The Urgent Need to Diversify the Educator Workforce

• In Event: Charting the Landscape of Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers

Abstract

Today, more than half of the U.S. population 18 years and younger are of color; three times higher than the general population. Similarly, rural schools have seen their students of color population increase significantly to 50%, with 25% of their general population of color. Yet, the growing concern is that the teacher of color/BIPOC population is barely 20% of the teacher workforce. The graduate rates, achievement scores, retention, are alarmedly lower than White students. Researchers have spent decades examining factors that point to why this historical phenomenon continues to occur when millions of dollars are poured into schools to elevate academic success among BIPOC students. Even as we witness the mobilization of communities of color from inner-city neighborhoods to more affluent communities, these students are still experiencing lower academic performance, at least on paper.

Framework: For decades, BIPOC researchers have found and explained that engaging BIPOC students with BIPOC teachers are a proven variable that points to the academic success of these students. Earlier research by Michele Foster (1998), Gloria Ladson-Billings (1994), and Vanessa Siddle Walker (2003) concluded that the engagement of Black teachers with Black students produces higher academic outcomes. From a quantitative lens, the research of the author supported the findings of these researchers and referred to this phenomenon as ethnic matching.

Literature Connection: These findings are not limited to the Black student population. Cosentino de Cohen et al. (2005) found similar results among Latinx students. Researchers like Bach Mai Dolly Nguyen et al. and Shirley Hune & David Takeuchi (2003) have shown many sub-Asian populations struggle significantly in schools. Compared to research on Black and Latinx students, Egalite et al. (2018) found similar results when looking at the impact of ethnic matching within the Asian population.

Ponitz et al. indirectly explains the impact on teachers’ expectations. Teachers tend to, consciously or subconsciously, have a higher expectation of the academic ability of their own ethnic culture than of students from different ethnic cultures. With nearly 80% of the teaching population being White, these findings propose that the educational opportunity for our BIPOC community is challenged. While schools over the past three decades have been heavily involved in culturally responsive education as a way of producing culturally competent teachers, we have not closed the achievement gap for our BIPOC students.

Methods & Data Sources: This position paper is based on bodies of literature and research on the impact of teachers of color on the academic outcomes of students of color.

Results and Scholarly Significance: Diversifying the education workforce by increasing the BIPOC teacher population improves academic outcomes of BIPOC students. Moreso, Easton-Brooks has found, as we diversify the workforce, White teachers become better capable of engaging with BIPOC students in a culturally responsive manner, increasing academic engagement and outcomes. He found that if White teachers are in a school where at least 30% of the teaching workforce is of high-quality BIPOC teachers, White teachers respond in a culturally responsive manner at a rate nearly as high as BIPOC teachers.

Author

• Donald Easton-Brooks, University of Nevada - Reno
  Presenting Author