4 promising practices to broaden your teacher talent pool

Staffing classrooms with teacher talent that is more representative of student populations has become a growing priority for schools across the nation. In this post, we’ll highlight 3 benefits of representation in the teacher workforce. We’ll also outline 3 promising practices you can adopt to broaden your talent pool and help shape thriving classrooms!

Impact of Representation on Student Success

Although the number of teachers of color staffed in classrooms has increased steadily over the years, they still comprise of less than 20 percent of the teacher workforce, while students of color make up nearly half of all public school students. Nationwide, not one state has a proportionate number of teachers of color to students of color, and more than 40 percent of public schools don’t employ a single non-white teacher.

A lack of teacher diversity can contribute to the student achievement gap. There are several ways that the presence of a more diverse teacher workforce helps students thrive:

1. Student performance: Research has shown that having at least one teacher of color during their educational experience can drastically boost the academic performance of minority students. In fact, black elementary students taught for just one year by a black teacher had reading and math STAR test scores 3 to 6 percentile points higher than students not taught by any black teachers. In addition to higher test scores, having at least one same-race teacher means that students of color are more likely to attend class regularly and attend a four-year college, and less likely to drop out of high school.
2. Self-esteem and well-being: There is also research evidence that teachers’ perceptions, expectations, and behaviors interact with students’ beliefs, behaviors, and work habits in ways that help to perpetuate the Black-White test score gap. The Brown Center and others highlight the common theory that the presence of more teachers of color in the classroom can inspire students of color to visualize their own success, boosting their chances of graduating and attending college.
3. Cultural Understanding: Research and theory also highlight the role teachers of color can play in fostering cultural understanding and culturally relevant curricula — which contribute both to closing the discipline gap and producing substantial gains in attendance, GPA and credits earned.

Promising Recruitment Practices

We’ve outlined 3 key practices that districts can implement to broaden their applicant pools:

1. Offer the right financial incentives: Research by the Brown Center for Education Policy finds that offering financial incentives that include student loan forgiveness, relocation assistance, and bonuses for teaching in hard-to -staff schools is associated with increases of 2 to 4 percentage points in the number of teachers of color staffed at a school. Providing student loan forgiveness and relocation assistance can be particularly attractive to college graduates of color who are significantly more likely to have student loan debt. In recent years, companies like Landed have sprung up to help districts offer down payment support, homebuyer education, and financial wellness to their teaching force.
2. ‍Partner with Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs): The Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) recommends that districts partner with MSIs’ teacher preparation programs to vet candidates for hire before they graduate. Districts can work with these programs to streamline applications and identify top candidates. One study cited by the Learning Policy Institute showed that schools who partnered with MSIs and other colleges and universities with sizable black and latinx populations were more successful in their diversity recruitment efforts. “Successful schools also formed informal relationships with ‘connectors’ who could help them communicate with communities of color. In many cases, these connectors were teachers of color already at the school site who could reach out to their churches, alumni organizations, fraternal organizations, and other networks.”‍
3. Partner with alternative certification programs: Alternative certification programs, which recruit and train non-traditional candidates to become educators, can be great sources for underrepresented teacher talent. Most recruitment teams are aware of programs like Teacher for America (TFA), but many aren’t aware that about half of TFA’s 2017 recruits (3,500 corps members) identified as people of color. New pipeline programs have sprung up across various states, which allow individuals already working in schools to earn their teacher certification in ways that reduce barriers to traditional programs and make the process more accessible.

Although there are many factors influencing the diversity of the teacher workforce, district recruiters and hiring managers can play a critical role by establishing hiring practices that expand opportunities for talented candidates of all backgrounds to enter the classroom. The hiring practices outlined above can be suited to fit any district’s recruitment style — and ultimately, they serve as important steps toward helping our schools provide high quality education for all students!