THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 14, 1994 TAG: 9408110553
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: MINORITIES IN EDUCATION
SOURCE: BY ELAINE P. WITTY
LENGTH: Long : 154 lines
Walk into the average school in America today and you will probably be startled by the small number of minority teachers in the building. Visit any university and ask to see the minority students who are preparing to be teachers and you will find very few. Ask 50 minority high school seniors about their career choices and only one or two will mention teaching.
Slowly, but surely, minority teachers are disappearing from the nation's schools. Without serious reversal of this dangerous trend, minority teachers will be absent from schools.
Today's teaching force in America is composed of 88.3% whites, 8.2% African Americans, 2.9% Hispanics, 1.1% Native Americans, and 0.9% Asian or Pacific Islanders.
The percentage of minority teachers, especially African-American ones, has seriously declined since 1970 when blacks made up 12% of the teaching force. In Hampton Roads, like other areas across the nation, school personnel officers report great difficulty recruiting minority teachers.
Nationally, less than 10 percent of the students in teacher preparation programs are minorities.
Across America today, more than 29 percent of the children in public schools are from minority groups, while only 13 percent of the teachers are from minority groups. In 20 of the 25 largest city school systems, minority students constitute more than 70 percent of the school enrollment. By the year 2000, minority students will constitute more than one-third of the student enrollment in most states. This means that many minority children's first teacher may be a young, white, first- year teacher who may not be prepared to interact with children and parents from diverse backgrounds.
Failure of the schools to provide a competent teaching and administrative staff that is representative of the students' ethnic and racial backgrounds contributes to the many inequities students experience in the schooling process. As a result, many minority students don't achieve as well academically as they should.
The dwindling pool of minority teachers also denies young white children the support of sustained interactions with minority leaders and the opportunity to see authority figures and leaders from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. In the global economy in which today's children will live and do business, a monocultural view of leadership will be disastrous.
On the international front, America proclaims the virtues of an integrated, democratic society. Yet, racism and separation in America continue to create inequitable allocations of resources and uneven distribution of services. Such a situation lowers the quality of education and the quality of life for minority citizens and adds to the future social service costs that all citizens share.
We can combat racism by providing citizens with the knowledge to undermine the assumptions on which it is based and by arming them with the skills to overcome its consequences. We can accomplish these tasks in schools by placing young children of different races and ethnic backgrounds in classrooms where they have sustained, positive interactions with well-trained teachers from a variety of backgrounds. The absence of an integrated teaching force makes success with this effort impossible.
When you consider how teachers filter the curriculum and learning opportunities through their own experiences and backgrounds, you understand the need for a broadening, diverse teaching force. Teachers with lifestyles, cultures, and world views different from those of their students may not fully understand the life experiences, the family circumstances, and the points of view that their students have about what is possible for them. Without this knowledge, teachers have reduced opportunities to relate learning experiences to meaningful connections for many students. A proportional number of teachers who represent the backgrounds of the students increases the opportunities that all children have to learn.
The combined efforts of universities, schools, community organizations, businesses, and education policy-makers are needed to increase the presence of African-American and other minority teachers. Unlike the days before the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling when teachers were highly respected members of African-American society, high school students no longer feel that it would be great to be a teacher. They look at the job openings in other professions, the poor working conditions and relatively low salaries of teachers and shun teaching as a career. Strong recruitment efforts are needed to overcome these obstacles.
Since 1980, when Norfolk State University sponsored the first national conference on issues related to the minority teacher decline, the university has emerged as the leading institution in the yearly production of African-American teachers. Through three programs - the Harrison B. Wilson Honors in Teaching program, the DeWitt Wallace Readers Digest Fund Pathways to Teaching program, and the Master of Arts in Teaching program - Norfolk State has accelerated its regular recruitment and preparation activities for minority students.
At the same time, the university acknowledges the fact that since minority students are being recruited into all professions, we cannot realistically hope to achieve a number of minority teachers equal to the number of minority students in public schools in the near future. To do so would require all universities to double the present supply of minority teachers annually. Consequently, Norfolk State also focuses on recruiting white students into teacher education programs and preparing them to be effective teachers of all children.
Currently, about half of the senior teacher education students at Norfolk State are white and about half of them are African-American or other minorities.
The current problem facing African-American males spotlights the serious need for male role models in the schools. The teaching profession is a good source of employment for males who can be prepared to work with children. Efforts to increase their numbers in school will address two of society's pressing concerns. The School of Education at Norfolk State has focused on this need for several years. Since 1989, the university has graduated 98 African-American males who are certified to teach. Many of them are now teaching at the high demand levels of early childhood and special education throughout Hampton Roads and nationally. Even stronger recruitment efforts are needed.
Many public schools also have programs for recruiting minority students into teaching. In addition to enhancing the academic skill preparation provided for minority students, public schools can help by providing early commitments for jobs for high-achieving students. Chesapeake Public Schools initiated an early contract commitment program more than eight years ago and has realized good results. Such programs are good incentives for college students. Many academically able minority students are not motivated to succeed in elementary and high school because they do not see a connection between educational achievement and employment. High unemployment rates among African-American high school and college graduates often discourage young children from believing teachers when they say, ``Study hard and you will get a good job.''
We need more community agencies, businesses and organizations to help encourage young, high-potential minority students to enter the teaching profession. These groups can help by providing scholarships, loans, and other forms of support for academically able students who need financial assistance. Community leaders and businessmen could start ``adopt-a-student'' programs even as early as middle school. Many students would profit from a close relationship with a person who encourages a love of reading and provides enriching cultural experiences.
We need more churches, sororities, fraternities, clubs and civic organizations to sponsor after-school and Saturday tutorial programs to help high-potential but low-achieving students improve academic performance. Students cannot hope to complete college and earn a teaching certificate if they do not develop good academic skills.
Parents must encourage more academically able African-American students to consider teaching as a career. We must add teaching to the list of careers that gifted children are encouraged to pursue.
The loss of minority teachers is a threat to all children - white and minority. We will have to do extraordinary things to recruit a new pool of minorities into teaching. Teachers, as role models, help give future generations a view of the world. We must make sure that all of our children see themselves in that world. MEMO: Elaine P. Witty is dean of Norfolk State University's School of
Education. She won the Edward C. Pomeroy Award for Outstanding
Contributions to Teacher Education from the American Association of
Colleges for Teacher Education. She was cited for bringing public and
professional attention to the scarcity of young African-Americans in the
teacher preparation ranks. ILLUSTRATION: JOHN CASERTA/Staff
by CNB