Leaders, researchers advance teacher diversity as an imperative issue

The data, research and real-life stories illustrating the importance of teacher diversity are undeniable,

and while California has made some recent progress in composing a teacher workforce that more closely reflects its highly diverse student population, a vast chasm in the numbers still exists. In the 2018–19 school year, 61 percent of California’s K-12 teachers were white, while 77 percent of the state’s 6.2 million public school students were a race other than white. Male teachers of color are especially rare, comprising less than 10 percent of the workforce.

by Andrew Cummins

hese gaps persist despite research highlighting the benefits of having a diverse teaching force educating a diverse student body,” reads the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing’s 2017–18 annual report to the Legislature. A who’s who of state educational agencies, associations and advocacy groups, including CSBA, have echoed the CTC’s findings over the last several years. “Despite a growing body of evidence that demonstrates how a diverse faculty can accelerate achievement, California’s teacher workforce fails to reflect the diversity of its student body,” said CSBA President Xilonin Cruz-Gonzalez.

The public is also showing they understand the significance of the issue, as illustrated in the 2020 Policy Analysis for California Education/USC Rossier poll of California voters. Seventy percent of registered voters rated the issue of increasing diversity in the teacher workforce as at least a 6 on a 1-10 importance scale; 24 percent said the issue is a top priority.

With the statistical chasm — coupled with persistent achievement gaps for many of the student groups whose race is underrepresented among teachers — serving as a backdrop, the goal of diversifying the teacher workforce has taken on newfound energy in California. From the halls of the Capitol to the halls of schools, educational leaders are looking to not only attract and hire teachers of color but, just as importantly, retain them.

Starting at the top

In January, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a 2020–21 budget proposal that included $900 million to address the state’s teacher shortage and bolster teacher preparation — with a particular focus of the impacts on higher-need student populations. The Governor emphasized the issue of teacher diversity in his talking points at the budget press conference. “It’s incredibly important that we have a diverse teaching workforce,” Newsom said. “You look at all the academic research: not only having a stable, prepared professional teacher, but also a teacher that looks like you is incredibly important as it relates to, particularly, African American achievement.”

Gov. Newsom’s focus on the issue mirrors one of the top priorities for State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and the California Department of Education. Since his election in fall 2018, Thurmond has convened a work group of experts and hosted several panel events focused on attracting and retaining teachers of color. At an April 2019 event, Thurmond acknowledged the state’s shortcomings and said the CDE is working to expand programs for teachers of color, particularly by building a pipeline for men.

While much of the research Thurmond and others cite primarily highlights the benefits of a diverse teacher workforce for students of color, he has also frequently pointed out research showing that it will create a benefit for all students, regardless of race.

The Governor and state superintendent’s high-profile acknowledgement of the matter have struck a chord with Travis J. Bristol, an assistant professor in the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education who focuses on practices and policies that support teachers of color. Beyond his research, Bristol is also involved in a three-year pilot program in the Compton Unified School District to improve the retention rates of male teachers of color. He previously taught English in the New York City public school system.

“I think there are several key conditions that I feel extremely confident that California is going to really act on teacher diversity,” Bristol said in reflecting on the leadership of not only Gov. Newsom and Thurmond but State Board of Education President Linda Darling-Hammond, a mentor and former professor of Bristol’s at Stanford University. “And I think that there’s political will in Sacramento by the Governor, given the recent budget, to greatly put the muscle behind this effort.”

Joining Bristol as a panelist at the CDE event in April 2019 was Daryl Camp, now superintendent of the Bay Area’s San Lorenzo Unified School District and a governance services consultant for CSBA. At the time, Camp was superintendent of Riverbank USD, southeast of Stockton.

In speaking about the power of representation in schools, Camp thought back to an exercise in Riverbank USD when he asked a group of third-graders which gender and race came to mind when he listed off several professions. While not related to race, Camp said he was heartbroken when a girl responded that “man” came to mind when he asked about the profession of lawyer because “girls aren’t smart enough.” “I think it’s important for students to see educators that look like them, because they’re making life and career decisions right in front of them,” Camp said.

In his roles as a superintendent and in training governance teams across the state, Camp said examples of opportunities to bring that goal to fruition do exist, but that the larger issue lies with the mindset and priorities coming from leaders and politicians in Sacramento. “In reality, I think we’re all in this together, and this would take an effort above most school districts. Although districts can contribute to that effort and should be expected to contribute to that effort,” he said. “We know what to do, it’s just a matter of if we have the will to get it done.”

A number of districts, often partnering with institutions of higher education, are following through on that charge.

“A vision that includes diversity”

Of the more than 500 teachers hired for the 2019–20 school year in the 73,000-student Fresno USD, 51 percent were products of the district’s popular pipeline program. Of those participating in the pipeline programs, 73 percent are a race other than white.

Though the district is still wrestling with common teacher shortages in special education, math and science, the teacher pipeline statistics are points of pride for Teresa Morales-Young, administrator of the district’s Teacher Development Department. She oversees 15 programs, ranging from a teacher academy for current students to residency options to teacher leadership opportunities; six of the programs involve partnerships with area colleges and universities.

But the pipeline program’s success didn’t appear overnight, said Morales-Young, who has been overseeing the department for 10 years. She estimates it’s taken about seven years for the district to fully build out the program. “You have to do this in partnership. I can’t just partner with my universities, but I have to partner with internal departments as well to make this work,” she said. “That’s the only way we’re going to prepare our teachers the best way and to make their experience fluid so they can get into the system without a problem.”

In addition to aligning a multitude of district departments to support the pipeline programs, Morales-Young and district head of human resources/recruitment Kimberly Collins said there must be an intentional and explicit focus on increasing diversity if that truly is a district’s goal.

“You have to together design a vision that includes diversity. Once people start to come, you have to see that there’s diversity for more diversity to come,” Morales-Young said. “You have to do that through designing goals and having your actions match those goals. Then people have to actually visually see that there’s diversity amongst the staff that they’re trying to apply for.”

While work remains, an influx of teachers of color into the Fresno pipeline also appears to be paying dividends in the administrative realm. “We’re starting to see them come through the pipeline as wanting to be in more leadership roles, which is impacting leadership. Because that’s also changing the diversity and dynamics of our formal leaders,” Morales-Young said.

Offering role models and a successful future

A 2018 Learning Policy Institute report by Desiree Carver-Thomas, “Diversifying the teaching profession: How to recruit and retain teachers of color,” further outlines strategies that district leaders and board members can consider.

“By underwriting the cost of completing a high-quality (teacher preparation program), state and local policymakers can encourage more students of color to pursue a teaching career — and to do so through a high-quality program,” Carver-Thomas writes. Among these pathways into teaching are increasing access to comprehensive preservice preparation through service scholarship and loan forgiveness programs, teacher residencies and grow-your-own programs such as the one in Fresno USD.

In outlining his “pie in the sky” idea to systemically attract more teachers of color, San Lorenzo USD’s Camp said society must place a much greater emphasis on incentivizing, uplifting and promoting the profession. Specifically, he said African American boys and teens would be much more likely to pursue a teaching career with the presence of more role models who look like them and with more impetus to do so. “Just look at what we do when we recruit for athletics,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be great if you got a scholarship if you said, ‘I want to go into teaching,’ and it could be a full ride?”

The African American Male Achievement program in Oakland USD is a leading example of how teachers who look like their students and come from similar backgrounds can inspire as role models and mentors, while also delivering results in the classroom. The program’s foundation lies with classes taught by African American male teachers that emphasize social-emotional development, African American history and culturally relevant pedagogy.

The program’s centerpiece, the Manhood Development Program, is a class that meets every day during regular school hours. In it, instructors emphasize culturally relevant teaching methods; equip students with “identity resources” to counter negative stereotypes and low expectations of African American males; and support a college-going culture through guidance and field trips that emphasize college and career readiness.

Oakland USD saw graduation rates among African American male students increase from 46 percent to 69 percent between 2010 and 2018, a considerably faster rate of improvement than the district graduation rate among all students. Officials attribute much of that success to the district’s introduction of more teachers of color and their involvement in the achievement program.

But attracting and hiring teachers of color is only half of the equation. The LPI report notes, “given the evidence that teacher turnover is a primary driver of shortages of teachers of color, it is critical that policies are tailored not only to recruit new teachers, but to retain them for the long haul.”

One of the biggest ways districts and boards can play a role in keeping these teachers on staff is by offering robust coaching, training and professional development opportunities and programs. These factors are a large selling point for Fresno USD, Collins said, where the teacher retention rate is 10 percentage points higher than the state average of 86 percent. “I think a big part of retention is how we work to support our site leaders and in understanding some of the processes, some of the bumps along the road for a teacher that is very new to this system,” she said.

That connection and understanding between site leaders, administrators and teachers of color, Berkeley’s Bristol said, is part of what he called the “secret sauce” of the project in Compton USD.

All eyes on retention

In early 2019, California State University, Northridge partnered with UC Berkeley and Compton USD to launch a pilot program, the Mentoring Male Teachers of Color and Their Administrators: Compton Male Teachers of Color Network. It is operated through a $250,000, three-year grant from the California Community Foundation.

The grant’s first year featured CSUN elementary education professor John Reveles and Bristol training teachers and administrators at one school site on how to mentor and support new teachers, particularly men of color. The second year has seen the program expand to two more schools. The program’s organizers and supporters, such as Compton USD board president Micah Ali, hope that it will provide a national model for increasing the retention rates of African American, Latino and Asian men who choose careers as teachers.

“Male teachers of color are vital to our success as a district in achieving educational equity for our students,” Ali said upon the program’s launch. “I recall how impactful it was for me as a student to be taught by a male teacher of color — to see him as a mentor and role model. This program will hopefully be a way that we as a district can deepen our commitment to diversity, while providing a source of inspiration for our students who see male teachers of color as positive examples of their future selves.”

In his experience as an African American teacher in the New York City public school system and through his academic focus on supporting teachers of color, Bristol said he finds that many of these teachers leave their school, district or profession altogether because they feel unsupported and undervalued. “I think it’s important to note that when teachers leave their school, the teachers don’t leave their students, they leave their principals,” he said. “The biggest driver for teacher turnover is school working conditions.”

If a district implements an elaborate recruitment initiative but fails to support teachers of color once they’re on board, Bristol asks an important question: “Why would they stay?”

“If principals aren’t creating positive working conditions for teachers, where teachers are getting feedback on their practice, where teachers are being treated like practitioners and experts. If those conditions aren’t present, then you will have teachers leaving,” he added.

Outside of issues of pay, Camp said his time as an administrator has led him to identify several reasons as to why teachers of color leave their posts at a faster rate than white teachers — the LPI report notes that nationally, 19 percent of teachers of color move schools or leave the profession annually, as compared to 15 percent of white teachers. Often, Camp said, Latino and African American teachers take on added work because “they’re asked to be sort of a cultural bridge between students, families and the school community.”

“Latinx teachers sometimes don’t feel valued by the people they work with,” Camp continued. “In other words, they’re seen as just someone that can help to translate, but they’re not really recognized for their pedagogical strengths, and their other contributions that they make to that profession. That gets to be frustrating — if you’re not recognized as a professional.”

A 2017 CSBA governance brief, “African-American Students in Focus, Issue 3: Supporting African-American Teacher Retention” reinforces many of these points and lists the following factors as important in impacting African American teacher retention: School administration, decision-making influence, autonomy, career advancement, cultural responsiveness, school climate, cultural and racial bias, and cultural incongruity.

“Governance teams have the responsibility and authority to make decisions that can support diversity in schools — a change that is good for staff and students,” the brief concludes. “If stakeholders and administrators gain better understanding of the conditions that impact the ability of African American teachers to thrive and remain in the profession, then they have an opportunity to improve those conditions in their schools.”

For Bristol, when asked where he sees the tide turning, he said that conclusion stands at the very core of his outlook. “I hopefully see it going where school districts are organizing professional learning for principals and teachers together,” he said. “That’s where I see it going.”

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Andrew Cummins is a staff writer for California Schools.