ABSTRACT

               Orangeburg Consolidated School District Four is one of many school districts across the United States that has a lack of minority teachers. The research that follows tries to answer the following questions- 1) What initiatives are being done to recruit more African Americans into the school? 2) What retention actions are being taken to keep the minority teachers in the district? Before getting to the actual research, the paper discusses why scholars believe that minority teachers are needed. It also goes in depth on how bad the minority teacher shortage is in the United States.

 

  

Minority Educators: Capturing the Perceptions and Voices Towards Understanding Recruitment and Retention Strategies

               It is clear that the United States has a minority teacher shortage. “About 42 percent of all public schools in the United States do not have any minority teachers on the school campus” (Perry, 2005). The number of minority teachers in the United States can begin to increase if individual school districts begin taking measures to increase their own minority teacher population. Orangeburg Consolidated School District Four is one school district to consider. If the minority teacher recruitment and retention actions are identified and evaluated for usefulness, the school district can develop new programs to obtain and minority teachers or the school district can enhance the actions that are in place to be successful recruitment and retention tools. If Orangeburg Consolidated School District Four can able to pinpoint successful steps in minority teacher recruitment and retention, then they can begin to increase their minority teacher percentage. Other school districts can then use Orangeburg Consolidated School District Four’s plan for minority teacher recruitment and retention to increase their school districts’ minority teachers.

  

                        The United States classrooms has transformed slowly since the ruling of Brown v Board of Education (1954), which desegregated schools. In modern society, it is not unusual to walk into a classroom and see students of different ethnic groups being educated together. Minority students make up 33 percent of the student enrollment in the United States. Minority teachers only make up 13.5 percent (Perry). “It is predicted that by the end of the 21^st century the percentage of minority teachers will fall to an all time low of 5 percent while the percentage of minority students will increase to 41 percent (American Association for Employment in Education, 1998).

               Perry has identified a couple of reasons why there should be concern over the lagging minority teacher rates. It is argued that students need to see professionals that they can ethnically identify with. This identity sends a message to the student that he himself can aspire to a professional role because someone ethnically like him has done so. “If a student rarely sees individuals who look like them in a classroom, the potential for his/her consideration of teaching as a profession is likely to be significantly reduced” (Dee, 2004). Another advantage to having minority teachers in the classroom is the idea that these teachers are able to interact more successfully with students that share a similar cultural background. In this relationship, the minority teacher may boost minority students’ confidence and enthusiasm for learning.

                 Kane and Orsini (2002) have been able to find an advantage that minority teachers can have on non-minority students. “Minority teachers are important roles to non-minority students’ images of what minority people can and do achieve.” Without this presence non-minority students may never be exposed to minorities in a professional role with such an impact. It is this interaction that will result in increased familiarity with other cultures and an opportunity to observe minorities in a professional role (Middleton, Mason, Stillwell & Parker, 1988).

                “Although the number of teachers produced each year is gradually increasing, the reverse is the case with minority teachers” (Howard, 2003). One cause for the minority teacher shortage is simply that “fewer minority students are enrolling in education programs” (Perry). The lack of minorities entering education is only a part of the shortage. For those choosing to enter education as a major/ profession, “one third of teachers leave education during their first three years of teaching (Weaver, 2002). The Bureau of National Affairs found that most of these teachers find dissatisfaction in the profession or leave seeking careers with higher salaries.

                   Gordon (2000) believes that the way to recruit more minorities into education is to make teaching a more attractive profession to students of color. Michael-Bandele (1993) takes the idea even further with a detailed plan focused at finding minorities from all walks of life to enter the classroom. He suggests improving the quality of instruction at the K- 12 level. By doing so, it is believed that more minorities will enter college and better the chances of more minorities entering the field of education. He also believes that finding persons from other professions could help put minorities into the classroom, such as recruiting former military personnel and any persons being laid off due to business closures or downsizing corporations. Other options include finding college students that have not declared a major, creating more high school programs that prepare students for teaching, and structuring teacher education classes so that students that work during the day could complete a degree taking evening classes. One of the last measures of recruitment is simply to inform the community about the need for teachers.

                    “Since the early 1990s, the annual number of teachers exiting the education field has surpassed the number of entrants (Darling-Hammond, 2003). The National Commission of Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF, 2002) has found that salaries, working conditions, teacher preparation, and mentoring are reasons for teachers leaving the field so soon. “Teachers are more likely to quit teaching when they work in school districts with lower wages and when their salaries are low relative to alternative wage opportunities.” With this in mind, some school districts have taken measures to increase teacher salaries. The increase has been aimed at attracting new teachers in critical demand areas and encouraging experienced teachers to increase their skills and expertise.

                 Darling-Hammond (1997) found that “working conditions, including professional teaching conditions, play a substantial role in the decision of teachers to leave a school campus, a school district, or the education profession altogether.” Teachers in low wealth and urban schools deal with disparities of all kinds. There could be a combination of a lack of resources, poor building conditions, lower pay, higher proportion of students who are struggling with the effects of poverty, broken homes, violence, substance abuse, and teen pregnancy (Claycomb, 2000). Not knowing how to handle all these situations at once could cause teachers to feel overwhelmed, so they leave.

                    Alberts (1998) calls for more teacher preparation so that new teachers feel better prepared for the classroom and will not be overwhelmed. “New teachers are generally held accountable for skills they have not acquired, which can only be gained through experience.” Johnson & Birkeland (2003) adds that new teachers are usually given the least desirable courses and classrooms along with the most challenging group of students. Renard (2003) believes that the answer to these issues is to prepare new teachers more in classroom development, student motivation, differentiation for individual student needs, assessment and evaluation of learning and dealing effectively with parents. Nieto (2003) reinstates with “in order to keep good teachers, the focus must be placed on preparing teachers to work with enthusiasm, competence, and a caring demeanor among all students in the schools.”

                    Sargent (2003) states that new teachers need a supportive environment.

To establish a supportive environment for new teachers, schools must offer teachers professional development opportunities and provide a social setting in which teachers enjoy working. Teachers who feel welcome in their new school environment will form relationships, which will tie them to the school for years to come.

NCTAF shows that effective teacher induction programs that pair new teachers with a more experienced mentor who provides support and assistance to help novice teachers navigate the difficult early years of teaching are able to help them perfect their teaching skills. Those beginning teachers that have access to an intensive mentoring program with an expert colleague are much less likely to leave teaching in the early years.

  METHODOLOGY

               Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the teaching profession had a solid number of minority teachers, especially African Americans. In 1954, there were approximately 82,000 African American teachers (Brown University, 2004). In the same year, the famous Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas legally integrated schools. This integration would only be one way. The student populations were forced to integrate, but not the faculty. After Brown v. Board many African American lost their teaching positions. They were not hired into the white schools. In 1964, the African American teacher population dropped to 44, 000 (Brown, 2004). Since then the number of minority teachers has never been the same.

               The number of minority teachers in education has to increase. Minority students are falling behind due to a lack of minority figures in the classroom (Brown). Minority students have “a corresponding need for well-prepared teachers who can communicate with students within the context of their cultures and/or native language” (Branch & Kritsonis, 2006). If minority students are leaving the classroom without receiving an adequate education, it could deter them from becoming teachers themselves or entering any post-secondary institutions (Brown).

  

               School districts must take measures to recruit and retain minority teachers. School systems are becoming more diverse with student populations. The teaching populations at these schools need to reflect the student demographics (Tennessee Department of Education, 2006). Tennessee Department of Education has taken measures to recruit minorities into teaching by creating PASS (Partnership to Assist School Success), which offers minority high school seniors a financial aid package for majoring in education and repaying the package through teaching in Tennessee. The state has also established a task force that comes up with ideas to retain minority teachers, such as offering support of obtaining advanced degrees.

 

               The research will be based on a descriptive quantitative research. “In a descriptive study, no attempt is made to change behavior or condition”; the situation is analyzed as it is (Hopkins, 2000). For this study, the district as it currently stands will be studied to identify what steps are being taken to recruit minorities to the district and what steps are being taken to keep minorities in the district according to members of the district. In order to obtain measurable outcomes of the study a Likert-type scale will be created. A Likert scale shows “a set of attitude statements” (Underwood, 2008). Using this scale, “subjects are asked to express agreement or disagreement of a five point scale. Each degree of agreement is given a numerical value from one to five. Thus a total numerical value can be calculated from all the responses” (Underwood). For this study, the subjects will express their opinions in degrees from very encouraging to very discouraging. Very encouraging receiving a numeric value of four and very discouraging receiving a numeric value of 1. The factors that receive the highest values will be those that the subjects find very encouraging as far as staying in the profession.

 

               The population for this study is minority teachers in Orangeburg Consolidated School District 4. All teachers at every school and every grade level will be encouraged to fill out and return the survey.

 

               A survey will be used to conduct the study. For time sake, the survey was created by another researcher. For the actual study, the survey shown will be edited by the researcher of this study. The survey was chosen because it would be easy to administer to a large group, there is no training involved, and the population could respond with anonymity. The first part of the survey requests general background information from the subject. The second part allows the subject to determine the best recruitment and retention strategies for the district, and the 3^rd part is an open ended question that allows the subject to add any details that he/she feels is vital to the research.

 

               In order to conduct the study many small steps had to be taken. (1) Permission had to be granted by Argosy University being that the researcher is a current student and conducting the research for studies at the university. (2) Permission had to be granted by the school district itself since its employees were going to be asked to supply the information. (3) The individual school principals had to be contacted for permission to administer the surveys to the minority faculty. (4) A representative at the school was chosen to pass out surveys and collect them. This person was also informed of the anonymity expectation. (5) Surveys were collected after a week from each school. (6) Surveys were analyzed by the researcher. 

 

The collected surveys will be analyzed. The surveys contained open ended and close ended responses. For the close ended responses, which included responses such VE, E, D, and VD, a chart will be created to show how many participants responded under each value. The open ended responses will be read individually. Similar responses will be grouped together. Responses will be indicated in the summary part of the research.

 

            There is an obvious need for more teachers across the United States, more importantly the need is greater for minority teachers. Minority teachers are needed for both minority and non-minority students. Minority teachers serve as role models to minority students. Minority students seeing other minorities in professional positions allow these students to dream bigger for themselves. In some cases, minority teachers also understand minority students better. This relationship leads to higher achievement rates for minority students. As far as non-minority students are concerned, minority teachers can be a vehicle to help these students become more aware of other cultures.

            There are not many minority teacher compared to the minority student population percentages. The reason for this difference is mainly due to minority students choosing not to major in education as before. They are choosing professions with higher salaries.

            There are many initiatives being taken by many schools and districts to recruit more minority teachers. Programs are being created in high schools that begin to prepare students for the education profession. At the college level, it is suggested that institutions focus on students that have not declared majors yet. Schools are also asked to revamp programs so that finishing an education degree is more convenient for evening students. Outside of students, there are ideas to find persons from other occupations. Former military personnel and former business employees and employees should be sought out. 

            Getting minorities into education is just the first step. Measures must be taken to keep them in education. In order to retain minority teachers, schools and school districts should increase salaries, when plausible. Seeking higher salaries is one of the reasons why minority teachers leave the profession. Working conditions should not be too stressful. Minority teachers are leaving low income areas due to being overwhelmed with so many poverty issues. To combat this, teacher preparation should focus on preparing teachers for some of the hardships that may have to be endured in order to stay in education. And finally, mentoring relationships and programs should be created to connect experienced and novice teachers. Effective relationships and programs will increase the retention of teachers.

 

References

Alberts, B. (1998, March 12). New teachers for a new century. Hannibal Courier Post. Retrieved June 9, 2008, from http://www.hannibal.net/stories/031298/teachers.html

American Association for Employment in Education. (1998). Teacher supply and demand in the United States: 1997 Report. Evanston, IL: Author.

Branch, R & Kritsonis, W. (2006). National Journal for Publishing and Mentoring Doctoral Student Research: National agenda: Minority teacher recruitment, development, and retention 3(1).

Brown University. (2004). Minority teacher recruitment, development, and retention. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/minority_teacher/minteachrcrt.pdf

Claycomb, C. (2000). High-quality urban school teachers: What they need to enter and to remain in hard-to-staff schools. The States Education Standard, 17-20

Darling-Hammond, L. (1997). Doing what matters most: Investing in quality teaching. New York: National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.

Darling-Hammond, L. (2003). Keeping good teachers: Why it matters, what leaders can do? Educational Leadership, 60(8), 6-13

Dee, T.S. (2004). The race connection. Education Next, 2, 52-59

Hopkins, W. (2000). Quantitative research design. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from http://www.sportsci.org/jour/0001/wghdesign.html

Howard, T.C. (2003). Who receives the short end of the shortage? Implications of the United States teacher shortage on urban schools. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 18(2), 142-160.

Johnson, S.M. & Birkeland, S.E. (2003). The schools that teachers choose. Educational Leadership, 60(8): 20-24.

Kane, P.R. & Orsini, A.J. (2002). The colors of excellence: Hiring and keeping teachers of color in independent schools. New York: The Teachers College Press.

Michael-Bandele, M. (1993). Who’s missing from the classroom: The need for minority teachers. (Trends and Issue Paper, No. 9). Washington, DC: American Association of College for Teacher Education.

Middleton, E.J, Mason, E.J., Stillwell, W.E., & Parker, C. (1988). A model for recruitment and retention of minority students in teacher preparation programs. Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), 14-18

National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. (2002). Unraveling the “teacher shortage” problem: Teacher retention is the key. A symposium of National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future and NCTAF State Partners. Washington, DC: Author.

Nieto, S.M. (2003). What keeps teachers going? Educational Leadership, 60(8), 14-18

Perry, A. (2005, May). Recruitment and retention initiative for African American and Hispanic teachers in selected school. Ph. D dissertation, Office of Graduate Studies, Texas A & M University.

Renard, L. (2003). Setting new teachers up for failure…or success. Educational Leadership, 60(8), 62-64.

Sargent, B. (2003). Finding good teachers and keeping them. Educational Leadership, 60(8), 44-47

Tennessee Department of Education. (2006, November). Report to the state board of education on the status of minority classroom teachers in tennessee, 2006.

Underwood, M. (2008, April 24). The likert scale. Retrieved May 29, 2008, from http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/psy/likert.html

Weaver, R. (2002). Insisting on quality. Washington, DC: National Education Association.

   

APPENDICES

The following items represent various factors in the recruitment and retention of teachers. Please rate each factor as you regard its relative degree of encouragement for considering entering and remaining in your current teaching position. Place the appropriate letter(s) in the space provided to the left of each number. All survey instruments are anonymous.

Ratings:                VE- very encouraging     E- encouraging D- discouraging VD- very discouraging   

N/A- not applicable (if an item does not influence you

___1. Salary                                                                    ___8. Helping young people

___2. Benefits                                                                  ___9. Class size

___3. Contribution to humanity                                          ___10. Needed a job

___4. Individual social status                                             ___11. Location of job

___5. Curriculum                                                              ___12. Additional employment opportunities

___6. Size of district/ school                                              ___13. Location of spouse/ significant other

___7. Signing bonus                                                          ___14. Housing accommodations

___1. Salary                             ___2. Benefits                              ___3. Contribution to humanity

___4. Individual social status      ___5. Location of job                    ___6. Class size

___7. Curriculum                       ___8. Job satisfaction                   ___9. Size of district/school

___10. Job security                    ___11. Working conditions            ___12. Parental support

___13. Career goals                   ___14. Administrative support      ___15. Location of spouse/significant other

___16. Community support        ___17. Other _______________________________

 

In your opinion, how can the recruitment and retention of African American or Hispanic teachers be improved? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Additional comments: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________