Dive Brief:
- Amid ongoing efforts to diversify the K-12 teacher workforce, a United Negro College Fund report finds some historically Black colleges and universities are working to get Black students in the teacher pipeline by tapping into faculty networks, establishing relationships with school districts and using financial aid as a recruitment tool.
- Additionally, HBCUs leveraged long-standing connections with their local Black church communities to promote teacher prep programs and financial aid offerings during religious services.
- UNCF suggested higher ed institutions develop pipelines for Black educators beginning in high school by offering students opportunities to work with children and then maintaining relationships with them through their matriculation into college and eventual completion of a teacher certification.
Dive Insight:
While HBCUs make up only 3% of colleges and universities, 50% of all Black educators come from these institutions, the UNCF report said.
UNCF looked at four HBCUs: Alabama A&M University, Albany State University in Georgia, Fayetteville State University in North Carolina and Huston-Tillotson University in Texas.
The HBCUs’ best practices for getting Black students in the teacher pipeline offer takeaways for other teacher prep programs as well. For instance, UNCF recommends higher education institutions take advantage of their faculty and staff’s personal and professional networks to recruit students. Partnerships with school districts are another suggested approach.
At the curriculum level, the report suggests colleges use their early alert systems to identify students in need and to quickly reach out to them and provide supportive resources. Faculty members should also make cultivating student relationships a priority while maintaining high expectations of their students. The curriculum itself should include culturally and historically responsive coursework as well, UNCF said.
Research has shown low teacher pay to be a deterrent for students of color and Indigenous students — swaying them away from seriously considering the profession.
In fact, an October report from Teach Plus and the Center for Black Educator Development found low teacher pay is driving these students away from pursuing the field. A teacher’s level of agency in the classroom and the representation reflected in their curriculum also heavily shape students’ views about the job, according to the Teach Plus-CBED report.
Black teachers were more likely to cite low salaries as a top factor for job stress compared to White teachers — 35% versus 24%, according to a RAND report released in September.
The UNCF report also noted historic barriers for prospective Black educators, particularly when teacher certification requirements and exams were first implemented in the 1970s. Those policies led to the elimination of nearly 100,000 minority teachers across 35 states between the late 1970s and early 1990s.
The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, has come out against teaching licensure exams due to the hurdles it can present — “particularly for candidates of color.”
Some states, however, are beginning to forego basic certification testing. New Jersey was one of the more recent states to do so in November as advocates welcomed the change amid a slowing of both educators and teaching candidates in the state.