If I were a young, white teacher, I would read this article as reason to emigrate to a country where being white would not be held against me.
Personally, I am thinking of returning to Austria.
34
Claire Cain Miller's discussion doesn't describe at least one relevant variable. How large are the class sizes? A teacher who is a man can teach tellingly to girls in a class; so can a woman to boys; and race does not have to be a factor if they are allowed an environment where all communicate as individuals. Sadly this is not the "education system" that is prevalent. How to remediate this?
9
Shocking. Duh. Very sarcastic tone - "hmmm, why might teachers, especially nonwhite teachers be at a risk for burn out?" "Why might men not want to seek careers in education?" Look at the numbers of male administrators, and you might have a few clues.
Beyond the blame game of if students aren't performing according to legislator appointed testing companies products, the teachers MUST be at fault! Let's not even discuss the yoyoing administrative demands of "Be rigorous!" "Be alert" - for potential drug abuse, child abuse, sexual abuse, bullying, violence, "Are you adapting lessons for each student's learning style, disability?", the list continues.
And does the money make a difference? A little bit.
8
I am a white man. I grew up in Seattle and studied education on track to be an elementary school teacher. I loved working with children, and I was especially interested in focusing on bullied and ostracized kids.
When I was still in college I was out running with my cross country team when we ran through a playground, I noticed some kids playing and began thinking about the unit I was studying on playground dynamics. One of my team-mates noticed that I was watching the children play, and said to me "you shouldn't look at children like that, people will think you're a pedophile."
That one comment ruined my teaching career. I had never once before that even considered the idea before that point. Afterword, I felt no joy in working with children, only anxiety.
Years later, I am a computer programmer.
Blacks often complain about instances of racism, and then list five or six that might not even seem so serious to me as a white person. But when I look back and see how much just one comment made on my career choice, I can only imagine what it must be like to live in a world of repeated hostilities.
20
As a teacher I would love to see more men and women of color in the teaching profession but more than anything I would prefer to see quality teachers of any stripe.
My principal cleaned house for the past ten years and has hired bright young things and bright middle-career people as well. Those in the middle are doing better but bright young teachers can and do grow with the right nourishment .
What shocks me is how many teachers (whose requests I read on Teacher's Choice or sit with in professional development outside of my own school) are just plain stupid. Bad writers, inflexible minds, diversionary tactics away from their lack of knowledge make my jaw drop.
Black, white, brown, "other" - it matters to the child but a great teacher will inspire all children.
8
As a college kid In 90s i needed less diversity.. i could barely
understand foreign teachers..
14
I have a child on elementary and I'm very happy with his female teacher. I don't like male teachers for little kids, it's ok for 5th grade and so on, but little kids, no.
6
If children do better when teachers share their race and gender, then that would mean thag white girls benefit from having white female teachers. It seems like the headline should be "boys and non-white children do better with more diverse teachers".
9
Does "Diversity" include older white males? Maybe teacher 'quality', preparation and experience would.
6
The first step towards solving this problem is to declare war against illiteracy and the continuing attacks on education.
Education is the primary process for achieving equality in our country. We are divided because our education systems sell knowledge to the highest bidder. As a result High quality education and Healthcare are out of reach for most Americans.
What good is the US Constitution if most Americans cannot read effectively? We have gone full circle — from Scholars to the Utterly Foolish.
6
There is the possibility that some European American teachers are fearful that their children would face stiff competition if all students have a fair shot at success (unconscious bias).
If you look at any school you will find plenty of minority men and women working every day. However, they're untouchable. No wisdom from these parts allowed.
"Go get certified in something and then you can talk to me" seems to be the modus operandi in our public schools.
Minority, both racial and gender-related, interaction is needed and the first act is to remove the blinders from our own eyes and acknowledge that our "untouchables" are our janitors, our "lunch room ladies." Fix this and you are hammering away at implicit bias.
What is needed is a completely new way of seeing education where even the "workers" are educators. A serious push into what they call Authentic Learning is perhaps the best place to start. In this way our workers can become "mentors" at certain times. Everybody is good at something. It's good for kids to see.
This piece shows how invaluable non-academic workers are in schools, especially when they are minorities in a majority white school. Yet what are they relegated to do? Rather, what are they relegated to be?
They have to whistle while they mop when they could be rapping as mentors of school rapping crews looking to put out real-live records, for instance.
You don't need a college degree to be a human being and "real people" are exactly what this article says that our children need.
To heck with allowing implicit bias to go unaddressed in our public schools for so long. Get smart, people. Educate creatively! Go out on a limb.
3
Its nice to see that Latino's are mentioned in this summary of the study, instead of just black and white.
I am also curious whether Asian Americans are broken out as a demographic group in the study. There are certainly are significant enough proportion of modern American demographics that they should not even be mentioned.
Children have unrecognized biases, too, that can affect learning ability. Teenage boys snickering to each other that a woman teacher is a "cow" are unlikely to learn very much from her. The adults in their lives need to quit encouraging a world view that despises women. Underpaying teachers doesn't help any of this either. We have lots of work to do.
16
The best education possible for all subsets of kids matters most. Politically correct mixes of gender and race of teachers and students should be secondary.
4
I'm astonished by all of the negative response. Diversity of teachers makes sense and I think also a big plus for white children in having black role models and teachers in positions of authority.
5
It is funny that when the shoe is on the other foot (women becoming police officers, fire fighters, politicians, CEO, construction workers) many women are all in favor of increasing diversity.
But when it is a field which women dominate, suddenly diversity is not such a good thing. Human nature, I guess.
6
We also know that female teachers consistently grade girls higher than boys, even when anonymous tests show the boys score the same or higher on the same material. Boys have it drummed into them they are not as smart as girls. And there are no boy-focused after school programs.
There is pervasive anti-boy discrimination in American schools and the female-led unions and their captives in the State and Federal Education Departments refuse to address it.
8
Salary isn’t the only reason people of color don’t want to teach in America. If you are receiving expanded learning that breaks down the myths favoring White American elitist’s indoctrination why would want to participate in this miseducation? The diminishment of the achievements of all cultures contributing to the real America, in all fields of study and theories, may not bother White people, but it really bothers others enough to absent themselves from it.
Not only does the American indoctrination system fail Americans it makes our sense of exceptionalism false and worth mocking around the world. There is a reason current and future tech and tech dependent companies recruit and hire more people that are not educated in America. And it’s not the fabled lower cost of labor. It actually because these companies note foreign employees have received better and more comprehensive educations resulting in better discernment, critical thinking, problem solving skills and greater capacity toward continued learning and self improvement.
Change American indoctrination to a system of education with well paid and respected teachers and recruitment and retention might become an great deal easier.
1
In the minority-majority largest metropolitan areas around the country this study fails on its premise. Yes, in smaller rural communities and, arguably, in the suburbs where the more affluent tend to live such a claim could be made.
However, as a nation, each decade the census shows we're becoming more a melting pot of diversity than ever before.
2
Children see everything around them; they NEED models like themselves. Teachers ARE major models, people students spend as much time with - and often more waking time - than their own parents. Someone like yourself who has achieved a position of respect: that's invaluable. Someone who understands your background -- means you you don;t have to be on guard all the time.
Race may be a construct based on garbage-- but that garbage is entrenched in the US.
Also if you want to scrub unfair bias from schools as much as possible - to have mixed "race" diverse background teaching staff for everyone's benefit - other teachers, students of other races.
If you have worked in an environment that was really diverse - and then experience a total one dimension setting, you realize that people get too comfortable in assuming that everyone shares the same experiences, values and means of expression. and In assuming that they have the only answers.
I guess this is leaning toward outcome based education!
Want more diversity in teaching? Pay teachers a living wage. Most young teachers drop out when they realize that they will never be able to buy a house on a teacher’s salary. Many ambitious men and people of color never even consider the profession. Until the US starts showing teachers respect, the pool will not diversify.
12
I am a white woman who dedicated thirteen years teaching in a 7th/8th grade Middle School in East Harlem, NY. My students were predominantly Latino and African American. I then went on to become an Assistant Principal in a K-8 school of predominantly Latino and African American students in the Bronx. This is not to say I didn't also teach and supervise Muslim, Bulgarian, Albanian and other students who had recently immigrated to the US.
When we talk about bias and stereotypes, there is a lot to learn for a lot of people. It is a two way street. In my middle school, all the teachers were white with the exception of one. Two were male and sometimes we had a third. Male students gravitate toward male role models. They are essential. I saw the same thing as an Assistant Principal. But, it is not only male students, a lot of female students who do not have a father figure in the house, look towards their male teachers as role models.
I have seen a recent influx of Latino, female teachers and this is very positive with the large populations of Spanish speaking students. But we need more, we need African American teachers and Muslim teachers. A discussion on the ability of a teacher to teach is a whole other topic and there are a lot of superb teachers within inner city despite their skin color.
This is a hot topic and deserves so much more room for discussion than a comment. I believe I served my students well. I know I did from our ongoing dialogues on Facebook.
3
I didn't see any other ethnicities mentioned. While it's important to acknowledge that there can be a fraught dynamic between white teachers and kids of color, we have to stop acting as if there are only two racial groups in American schools.
On another note, my 3rd-grade teacher was African-American -- in a 100%-white school! Like all adults I am conscious of race, but I was not so much then. She was one of the best teachers I had, because she demanded a lot of us; that is what I remember about her.
6
I don't think I ever had a teacher who shared my ethnic background, at least not until my junior high school years. While I certainly felt pleased when the teacher shared my ethnicity, a thought that they would understand my upbringing and culture more or maybe I could see them as a roll model, at the end of the day, I did well in school for one simple reason: my parents wouldn't tolerate anything less than perfection and I understood from a very young age that doing poorly disgraced them and our family name. I don't understand why so much time and energy is wasted on studies such as these. Having a teaching body that is reflective of the students is beneficial, certainly; you did not need a study to figure that one out. However, at the end of the day, when parents value education and make it a priority, then it doesn't matter much what your teachers look like.
12
With the best intentions, I spent a summer volunteering in an inner city neighborhood to - hopefully - teach some computer skills to potential at-risk teenagers. Naturally the kids were more interested in what kids their age care about - their peers, their self-image. But most of all, behind the bravado, they needed a stable home life - some actually came from well-off families, but without parents to spend time with them.
I took them around the neighborhood using digital cameras, but in time it became clear that I would have established a better bond and understanding if I came from their neighborhood, shared their concerns - girls or boys- instead of imagining I could just drop in and be able to help.
It’s not to say it can’t work - had I a different personality it might have, but it’s just easier.
I have always held the ideal that people everywhere can get along and understand each other, and still do, but with time I’ve had to admit that shared cultural values and experience do help facilitate the process. For the young who are still searching for a sense of belonging, this may be crucial, esp for those without a solid home and community ties.
4
As an administrator in a grad school of education, I have met African American male teachers who left the profession because so much more was expected of them. Besides being an extraordinary teacher, each was expected to befriend every child of color in every grade, assist with discipline of other teacher's students, sit on every committee, be visible at any meeting that parents or press might attend, and involved in every athletic venture (stereotype much?) All this while earning the master's degree required within first five years of teaching in our state. The burden of being the only is extraordinary.
Young teachers saw the unmet social needs of their students lamented that they could not fill them. Some new teachers had trouble letting go of last year's students to take on a new group who would surely have similar unmet needs. Sage advice came from a professor who had taught for years in Chicago's South Side: you can never be a father or a big brother to all the children you will encounter in your career, but you can be the best teacher they ever have. Choose to be that teacher. You have ten months to give each student the tools for their future success, to help them excel or turn themselves around, to gain confidence and study skills, to work cooperatively. And, the students have only one shot at fifth grade. Give them their best shot, and your best effort as the professional you trained to be.
54
As a black female teacher, I have doubted that teaching is the right field for me because of my colleagues. I have worked in schools where white teachers do not speak to black teachers, where white principals and teachers do not value the input of black teachers, where my qualifications were regarded as inferior, where I was not treated as an equal. We cannot overlook the impact institutional racism has on teachers of color.
68
@EM I've heard the same comments from a friend who is one of only two white teachers in her high school - she feels isolated and discounted, and parents don't like that a "white woman" is teaching their kids.
22
@Kparker
I would bet it's because parents of color, particularly black parents, are well-aware of the implicit racial bias that white female teachers have against students of color -- exactly what the article is addressing. I'm sure these parents of color experienced the same bias themselves as students.
@ThoughtPartner Perhaps, but by passing along their own racial bias, they are helping ensure that nothing will ever change.
As a white female teacher with 20 years of experience, I can say that this information is inconsistent with my own experience. After 5 years at a mostly white high school, I moved to a diverse community college. It is the black men - more than any other racial/ethnic/gender/identity group - who tell me I helped them by listening to them, focusing on their writing (I teach English comp and lit) in one-to-one sessions, and following up with them to make sure they progress. I also have high expectations of all my students, and I make sure they know it. If a teacher sees her students, listens to them, and speaks to them directly, they will feel like someone cares about them and is there to really teach them. I doubt very much that my gender or race prevent me from being a highly effective teacher for students other than white girls. And that's exactly what this article suggests.
106
Clearly the article is not directed at any single individuals. For all students, learning environments that inspire and encourage are important. When a teacher (of whatever) hue brings that to the classroom it matters greatly. Yet a lot of what happens during a person’s educational experience is nonverbal and often unintentional. Students sense how a teacher or professor perceives and responds to them whether it is positive, negative or dismissive. When students of color encounter teachers who look like them, they may see themselves and their own potential from a new perspective.
5
Between my husband and I we have taught for more than 75 years. He has taught in the South Bronx and Harlem, as well as in poor schools in Anchorage, Alaska. I have taught in Washington, DC as well as in middle class schools in Anchorage and Tucson, AZ.
There are many variables that influence student learning. By far, the greatest variable is the quality of parenting. This includes the ability of parents to provide children with a safe and secure home in a neighborhood with a relative lack of drugs and violence. As the saying goes, "The best predictor of student success is the zip code where the student lives."
Among those variables that impact student learning found in schools the only one that reaches the level of statistical significance is the quality of teaching. It does not matter whether the school uses whole language or phonics. Nor does it matter whether math involves memorization or not. What matters is the quality of the teaching, whatever the course of study or the pedagogical approach used. We both have worked with dozens of other teachers. Neither one of us has seen teacher race or ethnicity make a difference in student learning. This is based on personal observation...mostly from my husband's years teaching in the South Bronx and Harlem, as well as both of our experiences in Anchorage. Quality teaching does not depend upon race or ethnicity nearly as much as it depends upon the skills of individual teachers, regardless of race or ethnicity.
103
@Cheri Solien
you are right on point personally I feel diversity is over used and over emphasized. parenting is the most important factor by 75-80%
8
@Cheri Solien
You need all that *AND* a teacher who looks like the students in the class and shares and understands their culture.
Quality of teaching and curriculum are only a part of the equation. The other part is modeling. All white teachers who come into a Black or Latino neighborhood every day cannot ever achieve that.
At the same time, there is a great benefit from having teachers of color in schools where there is no diversity.
5
@Cheri Solien
All of what you say is true, but the studies are clear that race and gender *also* matter, and I think they are more compelling than your anecdotal observations to the contrary.
6
Have we looked at the possibly that boys are taught to respect and frequently fear a male authority figure at home and not a woman? This certainly can be seen by poor students, frequently of color who come from homes where male figures are absent and or distant.
Those first 5 years at home may be the reason for the difference.
However as a retired adminsitrator/ teacher working mostly in poverty school districts, I saw color and gender not the real indicators of who was successful...but a caring well trained and dedicated teacher. I saw black, white,Latino; male and female teachers fail This research did not support my experience. I had my own research. A good teacher can teach anyone.
106
@Porter
I thought something similar!
@Grace
I spent some time in tutoring and student teaching as well, and I agree with your assessment.
This article does a lot explaining the teacher's inherent bias, but I wonder about the students? If there's suddenly a change in high school (when most students are going through, or have gone through, puberty) is it possible that male students begin to respect their female teachers less as well? When I was getting my Masters in secondary education, it was a common fact that female teachers would have a harder time with classroom management.
I don't know this for sure - but it's a question I thought of while reading this article.
1
My rather heart-rending observation from my volunteer tutoring job with low-income kids is this: when my fellow tutors are men, the boys cluster around them for conversation and attention. I'm guessing unscientifically that if boys had just one male teacher teaching them during the week, the effect would be leveraged so that they'd settle down and get more out of their female teachers as well.
In the meantime my message for male high school and college students and any other men with time on your hands would be this: show up for these kids, even for a couple hours a week. If you're a match race-wise and/or faith-wise for a nearby community, even better.
As for making teaching a career: if only our society could support this profession in a way that would allow people to securely support their families, including college for their kids and their own retirement, without burning themselves out.
153
@Grace looks like the young men are actually seeking regular father figures... That would require more soul searching and farvgreater effort at a social level than a teacher-hiring policy decision or arranging for when-you-get-time volunteers who may leave the children more frustrated
1
Oh yes, now! white people are so bad that they graduate from schools and go teach... I wonder why the others don't do it. Probably we'll find a bunch of excuses for that and again the white people are to be blamed...
26
The anti-teacher bias - make that the anti-public school teacher bias - of the NY Times is staggering.
13
I want the best teachers in the classrooms. Boy teachers for boys and Hispanic girl teachers for Hispanic girls is not my goal as a taxpayer and caretaker of children.
17
It may well be that children, particularly boys, do better with those of their own kind. That might be why, fifty years ago, so many black students seem to have studied harder and really tried to get an education when they lived in the segregated South and, despite lousy hand-me-down schoolbooks and barely educated black teachers, they learned and strove and became honest, hardworking adults so that, even today, the black population in the South seems to be doing better than their northern brethren.
Is it only in major cities that far too many black students have an "education is the Oreos" attitude? It isn't poverty, because poverty has never stopped anyone, black, white, immigrant from anywhere, from learning when there's a will to learn.
But then, out in the heartland, white students have an "education is for liberal elites" attitude.
We're in trouble.
5
I'm no social scientist, but perhaps Asian kids get more respect from white teachers in the US (and thereby do better in school) simply because the US as a nation has never been able to dominate Asia militarily - having lost two wars and needing the atom bomb to win the third. Sound crazy? Maybe.
1
@Turgid Teachers have also traditionally been respected, so culture plays a factor here.
1
@Turgid: Are you serious? Ever hear of WWII?
1
Well, Yeah. Of course, that's why, back in the day,
Catholic Schools used to separate the boys from the girls
after third grade, and all high schools were uni-sex, either
all Male or all Female. Of course, ironically, the upper class Prep schools that molded our Nation's elite, and were mostlyfrom our Nation's elite, also followed that sexist model, with the added soupcon of class privilege.
And well, if black boys do better with Male black role models, and GIRLS are better at Math with females teaching numbers et al....
Hey, I know: how about schools segregated and organized
along sexist, racial and class lines. Separate but more or less equal and honestly diverse in the ways that matter.
Back to the FUTURE, anyone?
10
Filling student achievement gaps has little to do with the race, culture, religion or political viewpoints of the teacher. Diversity in teaching already exists and pointing to "white women" as the problem suggests a Trump-style annihilation of women in the interest of something more than just education. Think about it: KKK, Roe v. Wade, Disrespecting his wife and family with his hooker-burner relationships - now suddenly it is about controlling white women in education. Yet he tolerates the ineffectiveness of clueless Betsy DeVos. Perhaps she is his type!
3
Generally speaking, due to widespread affirmative action opportunities for black college graduates, blacks with, say, 110 IQs can get better paying jobs outside of teaching than can white women with 110 IQs. So white women tend to gravitate toward public school teaching, especially since 1990s reforms to improve the quality of teachers had the effect of cutting back on affirmative action in teaching.
Of course, the big story in student test scores in this century has been the rise of Asian test scores, even though few Asian students have many Asian teachers. But that doesn't fit The Narrative, so we don't hear much about it.
13
Where do highly successful Asian children fit into this overly generalized and poorly conceived article? Do they need a teacher who "looks like them" to succeed? Did Jewish children of the early 20th century? Come on - let's be serious about the factors that lead to success in school. Teacher identity may be one of them, but children begin at home.
34
@RE Were Jewish children and Asian children descended from slaves in the US. Was the entire US culture and legal system set up to prevent them from learning. Was it ever illegal in the US to teach Jews to read? Did whites close down public schools and burn buses because they thought Asians might use them? Are Jewish children being sent home in the current day because white teachers think their natural hair is threatening or disruptive?
Stop comparing apples to oranges.
This is absurd. 70% of Asian students comprise the student populations of New York City's specialized and high-performing high schools. Yet, there are very few Asian teachers in the system. So how do these Asian students succeed despite the lack of teachers who "look like them"? Low income African-American students and Hispanics would have a greater chance of success if their fathers were not absent, and if their mothers would wait to marry before having babies. I teach in a high needs high school in New York City, where countless students get pregnant every year, drop out and thus condemn themselves and their children, who will probably be the first in a series) to a life of poverty. These children are deprived of sufficient emotional support from an intact and functional family. Children having children don't know how to parent a child, interact with the child, read to the child, who will therefore also suffer from the lack of cognitive stimulation that is necessary for language development and other cognitive skills that lead to academic success. The same can be said of low income uneducated rural whites who have high out-of-wedlock births with absent fathers.
38
@dba The evidence is the evidence. Perhaps black boys do worse with white female teachers because white females make sexist and racist assumptions about black boys that they do not make about others.
The article implies that black students should be taught by black teachers while white students should be taught by white teachers. This is how things worked before Brown vs Board of Education?
30
“Diversity is God, Racism, the Devil,”—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Anything to keep affirmative action going, even if it’s a twist on an old subject. The best should be hired regardless of race, ethnicity, or sex. Competent people are especially encouraged to apply.
13
To the editor (not the author):
Why not say in the headline simply: "Research shows students do better when taught with teachers like them" and couple it with pictures of teachers who represent diversity."
Stop believing that I have more than a minute in my day for your story. Brietbart and Fox are winning because they are not nearly so filled with hubris.
I am paying you only to make reading reliable news more efficient. During the 10 minutes I have for news each morning, I am never enticed by the cryptic, or a question. They elicit a groan, and a spiteful desire to skip what you've written.
Unless you want to publish only to retirees who read news to fill their days (and have impact only there), I recommend you write simply, and directly.
Nothing is lost by doing so other than YOUR time, and that is what I am paying you to do. If you don't do it, you will no job. Is that simple enough?
4
Teachers’ biases can end up becoming self-fulfilling prophecy, Mr. Gershenson has found. “The high expectations actually motivate kids to do better,” he said. “Black students are hurt by that lack of optimism that white kids get, and black kids with black teachers rise to meet their expectations.” That conclusiont doesn´t explain why white children are not affected by black teachers. Is it because white children generally learn about respect for other cultures and colors, where black children learn that white people want them bad? Mr. Gershenson's conclusions are old wines on new bottles that are not scientifically substantiated. The article's message is not scientific but political, to produce some as victims and others as oppressors.
8
Tell that to the creators of the “teaching fellowship.” You should also add that the rise in school shooting coincides with the elimination of the arts. STEM isn’t everything.
2
Teachers do better when they have small class sizes, are the top 10% in their class, and have access to tenure. -- Oh, also, its good if they, like their students, are also bipedal carbon based life forms.
4
If they paid teachers better, there would be more male teachers.
11
The simple answer? Hire more men!
3
Wow. Way to go, NYTimes--you just dissed the vast majority of teachers simply because they're white and female. Why do we as a society continue to blame students' problems solely on teachers? I'm not saying there aren't biased teachers, or teachers who for some reason don't present a role model that students can relate to, or teachers who simply aren't as talented as others. I'm saying that there are likely many, many other causes for students failing to succeed in school, including poverty, violence, broken families, undiagnosed learning disabilities, too much video and electronics, etc. To help ALL students achieve to their highest potential, start by addressing those factors. In addition, address the factors that have caused teaching to become a white/female ghetto: low pay, lousy working conditions, inadequate supplies and resources, unrealistic demands on test results, ineffective administrators, and the unspoken assumption that women will endure this gratefully because "it's all about the kids" and we all know women are the ones who sacrifice for the kids.
18
In the print edition, this article is headlined “Students thrive when teachers are their race.” That’s rather different, and more pointed, than the bland generalization here. Why the difference?
2
What happened to who is the best qualified gets the job?
13
According to the logic of this article, white students will be hurt if more Black and Hispanic teachers are brought into the public school system. It's a ridiculous stance either way. Let's just get great teachers in the classroom!
9
What a lot of baloney. Time should be discouraging the idea that we can only learn from people who look like us.
I'm also angry about the argument that white women teachers are not valuable. Who else is going to teach our kids at the lousy pay they get?
13
How much of this effect may stem from parents instilling in children mistrust/dislike of people who do not look like them?
16
When I was at university, most of the minorities majored in business or the sciences, because they wanted to make a better salary so they could afford a decent lifestyle. There is no way they would find teaching a calling.
4
As a teacher who is completely supportive of the arguments put forth in this article, we need to address one glaring hurdle. Human resources departments have rules against making diversity an evaluation criterion. Yes, these will certify a pool of candidates, and the process, both of which are good. But, at the end of the day, when you are looking at, say, equally qualified man and woman, we can't factor gender in.
The race/gender of a teacher matters for the 1st day of class. After that, it is the competence of the teacher that matters most. Period. Yes, all things being equal, perhaps same race/gender may help. But if not equal, then what?
3
And yet, I read an article a few weeks ago that appeared in this paper. When African American men become teachers they are expected to become disciplinarians of young black boys, and especially in inner city schools. This was something the men resented. I can think of women of color who would go into teaching, but where are they likely get teaching jobs? In the inner city, since they live in urban environments, where there are likely to be more children of color. But inner city schools are plagued with the problems of poverty complicating the lives of children of color. These problems make it difficult to teach and make it difficult as well as difficult for the children to learn.
4
When the profession of teaching is more valued, more men will stay in teaching. They leave because they can't support a family on a teacher's salary.
6
I'm shocked at the closed minded comments so far. Can you really not believe that a troubled kid might benefit from having a single adult presence who looks like them? Nothing in this article said that white female teachers are important and positive in kids lives. The research simply said that having a single interaction with a male teacher in elementary school can have a profound impact on those kids' later life decisions. Why is this so challenging to accept?
6
Educational research is usually done very badly and has little external validity. It's not sufficient to accept the opinion of education "experts" because usually they have a political/ social agenda in addition to being incompetent in producing or evaluationomg research. "Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach. Those that can't teach, teach teachers."
5
Perhaps we should have schools where the students are grouped so that their teachers can look like them. All the schools could be equally funded.
But wait! We had that once and were told that it was wrong and we were monsters for defending it.
13
Yeah, well maybe many white women have another source of income coming into their homes. If not, many teachers, no matter their ethnicity or race, have more than one job.
Teachers have been demonized. Teacher unions and rights have been decimated. Ever look at teacher salaries? You think many men feel they can afford to teach?
Diversity is one of the last things most people governing and in power of school budgets are interested historically.
But that is changing - and thank goodness. Maybe when we have others pulling school budget purse strings besides white men, diversity will become more of an important factor in schools.
However, first Betsy DeVos, Trump’s puppet, needs to get booted out as Secretary of Education. She not only has absolutely no educational degree in education, but has never stepped foot teaching in any classroom! And she loves, loves, loves parochial schools paid with taxpayer money. Deplorable, speaking of white women.
4
If you want to attract a more diverse teaching staff you would have to increase teacher pay. Pay enough, and everyone will want to teach. Instead you have a population of teachers who are willing to dedicate themselves to a profession where they are under appreciated, criticized for all of societies' problems and blamed for all that goes wrong in our culture.
47
@silverwheel Precisely. No matter what reform you prefer, you have to go beyond the people who do this well for love. There aren't enough of them to go around.
You also need the ones who will do it well for money.
You haven’t convinced me. I look at what the people labeled “the greatest generation” accomplished with their system of education and their accomplishments are equal if not greater to anything my poor excuse for a generation has done. I am *not* saying that we should go back to living like they did in the ‘30s. I am saying we should turn away from this myth that children can’t learn from someone to whom they can’t “relate.” Teachers used to be there to teach. Now they’re supposed to be psychologists and social workers and food providers and healthcare workers and more recently— racial representatives. My thinking is that “research” will show that teaching ability, combined with parental involvement, will be the deciding factor for success.
46
This article largely misses the point. What is the percentage of students who don't have a teacher of their same race or gender in any given year. This article states 80% or 1 in 5 teachers are non white. Thus, if a child has 8 teachers a year (in high school) chances are good one will be non white. The article did not really present the scale of the issue. I would suspect it is a concentration issue.
Granted, I don't recall a single non white teacher during high school. My school was about 97% white.
Assuming that every school has at least a few non white teachers, should the school assign non white students to non white teachers? Or make some sort of optional program were parents can elect to have certain teachers?
Assuming a class has roughly the same make-up as the general population (roughly 60% white, 13% African American, 13% hispanic, and 14% other), a African American teacher would not help the the 27% of the class who are minorities but not African Americans.
This seems less of an issue about teacher diversity and more of an issue about how you assign students to classes.
1
What about all the failing inner-city schools (and there are many) with predominately minority students with predominately minority teachers? This doesn't hold up.
It's about good teachers and students who are wanting and willing to learn - regardless of race.
6
The best and most important teacher one ever has is one’s parents. I don’t really know why so much is expected of teachers. If the parents are terrible, so goes the outcome, no matter the research, the diversity of teachers, or the curriculum.
6
Let's keep our eyes on the prize: better learning for more leaners.
The diversity we are looking for in our teachers has less to do with color or gender and far more to do with caring for all kids and having the skills to make them want to learn.
Sure diversity matters and all teacher candidates are needed. But the difference we need in K12 is a love for learnng and a love for kids.
3
So here is this article, with research and all, claiming that students learn better when the teacher reflects the racial and gender of the class. And there is the problem, well, problems. Unless the class is all Black or all White or all Latino or all Asian or all male or all female, some students, according to this researched article, will suffer a lesser outcome. Of course, this is complete nonsense. And, of course, all this article, research and all, will do is further stereotype people, teachers and students, and their collective experience. The single and by far most important criteria for a successful experience in the classroom is the teacher's ability to AUTHENTICALLY reach a student. Given that the teacher deeply knows his or her subject, this single criterion is neither taught or can be taught. Either a person is born with it, and develops it, or not. There may very well be people who most definitely possess this precious gift, but haven't been able to discover it or strengthen it, but as for genderizing or racializing the classroom experience -- I really pity the young people who are prisoners in such an environment. Their loss is our loss, and those that think such nonsense leads to more real learning have already, even before entering the arena, made steps down the wrong path. Authenticity, by its very nature, is an inner experience and has nothing to do with race or gender.
7
With 13 percent of public school students classified as having a disability, I am always disheartened when I read an article about diversity in schools that rarely mention that 13 out of every 100 students has a challenging diagnosis. The child might have a physical disability, learning disability or psychological disability. Children with autism and ADHD and Dyslexia are a growing presence in school. Yet, School districts underfund the needs of children with disabilties. Often these are the kids that meet with the lowest of exceptions, with boys and students of color overrepresented in these populations. The pressure of schools to not fully fund the needs of kids with disabilities leaves only the kids that have parents able and willing to advocate able to receive the help that they need. Many issues related to school performance can be attributed to children with disabilities not getting the assistance that they need and suffering from teachers with low expectations.
3
"Research shows that students, especially boys, benefit when teachers share their race or gender."
This is an argument for segregation, not diversity.
19
You’ve completely missed the point of this article. Try reading it again.
1
"[B]oys... benefit when teachers share their race or gender."
What pseudo-science is this?
Nowadays it's a crime, of course, but I was born both male and white. My parents were each brilliant and had successful careers. But they were clueless as parents. Clueless.
My nursery school teacher taught me for 2 wonderful years, from ages 3 to 4. A lively and warm woman from London, she had lived through the Blitz and, as she told me later, only survived because the bomb which fell in her back yard did not explode.
Mrs. Lonergan was the mother I never had, at the time when I needed one the most. She made me feel like I was the most important person she had ever met, looking me straight in the eye and listening seriously to whatever I might be babbling at the moment. (I'm sure all her other pre-schoolers felt the same way.) But she had high standards- you didn't want to give her anything less than your best effort.
We kept in touch over the years, and when I played in my first professional opera production, she was there to hear it. She also came to my college graduation, to celebrate the day along with my parents.
In high school, my favorite was a music teacher who was eccentric, irreverent, utterly approachable and embraced my love for early music. He gave me invaluable career advice, and played at my wedding.
Boys want what girls want: To be loved, to be appreciated for who they are, to feel that they matter. It doesn't matter which adult steps up to the plate.
23
As a retired public school teacher, I can’t imagine who could be inspired to dedicate themselves to teach in a common core standards era of education. Walk inside a kindergarten class today and you will find a first grade classroom. With most schools removing vocal music, can you imagine a child not singing in school for six years, and the removal of visual art, instrumental band, and social studies, a curriculum of only reading, writing and math is just plain dull. The answer to academic achievement begins with high quality preschool starting at age two. Instead of K-12 education it must be age 2-grade 12 education, where every school offers STEAM education.
7
There seems to be, in the comments section, strong resistance to this article's central ideas, which are that the diversity of teachers matters, and diverse children respond positively to teachers who look like them. To acknowledge the positive effects of similar cultural and racial backgrounds and shared cultural information in student-teacher relationships is not to dismiss or undervalue the contributions of our largely homogeneous teaching force.
We are trying to maximize the K-12 education of all of our children. Defensiveness (disguised as attacks on research practices, the insistence of false cultural neutrality, and the belief that teaching is a calling and therefore cannot be enhanced by learning) will not serve America’s goals or our children. Let’s be aware of our biases and beliefs, acknowledge their impact, and stay open to doing better. And, we can do better. Let's advance the education and lives of all of our children.
11
@Connor The writer argues for diversity of teachers but the evidence she cites actually suggests that all students learn best in classes segregated by gender and race so that they are all taught by teachers who share these characteristics with their students. Do we really want to go there?
13
If you want to attract people into the field of teaching, first raise the salaries. Starting salaries at 40, 50, or 60 thousand would attract some of the best qualified people into the field. Then have a vigorous screening process for candidates to weed out those who want the money but cannot do the job.
Get rid of standardized testing or end of course tests. These do nothing to help students learn. They are useless. They take up time and waste resources that would be used on methods that really help students learn.
Schools cannot do anything to change "home environments", but they are needed to counteract the negative effect of those environments that are not good. So although people hate to hear this, there is a need for more good school counselors and social workers. Which means more money to attract better people to these positions.
Good experienced educators must be retained and again that will take money for pay raises and providing the resources those teachers need.
Finally, Implementation of proven methods of discipline must be made rather then having a "conversation" or a "discussion" about this. A structured environment is the foundation of learn especially if the "home environment" is not the best.
12
@John Christoff - I see little need to raise salaries around me. The few teaching positions that do open up are immediately filled, suggesting that the schools already have their pick of candidates. And often times the positions are filled through patronage (the candidate knows somebody) or by available unionized teachers, without even publicly advertising them. So raising salaries wouldn't increase the quality of the teachers. Without substantial reform on how teachers are hired, there is no point to raising their salaries where I live.
2
After reading Joe Quinn's piece "The Real Reason for September 11", this article is more than timely. We pat soldiers on the back for making the choice for war, yet offer less regard for those who choose to help enlighten others. Children and teens need role models who encourage their potential. This is where our resources should be targeted.
8
The findings are what they are, but this study is disheartening. First, the results could just as easily be used to justify looking askance, say, at African-Americans seeking employment in a predominantly white school district. As an older white male who grew up in the South (and I am usually loathe to start a sentence that way) I can say that the best teacher I had in seventh-grade was an older African-American woman. Did I “identify” with her? Yes, because she was kind and rigorous and introduced me to literature. Period.
43
It boils down to money. Women and teaching are not highly regarded in American society.
23
Psychological research on modeling has long supported the idea that social learning is strongest when the model is perceived as similar to the learner. Surely there are other factors but this one is certainly high on the list.
5
@Edward Then why has the number of qualified learners declined in the last 40 years as standards have been diluted to meaningless 'feel good" awards instead of basic educational markers formerly established? "Social learning", ie classes' discipline, has inarguably declined and graduates of high school levels of learning have drastically drifted down to almost uselessness to civil society's increasing needs.
3
From my experience as an educator, most of what you state is simply not true. It sounds like a right wing meme from those who do not like public schools or unions.
1
The order of words and phrases by Claire Miller tips her hand as to her own preconceived notions:
"....There are many things that contribute to children’s academic achievement, including teachers’ experience and training; school funding and zoning; and families’ incomes and home environment. ""
No Ms. Miller, you should have listed "home environment" first.
When those who bring children into the world provide a loving and nourishing environment first, then the race and gender of the teacher make less of a difference.
37
@Kevin O'Reilly I totally disagree as an educator.
Even though I grew up on a lower socio economic home I was always thrilled as a Black child to see a teacher of color. Because I knew they were rare & must be very smart.
I didn't have very many early on. Whenever I went to school and was an obvious minority w/ no adult allies I usually got in more trouble.
When I was in a school w/ some teachers of color it was always a bit easier. Because they would console when I felt misunderstood and counsel as to how to navigate what is a very White female setting, especially in H.S.
Further, there are cultural nuances that people miss. When you are not from or do not understand the culture of the people your teaching you are at a disadvantage. Too often, I find colleague willfully ignorant. Assuming that your POV is the only POV is a problem.
I have seen well meaning White women chastise a Black child thinking he was being disrespectful when at home, he actions were being submissive (i.e. head down, no eye contact, quiet). She demanded he look at her. At home, he would have gotten slapped for it because "eyeballing" can be disrespectful in some Black households. It is a sign of defiance. So is sucking teeth and rolling eyes.
This is the reason why I got into education as a WOC. Our kids need us.
I am learning Spanish and teach as much about my students culture as I can fit into my lessons. Because when you respect another culture you connect better to get your point across.
32
@PhntsticPeg Thank you for writing this. It is helpful.
No problems with what you say. But if a shared background is important, why did you not include Black men as vital to education?
1
It can be both things. The best case scenario is having an excellent teacher of any background. But perhaps when teachers are not standouts, the advantage of being male/nonwhite has a stronger effect.
5
Dr. Sally Ride was the first American female astronaut.
In her Times obit she was quoted as saying that for her negative discouragement from female classmates during middle school was the strongest influence against studying math and science.
I don't know whether that experience was special to her case or is more widespread to other girls.
4
Wonderful that we have one more purported educational "study" that is supposed to have practical implications for educational policy. How many studies have been done in the last 50 years that purport to show ways of correcting differences in educational outcome and despite billions of dollars spent by now, have had little or no effect on outcomes? How many times are supposed educational advances little more than repackaged servings of the same old baked beans called by another name?
Show me the results of some implementations of these findings five years from now and the purported results. And why do effect sizes in social science research invariably decay over time?
6
How does studying impact performance? Do students who study more perform better?
22
As a teacher categorized in Massachusetts as highly proficient, I can confidently say that until teachers are treated as the professionals they are, attracting men to the classroom is going to be a pretty arduous task. In no other profession are adults with masters degrees treated so poorly by both their administration and their clientele’s parents.
Also, as another writer pointed out-teaching is a calling, just like any other human services career. You can take all the classes, pass all the certification tests, and still be unable to teach. Passion is a gift, not something acquired by studying.
42
@Lynne C I agree 100 percent. After teaching between 1970-2009, I have had lots of experience with many different types of school situations. Never would have been a teacher by first choice, but being a Mechanical Engineer was not open to me as a woman. Turned out I LOVED teaching, just didn't love having to have a part time job also to keep my family fed and clothed. I have young people from my classes many, many years ago find me on the internet and contact me and tell me how they have never forgotten the things they learned and did. I didn't see race, color, or gender, I just saw sweet babies I loved and I fought for them. I would not choose that profession today.
16
Statistics can prove any position to be the correct one. That's a basic lesson.
What I remember from my schooling is the good teachers, not the ones of any particular color. What I learned and what I became came from those who were exceptional, not necessarily those who were somehow "like me" - socially or superficially.
The good teachers were there, because they were dedicated to teaching, not because they were well paid - which they should be, but aren't.
Perhaps most of all, teachers cannot undo the psycho-social-educational failings of the underprivileged homes so common in our damaged society. Adults have more of a tendency to reflect their parents, siblings, a,d surroundings than their school experience. We are foolishly fixated ohe n the unrealistic idea that we can make the world be what we want it to be rather than working within our realistic framework.
Prime examples:
Everyone is Equal when it should be everyone is different. Respect the differences for they will make us stronger.
Or better Pay will make better teachers just as it has given us better politicians. No. Better teachers come from teaching as a vision and dedication. It's a tough job in a degraded society where a lot of money is needed for a decent life and the sole measure of success is money. It's not just teaching that's underpaid. The income structure of our entire society has been warped by false promises and the anger generated by the result of living in the lie.
11
I wonder if inequality plays an additional role in terms of school choice, which is more of an option to better off parents. We went to Catholic school, which meant nuns. However, when it came time for high school, my folks sent both my brothers to schools with mainly, if not exclusively, male teachers. It was said at the time that for the most part parents did not want "to send their boys to the nuns." Yet, these schools were further from our home, required paying for public buses to get there (with reduced fare, but still an out-of-pocket for parents), and charged tuition.
4
You are joking, right?
Don't get me wrong, I am all for diversity, But no offense, Ms Miller, America has a hard time getting quality teachers with their crummy pays, We should be happy if teachers don't have to hold down an extra job just to make ends meet.
My friend's daughter, an Asian American, has always wanted to be a teacher, even though her father has connections to get her in the corporate world. She got her wishes. But she is struggling with her finance. It doesn't help when she is living in some most expensive zip code in California. Thankfully she can stay at home, but you have to wonder if she can ever be truly independent with her salary.
So, instead of worrying about diversity, let's work on getting enough quality teachers who are willing to put their heart and soul in teaching their students without being distracted by a second job first, then, we can fine tune the matching programs
34
@Bos Did you read the end of the story? It details what could be done now. So your point of whether or not it "pays" for a student to go into teaching is irrelevant. And other than your research subject of one, what else do you have to disregard the subject matter of the story?
Moreover, I suspect you have never had the debilitating feeling of being at the receiving end of low expectations.
Does everything now come down to race and gender? I thought we were all just people, each with our talents and failings. I need a break - think I'll read about the US Open Tennis Women's final.
Oh, crap.
64
Diversity in the teaching profession is inherently a good thing. f Miller's article however, makes dubious assertions based on dubious data. In a brief, the authors note a large cohort of students who's graduation status is unclear and attempt a sensitivity analysis, essentially a “what if” all of the students in question had either graduated or not. It appears that in the case of “what if all the excluded had dropped out”, that the improvement in outcomes associated with black teachers drops to statistical insignificance. It is not likely that all of those students dropped out, but it still calls into question the study's statistical validity. Also, there appear to be around 27,000 students excluded from the study based on reasons other than lack of information about graduation status and no clear understanding of how they affect the analysis.
The Gershenson article fails to adequately focus on teacher parameters. It fails to adjust for a variety of variables including experience, education, etc. We simply don't know whether these non-racial variables played a role.
Implying a conclusion that black children will do better with black teachers seems a slippery slope back to the days of “separate but equal”. I would assert rather that all children of all colors need teachers of all colors and that the color of a student's teacher is of no relevance compared to the quality of the individual teacher coupled with the socioeconomic and familial circumstances of the student.
20
We can do so much more in terms of recruiting black and Latinx educators--in terms of salaries, educational and professional development opportunities, mentoring and leadership support--and that has to be tied to an overall effort to treat educators as professionals and raise their status in the US. In the mean time, white female teachers need support to recognize their biases and prejudices, to help them recognize the patterns they bring into a classroom and a school and the implications of these for black and Latinx students in particular. This should be part of all teacher education programs--and not just one hour of a course--but well integrated into a curriculum, and it should be part of ongoing professional development.
5
Good luck trying to get black men to teach in large numbers. Try quintupling starting salaries in inner-city schools and give teachers absolute authority over discipline in their classrooms and you might have a chance.
In general teachers suffer so many attacks, both physical (e.g. being shot at) and ideological (teacher accountability blah, blah) that you have to be a strange combination of an idealist and a masochist to go into teaching.
Men going into teaching bear an extra burden--many, many professional women will shun them for entering a low-status profession.
35
It seems to me that children fare better when their teachers are competent regardless of race or gender.
60
exactly! tired of hearing about all this racial and gender scrutiny all the time!!
17
As a white teacher, I observed the effect discussed in this article. I can definitely attest that an African-American boy in elementary or middle school shares a much different relationship with an African-American teacher (regardless of the gender of the teacher). That might not be the case in hight school (doubt it) or college.
6
It definitely has an effect in high school and college. Students need to see models of who they might become. It made all the difference for me to earn my Ph.D. under the tutelage of professors who shared aspects of my experience and understood the research I was doing; that wasn't going to happen with folks who were not of my cultural/ethnic background. When one is expected to learn from books that have no reference to one's experience, and learn this one-sided information from people who have no understanding of one's experience, the effect is that of telling a child/young adult that s/he does not exist and has no effect on the planet. Very few of us can learn under those conditions and those of us who have do not succeed unscathed. Having professors who not only saw my talents without bias, but who also directed me toward the infinite body of work created by people of my background, made me understand not only my worth, but how I could be useful in the world. That should be happening for every child at an earlier age. They shouldn't have to wait until the doctoral level of their educations.
1
This is by far the second inquiry on this troubling matter that the NY Times brings to the attention of the general publics. The first being that of Motoko Rich's "Where are the Teachers of Color?" published on 11 April 2015. Yet one would have thought that alarm bells would have gone off in the minds of those during the Bloomberg Administration, and especially in those of black city administrators of recent years, and those of the present, who would have had the moral right to address this anomaly in a legal way by keeping the public duly informed.
Furthermore, the 1996 case "Gulino v. The Board of Education of New York City and The New York State Education Department suggests that both entities seems to be in the business of "schools, a pipeline to prison" a notion that derives from the fact that more that 4,000 Black and Hispanic teachers are the victims of this discrimination case that prevented them from obtaining their teacher's certification through a test designed to guarantee failure.
The facts are clearly stated on the Case Timeline. As mentioned, this matter has dragged on for almost 20 years due to lack of advocacy for any city or state official, or the press, the latter eager to print any inappropriate behavior by any teacher, but fails to do so when wrongs are done upon our educators. At present, the plaintiffs in this matter are waiting for the long overdue financial relief. It is alleged the a plaintiff have died awaiting said favorable outcome.
1
@Mr. Rupert Davis
"As mentioned, this matter has dragged on for almost 20 years due to lack of advocacy for any city or state official."
You mean it isn't due to a dearth of black science and math majors who want to go into education?
The powers that be can advocate from now until the next Ice Age, but doesn't it depend on who's graduating with what degree and is competent to teach?
The title on the NYT front page: "Children Fare Better when Teaching Staff is Diverse."
Perhaps a better title would be: "Students Fare Better in Homogeneous Classrooms"
If so, we should probably have a good hard think about what exactly are the benefits of current culture of the co-ed campus.
9
Over the last 40 years teaching has transformed into a pink collar job that only white women with a high-earning spouse can afford to do. We can thank our country’s worship of the free market (and demonization of government workers and unions) for this predicament. Until our priorities change poor kids of color will continue to be taught by teachers who are far-removed from their life-worlds, only exacerbating inequality.
11
@Deepa
The average annualized teaching salary in your state is $65,000 and that ain't chump change in my neighborhood.
4
@SteveRR average teacher salaries are skewed high because they include administration and long term veterans. In most places it would take a new teacher many years on the job to come close to the average salary, and many people can't afford to stay long enough to reach that level.
1
$65,000 in Seattle is enough to rent a 1-bedroom apartment. Not chump-change, but certainly not a breadwinner’s salary. There’s a reason teaching fails to attract men and minorities, who often need to use their degrees to support people other than themselves, including extended family.
Having role models for options, opportunity and success whether in the classroom, one's community or family is important in inspiring young people as well as gender and race match is in teaching them effectively.
As a white woman with a grandmother who graduated college in chemistry 1908, an aunt with a Phd in physical education 1930s teaching at a university, it was expected of me to be educated in whatever field I chose.
My husband, a white male, grew up in a poor family-his mother was a literal John Steinbeck "Oakie". No one - teachers included - took note of his school progress. It was the school librarian who noticed he should be in the TAG program. He went straight into the Airforce after high school and then to work as a technician for a phone company. It was not until he ran into an old high school classmate who had gone to college that it occurred to him that he could go to college. Thanks to the GI bill, he graduated with a degree in Engineering Physics...and a 35 year career at Intel.
There are many pathways to fulfillment, but most of them begin with a sign post that can show the way.
15
We are dealing with the basic human problem of identity. A role model has to be someone who looks, speaks,... like me. Yet sometimes all that is required is that the role model must take an active positive interest in me.
Millions of years of evolution enhanced by centuries of social pressures create problems that will not go away easily.
The only question that comes to mind is: why is the practice of one teacher for a class and no opportunity to have different teachers at different times for different subjects so entrenched?
2
Perhaps we need to raise the pay level of educators so that all are able to choose this field.
16
I’m a white male public school teacher in East Los Angeles who teaches mostly Spanish speaking brown skinned students who now feels ashamed to speak to them in English or make eye contact with out of fear I may damage their self-esteem.
21
So this seems to be saying we should go back to racially segregated schools, and also single-sex education taught only by teachers of the same race and gender. Took a long time to get away from that and it was supposedly all for societal good. Now not so much?
50
Maybe instead of giving minority students teachers who look like them, we should focus first on giving them fathers. Today, about 77% of all black children are born into single parent homes. For Hispanic immigrants, the number is close to 50%. Since the home environment is the strongest correlate and causal factor for school performance, maybe we should start here first.
Plus, giving them fathers would not be as hard as it seems, and in some regards it would probably be more ethical than trying to push talented black teachers into struggling, urban schools that they might not want to teach at, or luring them into these environments with higher pay (which might lead to bad, unforeseen consequences).
Here's how it might work; initiate a global father-search program, set-up a site, and link visa approvals to a dating site or system. Having lived in Sub Saharan Africa and the Middle East, I can personally attest to the fact that many of the men there are young, single, and quite attracted to the kind of American women who struggle to find and keep partners.
Why not match these men with the single American ladies who are mothers? It could be a win-win situation for all involved; the children would get a father, the women would get a husband, the schools would get children coming from a more stable home environment, and immigrant men would get access to a great economy and a wife.
Plus, all of this would bring more diversity. And diversity is strength!
20
@Trans Cat Mom
This convoluted Eugenecist solution involving immigration law seems way more complicated than simply paying teachers more and subsidizing teacher training. The bulk of these comments, with all their family-first prescriptions, just go to show how much our culture de-values education and misunderstands racial inequality.
Why did the NAACP take on school segregation in the mid-20th century? Because black schools didn’t receive the same funding as white schools. Black kids suffered crowded classrooms and endured longer commutes. The problem was never black teachers. It was that black teachers (highly educated and revered members of their communities) were overwhelmed by too many pupils and too few resources.
3
@Trans Cat Mom
Your social engineering plan is offensive. “Minority” kids HAVE fathers. Marriage statistics are in no way indicative of a fathers involvement with their children. Marriage statistics have decreased for all populations in the US. What would make “minorities” lives better are better job opportunities and less policing.
1
@Trans Cat Mom When I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, plenty of Asian kids - mostly Hong Kong Chinese kids - were technically living in single parent households. Moms and the kids settled in Canada, while the dads continued to live and work in Hong Kong (and flying back and forth when they could). Those kids were not failing out of school - in fact they did quite well. All without teachers of Chinese/East Asian heritage. It's a socio-economic thing - these families were all middle to upper-middle class (we're talking about mom and kids in McMansions or McMinimansions).
That Gershenson paper is quite something: the mean high school dropout rate for black males across 1200 schools is 16%, and the model predicts the mean HS dropout rate for black males who have had just one black teacher back in elementary school would drop 7%? That's a really big number, but without more detailed analysis, it's pretty meaningless. Because the authors neglected to mention the error term of their model and because it's social science, I'm going to assume that it's very large. In this situation you can drop in another independent variable, like "racial achievement gap", and you get a whole different set of coefficients. And how the authors can try to draw a causal link from elementary school to high school without controlling for the presence of same-race role models in middle school is beyond me.
14
@JS
I'm no social scientist, but the numbers being thrown around in this article sounded very unrealistic to me too.
13
I have spent a great deal of time in public schools and have taken note of the gender issue particularly as it relates to males. The simple reality behavior that is accepted by male teachers as a minor infraction dealt with by a look or comment is approached differently by a female teacher which often leads to conflict. Go to any kindergarten class and watch how girls and boys act and interact. Take a look at special
Education classes. There is an assault on boys in public education. I am not saying it is done purposefully but it is taking place nonetheless. This is the dirty little secret of our education system. In part the treatment of teachers plays a part. The system is controlled by a male administrative patriarchy while the teaching atmosphere is a matriarchy. Why? males are just not going to tolerate the average public school workplace and if they stay they are more likely to rise up the administrative ranks then their female counterparts.
11
What a capable and bright child : have him or her born in a prestigious zip code.
Zip code correlates highly with students abilities .
6
@Howard Kaplan
correct, smart well adjusted parents congregate in the same zip code and have children who reflect their parents, same is true on the other end of the spectrum
13
@Howard Kaplan You know what correlates to zip code? Income. You know what correlates to income? IQ. You know what correlates to student abilities? Student IQ. You know what correlates to student IQ? Parent IQ. Environmental impact takes a signifcant backseat to biological heritability of traits, as confirmed by many studies by clinical researchers. You can't spend your way out of this phenomenon.
14
thank you!
1
What is going on in elementary education is a lowering of standards. Student attempts are praised, but not corrected. Basic printing was once gone over again and again until it was perfected. Now, even with new State mandates it is treated as creativity, like modern art. Students hold pencils like clubs and do a backhand righthand attempt that will never allow them to write numerals in columns. The young teachers came from a system that downplayed hand vs computer work.
Young male students don't find female education stimulating. It is not based on discovery. Young black males seem to detach from female role models at junior high and lose focus on achievement. There is a discipline based on respect that may need to come from a Male. Men are not available. Society has flipped, as females have faux-cloned male ambition.
9
@Timit I agree!
3
I taught forever and I sincerely believe that diversity in the teaching profession is a positive factor but not an essential factor in student performance. If teaching paid better, I'm certain more young men of color would be inclined to become teachers. I'm really proud of the Latino girls who became teachers and work so hard to serve their community. However, very few Latino guys are teachers and in my experience they don't work as hard as the women. Back in the 1950s, the predominantly black schools had almost all black female teachers, all of whom were highly educated. If you want the male gender to participate in teaching, make teaching a respected profession. That is not the case in this country.
16
Is this "research" reproducible? Should school districts employ discriminatory hiring practices because of one study?
7
@older and wiser Not one study.
1
@Beetle Is the "research" reproducible? Some of my best teachers and professors were of different faiths and ethnicities than mine.
If kids do better with teachers of their own ethnicity, and there are too many teachers of one ethnicity (white) but more are required for best results from another ethnicity (black/latino) then perhaps some of the "white women" going into teaching should be shunted into other fields, perhaps STEM? And more college students of the ethnicity in demand be shunted toward teaching? (Or would that be social engineering?).
6
Simple. Pay teachers more.
White women are disproportionately a) married and b) not the primary breadwinner. Many academically talented young white women - whether they openly admit it or not - go into teaching because it has good work life balance, a schedule that accommodates motherhood, and most of them assume that there will be a well earning husband eventually in their lives to make up the difference when they have kids.
It's not PC, but welcome to reality.
24
@A F
wow, stereotype much?
2
@A F
I don't know about the work life balance. I'm a teacher, and most good teachers work, grade, plan and prep after 3, in the evening and on weekends.
6
@think -what? It's statistically very true that white women are disproportionately married and not the primary breadwinner. Where is the stereotype?
Somehow, the message I am getting here is that minority youth need to be assigned teachers of their own race/ethnicity/sex/gender/or identity. Somehow this strikes me as both illegal and a really really bad idea.
18
This article is missing some major information.
It says that 80% of teachers are white, but does that 80% include Hispanic people who identify as white? And what is the breakdown of the other 20%? Where do they work?
Finally, what do schools in America look like? If the nonwhite teachers are already concentrated in the nonwhite schools, then is this being inadvertently addressed, or no?
I want numbers.
6
@Kathryn McDonald Or non-Anglo/Protestants white people - Italians, Jews, Eastern Europeans, Polish-Americans, etc. etc...
We live in a society where men are valued and respected over women just because they are men. Perhaps that has something to do with this disconnect. It should be noted that at this point in time after 20 years of attacking and defunding public education as well as vilifying teachers, white women are overwhelmingly the only demographic willing to tackle these jobs. In my ten years in the classroom the change in how the students view teachers has been obvious as more and more students have been raised from birth this toxic political climate.
9
Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast Revisionist History explores this research and contextualizes it with the after effects of Brown vs Board of Education case. The episode “Miss Buchanan’s Period of Adjustment” is season 2 episode 3. A great listen.
4
Maybe girls do better with female teachers because female teachers may not be biased against them and/or maybe boys do worse with female teachers because they're regularly exposed to ideas of female intellectual inferiority and therefore show less respect for female teachers.
12
Yes and no. A talented teacher who cares about the students and there are not all that many will do a great job usually. Yes, race and gender and age all can play a role in how students perceive and perform -- but only to some degree.
Lots of stuff going on here. Need for physical movement. Need for proper food (hunger and learning don't work); need to hear and see lesson!!!! (Problem at all levels of education). Need to identify and correct if possible student's deficiencies. Five praises for every criticism.
I have seen TERRIBLE Hispanic and male teachers... who did a lot of harm to their male and Hispnic students. (and would not be fired. Life tenure can be a BIG problem.)
PS one can go to college and not be educated... so perhaps given that there are not national exams in various subjects attendance is not much of an indication of anything. Ben Carson famously skipped his medical school classes, studied the books and the practicums, see WIKIP . He did not learn well in class... and was about to fail... but we know how the story ends. One size does not fit all.
1
As a non-white teacher in a urban high school, I find this kind of discussion pointless. Not many qualified men and minorities want the job of dealing with other people's undisciplined children every day with very little financial reward. If we do not change the culture that does not show much respect to teachers and does not pay them fairly, we will not get more male and minority teachers anytime soon.
79
I’m quite surprised at the comments here bemoaning calls for diversifying the 80% white teaching profession when in some of the largest states and municipalities more than 50% of the students are non-white (CA, TX, NYC).
Why all the resistance to change when clearly it’s not all good in American education?
The studies cited in the article state that black and Latinex children are more likely to suffer harsher punishments and less likely to be referred to talented/gifted programs when they behave and perform just like their white peers.
Another study shows that the presence of black and Latinex teachers doesn’t harm white and Asian children. Should we just ignore the data to satisfy some color-blind delusions?
6
The cause for the gender disparity is very simple: it is a woman's profession, thus the pay is low, and in the case of higher ed, the healthcare benefit is non-existent. What man would put up with that? There will never be sufficient male teachers until teachers across the board and on through the university system are paid what they are worth and are provided with healthcare and retirement (which is NOT provided for adjunct college professors). THEN men can be lured back into teaching.
12
@DMS: pay is actually very high, and union rules, benefits, pensions, etc. far greater than in private industry and more protective (automatic tenure).
We are talking about K-12 here, not college.
In fact, most adjuncts ARE male and most union public teachers are female! the opposite of what you allege. The K-12 teacher is far, far better paid than the adjunct professor -- 2-3 times more -- in some regions, 4 times as much. Plus gold plated Cadillac health care for life, early retirement, giant pensions, all summers off with pay.
No comparison!
1
It has also been shown both statistically and anecdotally that
female patients, particularly older ones, are treated in a much
poorer manner by male doctors.
Both female patients and female physicians will attest to
the overwhelming sexism in the medical profession.
Shall we propose that medical schools stop admitting male
students? Half the population might benefit. The males can
become elementary school teachers instead. I'm sure that
would solve all our problems.
19
There was a movement to have Boys taught by Male Teachers
a decade or two ago, but it was fought to death in the Courts.
Likewise, a movement to have students taught by Teachers
who were like them in terms of Race/Ethnic background.
That also, died.
Perhaps having particular teachers/classes
should be made an option
and students may attend such classes
if they so wish.
1
It's pretty clear there aren't enough minority (African-American, Hispanic, Asian, etc.) teachers to go around, especially in urban areas where minority students are concentrated. There also aren't enough male teachers around to match with male students.
The way to attract more males and minorities to teaching is to raise teacher salaries substantially and to offer scholarships and fellowships (or student loan forgiveness) to men and minorities who agree to serve as teachers for, say, 5 or 10 years.
As usual, doing all of this on a broad basis will require spending much more money on education, but the shortage of minority and male teachers is largely an economic matter.
16
I grew up in a little NJ town with a small but significant black population. Back in the early '60's one of our third-grade teachers was a black-woman. Virtually EVERY black girl declared her intention to be a teacher like Mrs. Maris. The impact, influence, etc. was so palpable you could touch it. NOTE: A majority of our male teachers were GI Bill recipients, Nice guys, great coaches but not particularly diverse imaginations and we suffered accordingly.
29
The headline is confusing: It suggests that "diversity" improves outcomes, yet in the same breath suggests that the best outcomes occur when the teacher shares the race and gender of the student (i.e. "not diverse").
Which is it?
123
@Chris The outcomes are best for students of color when there is way MORE diversity than there is (80% of teachers are white women). The evidence bears this out. The article states this very clearly and is not confusing at all.
4
@Chris “_Teacher Diversity_”
We’re dealing with two different populations, students are a diverse group, teachers are not.
The article states that when certain students had just one teacher of similar ethnic identity, they were less likely to drop out from high school.
Maybe the rest of their teachers had completely different backgrounds. Maybe it was a teacher of a different background that had the most positive impact.
Either way, increasing the chance that a student of color shares ethnicity with just one teacher for a single 9 month school year (diversity) isn’t the same thing as requiring all teachers to be one ethnicity (not diversity).
3
@Chris, it's not that complicated. A diverse teaching staff allows all students to see someone like them in front of a classroom, at least part of the time. And every student will have, at least part of the time, someone more likely to understand them.
Are these things important? Well, this research says they are. So in mixed gender and race environments like the public schools, a diverse gender and race staff would appear to be desirable.
How do Asian students manage to do so well with white teachers that Harvard (pretty white) has to reject them on the basis of "personality traits"? Do they get Asian tutors outside school?
115
Asians culturally put a lot of emphasis on education. The parents expect the kids to do very in school. It is kinda of drilled into them since birth. Other cultures may not put such an emphasis on education so if the expectations are not there from the home and school the kids will not feel it is important. People will only try to do as well as they are expected. So we as a nation need to want all our kids to do well regardless of their background. We need to give books to all parents when they leave the hospital. This way we can jump start educating kids from birth. Therefore, all cultures need to say to their kids - we expect you to do well and hopefully they will rise to the expectations. Then we may not have such disparity between groups.
20
@Sue Schwartz
You noted that Asians parents expect the kids to do very well in school - the parents drill it into them from a very early age. You then skip to us as a "nation" needing to want all of our kids to do well.
So, is it all of us, or mostly, the parents?
1
@Sue Schwartz It is not about culture, it is about the implicit racial bias on the part of (mostly white female) teachers against black and brown students in the classroom. The article gives clear examples of this. Asian communities (of which there are many and educational experiences vary widely among them) likely do NOT emphasize education any more than any other cultural community. It's likely that they experience less implicit bias against them from white teachers because of the "model minority" myth.
hat to be done about Asian boys and girls then? There are not many Asian teachers around teaching them.
41
What is data for Asian students? I bet race is irrelevant for them which calls into question entire premise.
97
@Observer of the Zeitgeist No it does negate the whole premise. Asian students (of which they are many groups in this category) likely experience less implicit racial bias inside the classroom from white teachers than black and brown students do.
1
@Observer of the Zeitgeist No it does NOT negate the whole premise.
1
So it has nothing to do with how hard they study?
9
Never found gender to be all that important .... in-fact the best teachers in my life were women. I'm a man. I studied as a child in two foreign counties for a year and part of my graduate was in another.
There is too much time spent on all the "soft" feel good aspects of education. I'm so thankful for my 3rd grade teacher (Japan) -- she expected more from me and along the way showed me good study habits. I'm dyslectic -- so it's not all been fun and games. Failure was not an option.
29
"Teachers’ gender does not necessarily have a big effect during elementary school but seems to make more of a difference when children are older. Then, girls do better with a female teacher and boys with a male one, said Thomas Dee, a professor of education at Stanford. "
Sounds like an inadvertent argument for single sex classrooms. There is no other way to have female teachers for girls, male teachers for boys.
22
Are we really going to give in to the racist theory that people live better lives when their authority figures share their race? The logical conclusion of all this is that once enough African-American teachers are recruited to teach all the African-American children (with the proper ratios of straight males, straight females, gay males, gay females, transgender males, and transgender females) all the European-American and Asian-American kids will have to be taught in separate schools, staffed by members of their own races.
Is that really where we want to go?
93
@green tea Thought experiment time! What if it works better? What if it works BEST? Would it still be racist? If we don’t follow data where it leads and avoid reality because we perceive it to be racist, we do so at our own peril.
Incidentally, this research does not — as many have suggested — imply that segregation is a logical alternative. At some point, a diverse student body has educational benefits, as well. Universities discovered this long ago.
Please quantify the effects when discussing these studies, I thought that was the premise of the "Upshot". Thank you.
9
I'm curious to see how Asians do with a white teacher. As a Taiwanese American myself - I have experienced the public school system in Queens NYC and also in one of the top schools in New Jersey.
I came in not speaking a word of English to being able to graduate at the top 20% of my class and go on to College.
I would have loved to have an Asian American teacher growing up to be my role model or provide guidance. But unfortunately I did not. I understand the need for role models and persons of similar culture/skin - but let's not just look into blacks and hispanics when America is also filled with other races.
61
@maxwellimus Most of us seem to do pretty well, judging from my personal experience. And what's the deal with media ignoring Asians when it comes to academics and diversity, anyway? It's as if we don't exist!
1
Poor male me!
In twelve years of NYC public schools, way back in the previous century, I had only one male elementary school and five male high school teachers, being drowned in a sea of female teachers.
12
This is an incremental step in moving from “Diversity” as an absolute good toward racial homogeneity (as long as it isn’t white).
13
Problem with this typical Times story and this line of research is that the outcome seems preordained. Researchers or Dr.s who dare disagree are potentially branded as racists- a career killer. Dr.s report that contrary research is simply not being pursued because of fear of being labeled racist.
Identity politics is going to be the downfall of this country and it’s disturbing to see it practiced so regularly in these pages.
Good teachers come in every color- it shouldn’t matter their color so long as they teach well, to every kid of every color.
117
@Ron Klain - absolutely right. The flip side is that weak teachers come in every color, but when the diversity paradigm is the chief underlying motivator for hiring, it becomes very hard to discipline or fire a teacher of color. Retaining weak teachers is detrimental to all children, most of all the socioeconomically challenged, as they cannot supplement classroom deficits with outside tutoring, and are less likely to have parents who have the time to give meaningful academic support.
3
Being an educational professional has changed drastically over the past several decades. The classroom demographic has changed but the instructional methods, teacher preparation, and students materials are not keeping up with current global educational needs.
School outcome data does not show upward trends within the United States and some researchers are exploring alternative explanations for the lack of student engagement.
Two important articles by Dr. Ollivier-Garza address this issue and pose viewing educational practice with a critical eye for the "Uncanny" in education.
Identifying the Uncanny Phenomena in Educational Practice- Dr. Ollivier-Garza
http://awej.org/images/AllIssues/Volume7/Volume7Number4Decmber2016/12.pdf
Neutralizing the Uncanny through Culturally Relevant Teaching – Dr. Ollivier-Garza
https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=5060010130650230270850930830...
2
Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, anyone? We've come a long way since 1954 (or have we?).
Boys seem sometimes to learn better when taught by men. (I was one of those "gifted" children so the female teachers didn't bother me). And a similar argument has been made recently, to the aghast of many, along racial lines!
Do we abandon the principles of Brown and sort of apply Plessey in the limited circumstances of the educational arena? Frankly, I don't think so.
However, anything is possible when times passes and political tenets are re-visited.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
5
“More qualified people would stay in the profession if the jobs had better pay, benefits and support.” Duh! I’ve heard this my entire life. It will not change. The point of these surveys is, well, onanistic. Albeit correct.
3
@Ron - That is true of any profession. There is a nationwide shortage of people who know what they are doing.
If they did pay teachers more, they would just take qualified people away from other jobs, which would then have a shortage of qualified people.
@Ron: teachers already earn more and work less and have more benefits than other workers with the same educational level.
1
It turns out it’s white peoples’ fault yet again - who would’ve guessed?
Other studies show that parents who are present and invoked have children who are better students. Will we see an article about that? Probably not.
So this article supports an argument for racially segregated schools?
104
This article ignores the fact that one of the reasons why teachers of color have such difficulty or are noticeably absent is because the racism and white supremacy that they get from their white colleagues is very real. We imagine white teachers as utterly free of racial bias when they come into our communities and teach our children. Hollywood has made a lot of money perpetuating that image. Furthermore, white men in our culture are typically seen as the "racist bogeymen". Rarely, in our culture do we see white supremacy as having the face of a white, American female, as white women in our culture are represented -- or misrepresented, perhaps -- as innocent, sincere, "sweet". So given that nearly 80% of the work force in this field is white women and that we know that the majority of white women voters in our culture recently elected a white supremacist and have been historically been in essentially being the "guardians of white supremacy" in our culture (i.e, Daughters of the Confederacy, etc.) it makes sense that black students may not learn well from many of them.
5
@Waris - Or maybe, just maybe, if you are a capable young black man or woman with a college degree, you can get a much better job that pays a lot more than teaching.
3
The studies cited in this article are interesting and concerning. We all desire the most optimal outcome for all students. The obvious answer is to hire more teachers of color, and possibly to have single-gender classrooms in middle and high school. But in the meantime, the preponderance of public school teachers is white and female. How can the disparate outcomes for students be addressed right now? I have noticed comments on various sites discussing racial issues that appear to target or bash white women. I have been dismayed because I firmly believe that attacking yet another group by virtue of gender or skin color makes the attacker no less guilty of perpetuating division and hatred, and it certainly will not go far to address the serious underlying social issues. The answer, I think, in at least the sense of trying to address these issues immediately, lies in the successful strategies mentioned: 1) explicitly instructing teachers about their own stereotypes and 2) coaching them on how better to appreciate their students of color, value their contributions to the classroom, and encourage them to work hard and do their best. As stated in the article, the obvious second, longer-term prong to this approach is to hire and support more teachers of color. But from a practical standpoint, if gains can be made by working with the resources that are currently available, then why wait?
2
Maybe we should figure out what makes the profession so unappealing to men and people of color.
I would bet lack of respect and low pay would top the list.
48
"...what makes the profession so unappealing to men and people of color."
I don't imagine that this is specific to gender or race, but education offers little opportunity for advancement based upon personal growth. Excluding movement into administration - which may be unattractive to some and takes teachers out of the classroom - there's not much a teacher can do to excel in a way that is rewarded. I can be the best teacher on the planet, but this would have no impact upon my remuneration. That seems unreasonable, and makes the profession less attractive to those convinced they'd be great (at least some of whom are likely correct).
Instead, rewards accrue merely for persistence, or for taking additional classes which might or might not actually have an impact on the classroom.
...Andrew
6
@Jennifer Teachers are not low-paid. Check out their starting salaries compared to others. As for respect, that's going to require society to change and I don't see that happening any time soon.
3
@Jennifer
Yes, women, apparently mostly white, have labored in the vineyards of public education in spite of the low pay, esp. compared to other professions with comparable educational requirements, and the complete lack of status and respect that it brings them. They essentially volunteer their services, or in value terms about 13 to 20% of their services and soldier on, all the while being blamed for any lack of success, never receiving acclaim for the fact that 95% of Americans are still educated in the public schools, a rate that has to encompass plenty of academic achievement.
4
This entire line of research needs to stop being funded. When kids have good teachers, irrespective of gender, race, culture, they do well, period. The problem is most teachers are women who drift into teaching, as it means less hours of work per day and more attention to family. It is also less stressful or demanding as compared to work in industry. Only very few teachers walk into the profession with passion, and very few of these are gifted with the ability to remain athletic and forward thinking about evolving their knowledge. As a parent with one child out of one of the best public schools in California, another in middle school, I can attest that most of their education has been more about navigating the world outside home and very little to do with gaining academic knowledge. It's more about the the involved parents and aggressively academic students who prop up scores.
It is time someone actually did honest research on whether the current pool of teachers (most of whom are genuinely wonderful people) have the capacity to actually teach children about the current world we live in. Perhaps encouraging teachers to explore online classes to expand their horizons would help and certainly be a low budget way for schools to incorporate training to keep teachers progressive.
30
@Meena
Yeah, ending funding for things you don't agree with... That'll fix everything because what you don't know can't hurt. Right?
6
@Meena I've been in the higher academe for some time. The studies all show that while we though boys did better at one point, it was because the teachers favored majority boys (and studies of the teachers showed they did) and or that boys had the advantage because of how all society encouraged them to be "out there." Later the studies showed that if a student saw someone who looked like them succeeding, they were more likely to push for more academic success, higher degrees. This was true for minorities, women, POC, etc.
2
@Meena
I agree with the first line- when kids have good teachers they do well. I also agree with the need to research what makes for effective teaching. However, this call for some rational approach to better teaching sits in contrast with the harsh and unsupported assertions about who goes into teaching and why- women drifting into teaching- less work more hours for family- less stressful or demanding than work in industry- how are any of these true? Please look at the Times Magazine this past Sunday and you will find stories of people purposefully driven in their teaching, taking on other jobs to bolster often meager salaries, teaching in environments of stress and fear, and doing all of this not for the ease but for the opportunity to contribute and make better. Your claim that some few teachers possess great skill and passion means that you have not really spent time time with enough teachers -in their classrooms or in conversation with them.
16
The article noted that 80% of current teachers are white. Since the potential hiring pool for teachers is limited to current college grads from early 20s to early 60s, I’d be interested to know if that 80% simply matches the available potential labor pool or if it is higher or lower than random chance would predict. Anybody know?
22
@Marc Schuhl, many students don't choose to go into education, especially now, when teachers are constantly denigrated by politicians and parents give teachers a hard time. When I started teaching in the sixties, school systems vied for graduating students to teach for them. Parents didn't take up for their children, but held them accountable for grades and behavior. The pay wasn't great but morale was high. Also, it wasn't easy for minorities to get jobs outside of education at that time. Other professions pay better and hire more blacks and women today so college graduates have more choices.
10
@Marc Schuhl: the US is currently 77% white, so that is pretty close to the statistics.
2
I am not ordinarily in favor of diversity for diversity's sake, as in most cases, it seems to me just a code word for racism. But this is a rare example in which a strong case can be made for the fact that black kids need positive black role models, and that teenage boys and girls do better with teachers of their own gender.
We should not be so politically correct that we fail to acknowledge these observations at the expense of our children.
24
@Josh Hill: I think having a successful black MALE teacher would be a fantastic role model for young black male students.
But as someone says....there are simply not enough college-degree black men to fill all the positions that would be needed.
Worse....our society deems ANY job (even something as high paying and luxurious as teaching) working with children to be "degrading women's work".
1
We shouldn't need studies to understand how it must look to students who, year after year, white teacher after white teacher, get it drummed into them that only white people are successful enough to be teachers. That, of course, isn't true.
We shouldn't need studies to understand how important it is for children to have a role model who looks like them and understands their culture.
We shouldn't need studies, at this point in time, to understand how harmful segregation is and that segregation happens both on the children and teachers' end. Having all-white staff in schools that are non-white is ridiculous.
As for gender, my personal opinion is that children should be exposed to the entire spectrum, throughout the learning cycle. We need to change the way we treat gender and authority. Continuing to show boys that having a male teacher is better for them perpetuates ideas that need to go the way of the dodo, if we are ever to achieve equality within our society.
---
www.rimaregas.com
14
@Rima Regas By the same logic, does having female teachers year after year cause male students to think only females are successful enough to be teachers?
2
@Rima Regas
What is needed is active recruitment of minority and male college students to go into teaching, which means we have to make the profession more attractive and fulfilling.
1
Diversity matters but good teachers and supportive parenting also matters. I have been taught by male and female teachers from diverse religions and socio-economic backgrounds and I am eternally gratefully for what they taught me. I never judged the teachers but I judge what I learned and that will always be treasured.
16
Race is not the primary issue that can make a difference in a child's life. A quality education will always come from experienced teachers that care. More emphasis needs to be placed on experience than race
13
For others who also might have missed the point of this article, it explains that studies show a benefit to students when they share the race and gender of a teacher.
8
You seem to be stuck on a narrative that isn’t grounded in data.
There’s a lot of sad data that shows how race is a independent predictor of many outcomes because racism is still prevalent
2
This is a tricky road to go down. The race-matching effects can work in two directions. We certainly don’t want white students demanding only white teachers.
And given the paucity of minority teachers in the profession, it must be the case that many high achieving minority students are helped to succeed by non-minority teachers. And equally, numerous white students have been helped to learn and achieve by minority teachers.
So, single sex, racially segregated education? Is that the policy takeaway here? I don't like that tradeoff, as other, more structural social goals would be forfeited.
56
No
Diverse teachers is the solution.
On a separate note: better pay funding for schools and teachers would help
Diverse police departments, judges, attorneys etc would be another thing to look at for criminal justice reform
3
@Bob , according to the article:
“A variety of research, for instance, has shown that teachers tend to assess black students differently from white students...”
A policy takeaway is to train teachers to minimize discrepancies in grading and punishment, which, the article says, has been an effective approach. Diversifying the teaching corps is another solution that should be pursued.
1
Almost every school district I know is in hot pursuit of teachers of color. City districts fare better than suburban and rural ones in that pursuit. The rarest bird of all is a Black man at an elementary school.
One likely explanation for this is that only 17.2% of Black men have college degrees, a prerequisite for teaching. Many of them feel social and familial pressure to seek more lucrative professions.
An enlightened philanthropist (or municipality!) should offer 100% loan reimbursement for URM teachers and/or free tuition at top education schools, which tend to have small endowments and can't offer much aid.
42
@Cousy: men of all races do not want to go into teaching because it seems and sounds "feminine" and weak.
The money is actually far better than they could earn at most other professions -- on a per hour worked basis, public teaching pays MORE than nursing, engineering, physics, optometry, librarianship, and dozens of other professions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has fascinating stats on this.
Teachers work part time, but get excellent high pay -- they start at $54,000 in my area, and that's for a new teacher right out of college. You get 14 weeks PAID vacation from Year One, including all summers off with pay, 3 weeks at Christmas, etc. And after 3 years (!!!), you get automatic tenure which means you can never be fired or even disciplined (*for anything short of murder or child molestation).
You can then retire in 30 years at age 52 with $3 million pension and LIFETIME gold plated health care -- all paid for by the stupid taxpayers who get none of that.
BUT...for men, any profession where you work with children is considered "degrading women's work".
1
Informing people about their own prejudices seems like dubious business, since we all presumably have them. Also seems extremely presumptuous. How would I know what's in your mind? Especially if, by the logic of diversity training, I'm not even aware of what's in my own mind?
Telling people what they think, then telling them it's wrong, is a good way to alienate lots of people and get nothing accomplished.
24
@keith , if teachers are serious about doing better, and most that I’ve met are, then they will take fact-based assessments as opportunities to improve and deliver for <all/> the children in their care.
“It’s surprisingly effective and simple to do, social scientists have shown. One study found that merely informing teachers about their stereotypes closed gaps in grading.”
1
@keith, I don't think this is a matter of prejudiced teachers. It's a matter of students being able to identify with their teachers. Many teachers are able to bridge the gap between themselves and their students. no matter their gender or race. But it is helpful to have a diverse faculty.
2
I had the privilege of leading a large organization. We developed a diverse leadership team by gender, nationality, backgrounds.. Candidly, we did this because it seemed the right thing to do and the business benefited from the diversity of thinking (BTW inclusion was as important as diversity). The unexpected benefit was how much young employees related to people they saw as "like themselves". This led to unbelievable jumps in engagement and personal growth. It was phenomenally rewarding for all to experience and to witness.
10
Boys in general learn better from men. Research has shown that that they literally hear male voices more effectively than female.
This mirrors boys academic achievement where elementary education is almost exclusively taught by women; boys lag behind the girls. When more males teachers are present in middle school, high school and college, boys catch up and in some subjects surpass the test performance of girls.
There are certainly other factors but the gender of the teacher is significant. So why have we not placed more emphasis on recruiting men into elementary education?
http://discovermagazine.com/2005/nov/men-hear-womens
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@CNNNNC Unbelievable that you would so distort the information provided in the attachment you include! The study only shows that male and female voices activate different regions in the brains of 12 (adult) men in England. The researcher actually says, in the article, that he thinks men may hear and understand women's voices better than men's. Why would you lie about this?
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@CNNNNC
"Research has shown that that they literally hear male voices more effectively than female."
We're going to encourage boys to continue to ignore female voices? Dear Lord, what have we come to?
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@throughhiker more male teachers would be great. I recommend “Raising Cain” by Kindlon and Thompson, they credibly address the issues around the development of boys in the predominant elementary school culture.