Posted on 09/20/2015 7:16:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Washington Post headline, “Black teachers flee schools, leading to concerns about diversity,” left me less concerned about “diversity” and more with why teachers — black or otherwise — would “flee.”
A study by an institute funded by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) looked at nine large cities — Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — and found that the number of black teachers in each city’s public schools dropped between 2002 and 2012. The story’s lead then informed readers that this was “raising questions about whether those school systems are doing enough to maintain a diverse teaching corps.”
I think it raises big questions about “fleeing”: What on earth are these teachers escaping from?
Could these public school systems be . . . terrifying?
The Post article, written by Lyndsey Layton, notes that the decade for which data was examined “was a period of rapid expansion of public charter schools and closures of traditional district schools.” And there were other “policy changes, such as the use of teacher evaluation systems.”
However, the study shows no link between charters or school closings and the sometimes very significant reduction in the percentage of teachers who are black. Likewise, lots of folks dislike being evaluated, especially by a huge bureaucracy, but that doesn’t seem a likely driver of massive black flight, does it?
Still, before Hurricane Katrina hit, 74 percent of the teachers in the New Orleans public schools were black. By 2012, blacks made up only 51 percent of the teachers. In the same decade, whites went from 25 to 43 percent of the teacher workforce.
The nation’s capital saw the biggest change between 2003 and 2011, with the percentage of white teachers rising from only 16 percent to 39 percent, while the percentage of black teachers fell (or fled) from 77 to 49 percent.
“The whole effort of the last two decades has been toward minority-teacher recruitment, and it’s been an unheralded victory, really,” claims the University of Pennsylvania’s Richard Ingersoll. “The problem is with retention. Minority teachers have significantly higher quit rates than non-minority teachers. And that’s a huge problem.”
These higher quit rates appear to stem from poor working conditions, such as a “lack of autonomy” and little “input into school decisions.” In other words, the suffocating system created by teachers’ unions and politicians and bureaucrats and ivory tower educational theorists isn’t much fun to teach within.
Of course, nothing fully explains why these various issues would impact black teachers more severely than others. But the people-and-bean counters tell us they do.
Why does it matter?
First, there is a need for role models. (Note to self: parents make the best role models.) Statistically, minority students (even when they are in the majority) are more likely to come from single-parent households. So, it may be especially helpful for these students to see successful teachers of their own race.
But black teachers continue to comprise a large enough part of these school districts to allow black students to see plenty of them — and fully witness and freely emulate their success.
Second . . . well, hold on to your hat. The other reason cited? “[R]esearch has suggested,” writes reporter Layton, “that students who are racially paired with teachers — black teachers working with black students and Hispanic teachers working with Hispanic students — do better academically.”
So, we need a diverse teaching staff . . . but not because diversity is good.
Rather, with a racially diverse student body attending schools, a racially diverse teacher corps becomes the only way to successfully avoid diversity and, instead, to keep the connection between students and teachers as much as possible within their own race.
“Diversity is a key component to equality and opportunity,” says AFT’s President Randi Weingarten. She’s asking President Obama to hold a summit at the White House on teacher diversity.
Escaping from having to demonstrate their competency by actual performance of their students in a fair manner.
Cities all run by DemocRATS - lefties
Maybe some standards were implemented?
Could these public school systems be . . . terrifying?
This was my first guess.
The daughter of a friend of mine for a little over a year taught a the local inner city elementary school.
Even the little kids were terrifying.
According to her streams of racist profanity would spew from some the kids’ mouths.
As soon as she could find a suburban school job she took a pay cut and got out.
Here's that ugly kernel of truth, folks: when the going gets tough, whites and Asians hang in there. I'm sorry, but we just do. It's part of our culture, this idea that you dig in your claws and hang on like a pitbull. Certain other cultures have a "hey, don't strain yourself" attitude toward... well, just about everything. I have come to this conclusion over many decades of observation and I did not WANT to come to this conclusion, but it's unavoidable. I don't consider myself racist, because it's not genetic as far as I know. But I am definitely ethnocentric, because it's culture. I mean... I am a teacher. I teach mostly Latinos. A full third of them won't come to school if it's raining.
Seriously, raining. I grew up in the northern Midwest, and we waited for the school bus in the dark in 3 feet of snow. These kids? Ooo, it's raining.
[”Hey, don’t strain yourself”] == [”Hakuna Matata”]
What does rain have to do with anything? You get your buttocks to school regardless.
The City of Atlanta recently concluded a very big scandal prosecution of multiple minority teachers within its school system for colluding to actually change students’ test scores.
Whether it was the teachers’ incompetence or the ability of their charges to meet the education standard is really immaterial. The culture is at fault for both sides.
For Democrats, the only way to remedy instances like this is to throw buckets of money at them. That’s always the only option.
Diversity is a joke and is the bane of civilization.
I mean, it's not 100%. We had a black principal who was always there, right on point, very dedicated, and I liked him a lot. But the trends... the trends are what they are. Even Black folks joke about CPT (Colored People Time.)
when we left NEOhio Mrs NCC continued teaching when we got here, she would have continued in Painesville had we not left. She had way more problems with the superintendent, and the very ineffective principal of the school she was leaving than she ever had with the kids.
Some of the parents had booze/drug problem, I think most were all right. She loved the kids, many wanted to learn. The biggest drawback to the educational system in Painesville was the school system.
I had friends who taught in the New Orleans public school system. They told me 30 years ago that when it rains, the Blacks didn’t go to school.
Yeah, there’s a reason why the minority divide always puts Asians and Jews with the whites, and Blacks and Latinos together. There are just cultural norms having to do with work and effort that... are... well... THERE. Some people rise above, and some people sink below, but... there you have it.
In Atlanta black teachers were fleeing from being caught cheating. In some states black teachers were fleeing from 'literacy standards' for teachers...
Colleges were NOT doing blacks a favor by letting them slide in college classes... they hurt the future teachers... they hurt children who deserved to have professionals in their classrooms.
Black teachers also fled because black schools are often more violent and difficult to teach in.... So many truthful reason... so many NOT PC reasons..
“students who are racially paired with teachers — black teachers working with black students and Hispanic teachers working with Hispanic students — do better academically”
There you go...Just pass them with meaningless grades.
Here in NJ the only way to get them to show up is by threatening the mothers’ freebies. The kids show up and simply play; education isn’t even on the table.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.