Where Are All the Black Teachers? Discrimination in the Education Labor Market

• In Event: Examining Sources of Influence in Teacher Hiring: Race, Student Teaching, and Teacher Involvement

Abstract

Overview, Methodology and Data
Just 9% of the nation’s elementary and middle school teachers and 6% of all secondary school teachers are Black (Census 2000 EEO Data Tool, n.d.). Policymakers often define this lack of diversity as a supply problem (Duncan 2011) and propose treatments centered on recruitment (Dilworth, Coleman, & Bireda, 2014; Duncan, 2009). This research questions that dominant trope by analyzing the applicant data, hiring decisions, and distribution of teachers in one school district. Through econometric analyses of applicant data, entered into a centralized on-line system, and subsequent hiring decisions for AY 2012-2013, we find evidence of discrimination in the hiring practices and distribution of teachers in this school district.

Results
In 2012, there were 27,330 applications submitted for 2,380 teaching positions. Black applicants represented 12.5% of the applicant pool, a proportion slightly greater than the percentage of Black students in the district, but received just 6% of the offers. In contrast, white applicants represented 70% of the applicant pool and received 78% of the offers. Ceteris paribus, identifying as Black reduced the likelihood of receiving an offer by 53%. Black applicants had more advanced degrees, were more likely to have prior school experience and more years of it than non-Black applicants. Black applicants were less likely to have prior in-district school experience and were less likely to live locally. We found that successful Black candidates had more education than successful non-Black applicants. In addition, successful Black applicants had an average 7.66 years of prior school experience, whereas successful non-Black applicants had an average 5.97 years of experience, a difference that is statistically significant at the 1% level. White principals hired disproportionately fewer Black teachers, whereas Black principals hired greater proportions of Black teachers. Finally, Black teachers were distributed unevenly across the district, found primarily in schools with high concentrations of students of color or students in poverty.

Scholarly Significance
Researchers attribute the lack of racial diversity in the teacher corps to recruitment (Byrd, et. al., 2011; Shipp, 1999), teacher education (Ladson-Billings, 2000; Madkins, 2011), and retention (Achinstein, et. al., 2010; Ingersoll & May, 2011). The impact of hiring on the demographic composition of the profession has yet to be fully examined. Scholars highlight the decentralized (Liu & Johnson, 2006) and local nature of hiring (Engel & Cannata, 2015) and the factors principals may consider when making hiring decisions (Ingle, Rutledge, & Bishop, 2011), but the extent to which race assumes a salient role is inconclusive (Harris, et.al., 2010). Similarly, Hanushek and Rivkin (2007) and Mertz (2010) find that Black teachers are more likely to teach minority students in urban schools, but is this a function of teacher or principal preference? This district has struggled to increase teacher diversity and maintained that low numbers of Black teachers reflect endemic supply problems. This research destabilizes such explanations. We find that Blackness is negatively associated with receiving an offer, and Black teachers are significantly unlikely to be hired by white principals or at schools with majority-white student populations.

Authors

• Diana D'Amico, George Mason University

• Penelope M. Earley, George Mason University

• Robert Pawlewicz, George Mason University

• Adam McGeehan, George Mason University