In a recent article for The Conversation, Associate Professor David Blazar highlights the positive impact Black teachers have on student achievement, attendance and engagement for students of all backgrounds, while exploring how the lasting effects of school desegregation continue to shape today's educator workforce. He examines why the U.S. teaching workforce remains overwhelmingly white despite decades of efforts to recruit and retain more educators of color. Drawing on new research, Blazar argues that increasing teacher diversity requires more than addressing teacher shortages; it requires intentional policies that confront historical inequities and invest in pathways for Black educators to enter the profession.
Our [study] spells out what it would actually take to boost the number of teachers of color.
To fulfill Maryland’s goal of diversifying the teaching profession, recruitment programs would need to focus specifically on Black and other students of color. That could mean concentrating resources in majority-Black districts like Baltimore City. …
Race-conscious policies face serious headwinds today. Affirmative action is illegal in college admissions and is being challenged in K-12 teacher hiring.
That said, treating teacher diversity as a numbers problem alone will not close the gap. The roots run deeper: Segregation and exclusion have shaped who is in the classroom today. ...
Programs to address teacher shortages and programs to diversify the workforce are not the same thing.
States, school systems and Grow Your Own programs that take teacher diversity seriously should design their work specifically with that goal in mind. In practice, that means recruiting Black and other students of color directly. And it means being honest that closing this gap will take decades, not a single grant cycle.
