THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170360
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 77 lines
Nearly 90 percent of teachers are white, a private education research group reported Wednesday.
Even in urban schools, many of which have a high proportion of minority students, 73 percent of teachers identify themselves as white, the National Center for Education Information said in a report profiling public school teachers.
The Washington-based group also found that white teachers are paid about $36,900 a year, while nonwhite teachers make about $26,000. But white teachers tend to have more experience - about 17 years compared with about 12 years for nonwhite teachers, said the report's author, researcher C. Emily Feistritzer.
Recruiting of nonwhite teachers has met with some success in recent years, Feistritzer said. Nonwhite teachers have increased in the suburbs from 6 percent in 1990 to 13 percent in 1996, and in small towns from 4 percent to 9 percent, the report said.
Still, the overall percentage of white teachers hasn't changed much in the past 10 years, hovering around 90 percent since 1986, the group said.
Funding constraints are to blame for much of the problem in attracting minority teachers, according to the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the 50 largest urban schools.
``We do have a crying need for more African-American and Hispanic teachers,'' said Mike Casserly, executive director of the Washington-based group.
Of the 11 percent nonwhite teachers listed in the study, 7 percent identified themselves as black, 2 percent Hispanic, 1 percent American Indian or Alaskan, and 1 percent Asian.
The salary gap also extends to men and women, with men paid $38,400 per year, while women make $34,600, the report said. But men also have more experience, about 18 years compared with about 15 1/2 years for women.
The report surveyed 1,018 public school teachers around the country, using a 66-item questionnaire. Local school districts echo national pattern
The picture in South Hampton Roads school districts mirrors the nation, with white teachers making up the majority of the teaching force in all five districts.
In Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk - all majority-black districts - African Americans make up no more than 43 percent of the teaching force.
In Virginia Beach, less than 12 percent of the district's teaching staff is African American. In Chesapeake, African Americans account for 22.3 percent of the district's teachers.
``This is an issue Norfolk State University has been addressing very seriously,'' said NSU's Education School Dean Elaine P. Witty, citing conferences and other special projects NSU has sponsored to interest minorities in the teaching profession and to encourage dialogue on the topic.
``We feel it is a problem for minority children and also for white children to not have a representative number of minority teachers,'' she said.
``We know children will be living and working in a global economy, in a world of people from various backgrounds.''
Having too few minority teachers also deprives minority children of ``adequate role models,'' Witty said.
It's unlikely that the national picture will change any time soon, however.
Many minority college students continue to pass over teaching for other professions at a time when the nation's public schools increasingly serve minorities.
Recruiting black teachers is difficult, school officials say. With more career options available to young blacks these days, fewer are going into teaching, and competition for those few is stiff, Norfolk Deputy Superintendent J. Frank Sellew said.
``Studies we've seen estimate that only 5 or 8 percent of African-American students in college today are preparing to become school teachers, and there's a high demand for them across the country,'' Sellew said. ``A lot of the best and brightest . . . are going in other directions and seeking other careers.''
The issue has raised concerns about everything from teaching strategies to cultural bias in the classroom.
KEYWORDS: TEACHERS SOUTH HAMPTON ROADS STATISTICS by CNB