plop ’em in a classroom, but that doesn’t acknowledge what children need to develop and show and demonstrate their knowledge. It’s an art. It’s a craft. It’s a skillset, and it sits in so many different people who may or may not know it sits in them.”

Like many educators of color, Brandi Smith first felt the call to teach at a young age. The motivation to learn, the drive to instruct, and the passion to build connections with others blossomed early in Brandi. “I started teaching my baby sister in the bathtub when I was six and she was five. I was teaching her with soap on the bathroom tile,” she said.

Unfortunately, fewer and fewer educators are receiving or answering this call to serve in America’s public schools. Over the past decade, the number of newly licensed teachers has decreased by one-third, and the share of college graduates entering teaching is at a fifty-year low. Furthermore, although educator workforce diversity has increased since the 1980s, 79 percent of public school teachers identify as white as of the 2017–18 academic year. In comparison, Black teachers composed 7 percent, Hispanic educators 9 percent, Asian Americans 2 percent, and Native American/Alaska Natives only 0.5 percent. When accounting for gender, disparities are even more acute. Black men, for instance, make up only 2 percent of the teaching workforce. Majority-Black and majority-Hispanic schools have faculties where roughly a third of teachers matched the majority race of the student body. White teachers compose the majority of the workforce even in majority–minority schools.

As America’s public school students become increasingly diverse, the stark racial homogeneity of the educator workforce hinders both students and faculty’s ability to connect across differences and reap the benefits of learning in diverse, integrated settings.

Despite the well-documented benefits of diverse teachers, particularly for students of color, efforts to improve representation in the workforce remain insufficient. At a time where one in six public students attend highly segregated schools where over 90 percent of their peers share their racial background, the persistence of the educator diversity disparity further exacerbates existing segregation within schools and across districts.

As America’s public school students become increasingly diverse, the stark racial homogeneity of the educator workforce hinders both students and faculty’s ability to connect across differences and reap the benefits of learning in diverse, integrated settings.

A Legacy of Lost Potential

Prior to desegregation, well-respected and highly qualified Black educators empowered their students and local communities through fierce leadership and a devout commitment to excellence. After the Brown decision, however, the Black educator workforce was decimated by the closure of all-Black schools, as well as by racially discriminatory firings and demotions.

In her research on the Black educator workforce, Leslie Fenwick details how integration was undermined by the systematic purging of Black teachers and principals. By 1975, over 2,300 Black principalships were lost; between 1954 and 1974, an estimated 39,000 Black teachers lost their jobs.1
During this time, teachers and principals composed a sizable share of the Black middle class; the economic impact of this unemployment hit the Black community hard, especially in small towns and rural communities in the South.

In an effort by white Americans to maintain unilateral control over education, teacher shortages were also manufactured. Despite having pools of quality Black educators, many districts created alternative certification pathways to fill positions with less experienced, white teachers.2 Alternative pathways became a pivotal recruitment tool for quickly securing staff. Some Black principals, such as J.S. Singleton, were replaced by white principals who had no certification or necessary experience whatsoever. Singleton was the principal of Southwestern High School in Bertie County, North Carolina. Although recognized for his excellent school leadership between 1963 and 1968, Singleton was discharged after a county superintendent deemed he was “incompetent.”3 Other Black school leaders were demoted to janitorial roles or attendance officers, some received death threats to resign.

Even after the Civil Rights of Act 1964, southern school boards failed to renew contracts, reclassified teaching positions under “specific federally supported categories,” and established race-based National Teacher Examination (NTE) score thresholds to keep Black folks out of positions of authority.4 Similar to the persistent postponing of school desegregation, governments also dragged their feet on enforcing integration mandates established under Singleton v. Jackson Separate School District I and II.

Singleton ruled districts’ Black–white staff ratios must mirror race ratios in the entire school system, and held that vacant positions could not be filled by a person of a different race until qualified displaced staff had an opportunity to fill the role. These parameters sought to reaffirm states’ affirmative duty to integrate, but without sufficient enforcement, they did little to redress the persistent elimination of the roles for Black educators.

Today, the consequences of racial discrimination manifests in the underrepresentation of faculty of color across America’s public schools. As the nation grapples with how to fill teaching vacancies, elevate respect for the profession, and sufficiently support all learners, one wonders what can be done to remedy disparities whose roots run so deep.

Piecing Together Many Pieces in the Education Puzzle

“You don’t know all that you need to know until you get into a classroom—and then you realize that you don’t know all you need to know in order to be most effective and impactful as an educator in a significantly diverse community of learners and families.”

Learning how to provide quality education to all students doesn’t happen overnight, as Tonia Holmes-Sutton, a National Board Certified teacher and Executive Director of TEACH Plus Nevada, highlights. Dr. Holmes-Sutton was also my kindergarten teacher. She is one of the few Black educators (and educators of color more broadly) I’ve had in my educational career. Nearly twenty years after being my teacher, she remains my reminder that our most effective, impactful educators are ones who build supportive relationships with their students and families. It takes years to develop these relationships deeply but they make all the difference. Very few teachers of color work in affluent suburban schools: they’re mostly in urban areas (often using limited resources) to empower students of color to excel and celebrate their heritage. Dr. Holmes-Sutton did this for me and countless other students, but her responsibilities extended far beyond the classroom.

Direct instruction is only one of the many, many hats teachers wear. On a given day, they are designing lesson plans, grading assignments, completing professional development, monitoring student safety, navigating parent/family relationships, fostering community engagement, and supporting individual learning needs, all while trying to preserve their own health and well-being.

Educators of color often encounter additional forms of labor, which aren’t always fully recognized or valued by their white colleagues. This labor is sometimes referred to as the “invisible tax.” Speaking specifically to the experiences of Black male teachers, former U.S. secretary of education John B. King Jr. detailed ways this tax is paid, from serving as the primary disciplinarian for Black students to preparing students to confront racism during school trips. This tax takes an emotional and physical toll, especially as more efforts to create inclusive, equitable learning environments fall on teachers of color’ laps.

While failures to diversify the educator pipeline and retain diverse educators existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis further exacerbated severe staffing inequities. A 2022 poll from the National Education Association found a disproportionate share of Black and Hispanic/Latino educators are considering exiting the profession. Turnover is higher among teachers of color than white teachers (18.9 percent compared to 15 percent). According to the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Black male teachers exit the profession at a higher rate than their peers. The invisible tax on top of poor working conditions, insufficient salaries, lack of respect, and inadequate professional development all increase the risk of burnout and turnover.

Even before teachers enter the classroom, they undergo intensive and expensive processes to become certified for their license. Candidate teachers invest thousands to cover their tuition, exam fees, course materials, and required tasks like fingerprinting. Candidates pursue a bachelor’s and/or master’s degree in Education or become certified through alternative programs, such as teacher residencies. Aspiring teachers of color are more likely to participate in alternative programs. While program models and demographics vary, alternative programs are often faster, more diverse, and less expensive than traditional (four-to-five-year) programs. Ironically, alternative pathways have morphed from vehicles that replace Black educators with inexperienced white teachers to prime solutions towards workforce diversification.

In 2013, 25 percent of all new teachers of color completed alternative certification programs—double the share of alternatively certified white teachers. More recently, a 2022 report from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) found people of color compose only 28 percent of undergraduates receiving education degrees or certificates. Nationwide, America’s 1,700 educator preparation providers are grappling with declining enrollment and smaller budgets. This limits their ability to create learning opportunities that effectively and equitably prepare candidate teachers to support students from all backgrounds.

“We aren’t doing an appropriate, adequate, effective job at [preparing teachers]. Nor are we doing that for teachers who are currently teaching in classrooms,” said Dr. Holmes-Sutton, who formerly sat on the Nevada State Board of Education.

The education workforce is often framed as a “leaky pipeline,” as if these disparities are small drops in a bucket. In reality, the many pipes linking America’s education system are thoroughly corroding. This corrosion existed long before COVID-19, but the pandemic made the extent of damage grimly clear. Staffing shortages, rising absenteeism, and reduced academic achievement are all responses to a corroding system continuously falling short on its promise of equal opportunity, particularly for marginalized communities. Many educators of color stay in schools because they are driven by a purpose to uphold this promise, to transform the trajectories of their communities. They realize teaching is an intergenerational exchange of wisdom that is best preserved when passed down with love and patience.

Staffing shortages, rising absenteeism, and reduced academic achievement are all responses to a corroding system continuously falling short on its promise of equal opportunity, particularly for marginalized communities. Many educators of color stay in schools because they are driven by a purpose to uphold this promise, to transform the trajectories of their communities.

Students know when they are (and are not) being shown this level of care. Nevertheless, they are rarely well-positioned to tackle educational inequity by themselves. They need support from diverse individuals including their teachers, principals, and other school leaders. But how can we provide them this support if schools are devoid of staff with a deep understanding of how to actualize positive change?

Taking the Burden Off Children

If we wanna talk about integration, let’s integrate the teaching force, not students. Let’s not make students leave their communities,” said Juliana Urtubey, a National Board Certified Teacher and the 2021 Teacher of the Year.

Time and time again, children are positioned as America’s solution to integration, but how can we expect children to be skilled in navigating race relations, rectifying injustice, and respecting other cultures, when they are taught in settings that rarely reflect, let alone respect, diversity?

Since the passage of Brown, the weight of actualizing equal opportunity in America’s “melting pot” has been placed primarily on children’s shoulders—particularly Black and Hispanic children. These children faced the violence of massive resistance (consider Ruby Bridges, the Little Rock Nine, or Sylvia Mendez). They took buses miles away from their homes with little protection against discrimination. They were pushed to assimilate into spaces that were hostile to their culture and devoid of leadership who respected them. Children endured brutality and did their best to survive school with their heads held high.

Time and time again, children are positioned as America’s solution to integration, but how can we expect children to be skilled in navigating race relations, rectifying injustice, and respecting other cultures, when they are taught in settings that rarely reflect, let alone respect, diversity?

Understandably, many Americans are skeptical of integration. I’ve heard some describe integration as an issue of the past. But to speak plainly, America is not, nor has it ever been, integrated. We have made successful attempts towards desegregation and these efforts, though short-lived, have proven beneficial for the generations that followed in some key respects. For instance, in his research on the long-run impacts of court-ordered desegregation, Rucker Johnson finds exposure to integrated schools significantly increased Black folks’ educational attainment, college quality, earnings, and adult health. This is partially explained by Black students’ expanded access to smaller class sizes and higher funded schools.

The solution to educational injustice is not further isolation. Without thoughtful policy change and a mindset shift towards urgently investing in integration, people of color, specifically working class and poor Black and Hispanic communities, are going to continue to receive the short end of the stick.

Rejection and skepticism of integration, particularly amongst Black Americans, is well-justified. America’s schools are more segregated today than they were in 1954—both racially and socioeconomically. The children who integrated schools are alive today, with children and grandchildren of their own still subjected to racism and violent discrimination, both in and outside of the classroom. However, the solution to educational injustice is not further isolation. Without thoughtful policy change and a mindset shift towards urgently investing in integration, people of color, specifically working class and poor Black and Hispanic communities, are going to continue to receive the short end of the stick.

Now, hiring more teachers of color is not a cure-all for every issue facing school systems. As Juliana explains, “sharing cultural, linguistic, and ethnic identities with your students is incredibly important, [but] it’s not all of it. You can’t just throw a bunch of brown and Black teachers in brown and Black schools and magically the students will achieve whatever benchmarks I put in front of them. It’s a really complicated issue.” Its complexity is cause for collaboration and action rather than resistance and resentment.

We have lost thousands of qualified educators because of racism. We have decimated the aspirations of potential educators by underfunding public schools and underpaying teachers. We have made higher education increasingly inaccessible and costly. We have made it virtually impossible for many public school teachers to support themselves, or their families. We have left children without the supports they need to survive and thrive. These dilemmas did not happen by accident. Nor can they be fully solved by redrawing attendance zones or setting admission thresholds for low-income kids. They can be solved by fully funding pathways to recruit and retain diverse teachers.

Space for Federal and State Innovation

Resistance to integration will persist, which makes the necessity for innovative inclusive policies more pressing. For several years, states across the nation have designed and implemented plans to diversify the workforce. For instance, in Colorado, forty high schools participate in Pathways2Teacher, a concurrent enrollment program for eleventh- and twelfth-grade students interested in becoming educators. For over a decade, students in the Denver metro area have earned college credit, received college-readiness support, and gotten student-teaching experience. The program explicitly focuses on increasing representation of students of color and teaching them how to examine educational inequity.

At the beginning of 2022, Tennessee became the first state to establish a permanent, free pathway to become a teacher through its Teacher Occupation Apprenticeship. The apprenticeship is a collaboration between Clarksville-Montgomery County School System and Austin Peay State University’s Teacher Residency program. Moreover, the Tennessee Department of Education and the University of Tennessee System invested $20 million to launch the Tennessee Grow Your Own Center, and recently secured a partnership with the state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development to ensure dedicated funding to the apprenticeship. Through more strategic community collaboration like this we can make education a more accessible and attractive profession.

At the federal level, Congress could amend and reauthorize the Higher Education Act of 1965, which was last done in 2008. While a comprehensive bill has not emerged from the Senate, House Representatives have proposed the Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform (PROSPER) Act in 2017 and the College Affordability Act in 2019. Greater bipartisan cooperation could strengthen higher education infrastructure so more individuals can afford to return to school to earn teaching degrees.

Greater funding to Title II of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESEA) could also improve districts and states’ abilities to grow the educator workforce. Title II helps improve the quality and amount of educators by funding activities such as educator preparation programs and professional development. It also aims to provide low-income and minority students with greater access to effective educators. Despite this goal, Title II is continually funded below its recommended amount. Appropriations have increased since the pandemic began but we still have a ways to go before the profession is elevated to the level it deserves.

Lastly, we need to revisit the lessons learned from the Singleton decision and ensure legal protections against discrimination are enforced to protect educators of color. Especially in a time where sixteen states have policies limiting lessons about systemic racism in schools, the evolution of massive resistance continues in the form of misinformation about critical race theory and attacks on educators perceived to teach it. Such antagonisms and blatant racism inhibit districts from diversifying their workforce.

Many students of color experience most of their educational career without a teacher of color. Even more go through school without a principal of color, either. This means having fewer role models and mentors during critical stages of students’ development. Comparatively, many white students—particularly those in suburban and rural areas—never interact with people of color in positions of school leadership. This lack of integration begins very early and shapes their perceptions of race and racism. All children, at every stage of their educational journey, benefit from exposure to educators of different backgrounds. To develop cultural competency, reduce racial bias, and embody solidarity, we all need opportunities to learn from people from different backgrounds. America’s increasingly diverse children receive these opportunities more frequently every day, it’s time the education workforce caught up.

If the workforce, as a whole, can’t keep up with the diversity of its students, we are going to continue to fail students in more ways than we can quantify.

Notes

  1. Fenwick, L. T. (2022). Jim Crow’s Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership. United States: Harvard Education Press.
  2. Thompson, O. (2022). “School Desegregation and Black Teacher Employment,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, vol 104(5), pages 962-980.
  3. Fenwick, L. T. (2022). Jim Crow’s Pink Slip: The Untold Story of Black Principal and Teacher Leadership. United States: Harvard Education Press.
  4. Haney, J. E. (1978). The Effects of the Brown Decision on Black Educators. The Journal of Negro Education, 47(1), 88–95. https://doi.org/10.2307/2967104