Why black teachers are leaving urban schools

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | September 19, 2015 | Olivia Lowenberg

[E. Pluribus Unum]

What's behind the drop off in African American teachers? The answer is more complicated than you may think.

While the percentage of minority teachers has risen in the US, the number of black teachers has declined between 2002 and 20012 in nine cities, according to a recent study by the Albert Shanker Institute.

[ClearCase_guy]

the recurring emphasis that education policy tends to place on test scores. This rigidity, argues Nekita Lamour, a Haitian-American and tenured educator, disincentivises black and Hispanic educators from participating in the system

I think she's saying that they're not smart enough to be teachers, but I'm not sure. Anyway, she sounds like an awful racist!

[FredZarguna]

The answer isn't complicated, and it's exactly what you think it is. As teachers have been made more accountable, fewer and fewer of them can meet standards. This is what the article says -- with some weasel words, along with the oft repeated lie that teachers are "underpaid." In terms of market wage pressure, number of hours worked, and job qualification, teachers as a group are actually overpaid, and the decline in their numbers is not caused by poor compensation.

[umgud]

Where there’s a diverse teaching workforce, all kids thrive.

I guess if it's on the internet, it must be true? (I say BS)

[babble-on]

Urban public schools are seen by politicians primarily as a jobs program for dumb graduates of terrible colleges.

If along the way a kid or two gets and education that is a pleasant side benefit, but it is not the point of the enterprise.

[DugwayDuke]

“I think she’s saying that they’re not smart enough to be teachers, but I’m not sure.”

This was not an assessment of the number of black teachers in education but an assessment of the number of black teachers in nine urban environments. Evidently, these black teachers are smart enough to know they don’t want to teach in urban areas.

[struggle]

I’ll tell you why, as a white teacher that left Jackson, Mississippi’s public schools.

The students are bad, but the administration and district trying to micromanage everything you do from their cushy offices are worse.

[DPMD]

Could it also be that many of them are sick of being assaulted by students who now have the impunity to commit crimes at without consequences, thanks to Eric Holder? One suspects that many of those who remain are also the kind who think white teachers shouldn’t be teaching or seen as role models at predominantly black schools. Racism in all its forms is poison.

[A_Former_Democrat]

It’s always an excuse, isn’t it?

Maybe it’s because these places have been turned into hellholes by the constituent voters, “students” corrupt pols and “administrators” and “educators” et al. White teachers don’t want to risk their lives or reputations on these liberal failures, so they GTHO.

Everyone wants out from those disasters, much of it their own making They eff up one place, then want to move to eff up the next place

[BwanaNdege]

Evidently, these black teachers are smart enough to know they don’t want to teach in urban areas.

You, Sir, go to the head of the class! You have just "aced" your evaluation of the situation.

Other correct answers include, "They don't want their own children condemned to the educational hell-hole in which they themselves work and they cannot afford private schools."

[gop4lyf]

Probably for the same reason this white teacher left an urban school to teach in a rural district. The vast majority of the students had no intention of learning. School was simply a place for free babysitting for the “parents.” There were exceptions, of course, but I dreaded going to work every day. I have recently taken a huge pay cut to work in a rural district an hour away, and could not be happier. The kids are polite, respectful, and genuinely interested in learning. Most of them have mom AND dad together at home. Parents are supportive of the school. Best of all, I actually get to teach, instead of just be a referee or warden.

[jstaff]

Many of them don’t want to try to meet the standards. They have been given free education, told that all their ills are due to white-on-minority racism, and generally discouraged from holding themselves accountable for their failures.

In the grownup world where teachers are held accountable for student success, where lack of academic progress from the students means lack of financial progress for the teacher, many find it easier to just go into some low level government job that hires based on affirmative action. They are offended that victimhood doesn’t get them all the way to the rainbow’s end.

[Tallguy]

No teacher left behind?

[maddog55]

Probably tired of getting punched, kicked, spit on and shot at.

[A_perfect_lady]

Same here. I did inner-city for 11 years. Now I’m finally out in a suburban area, and the kids are still kind of soft and slow, (it is Los Angeles) but at least they don’t seem to be feral.

[freeangel]

“Where there’s a diverse teaching workforce, all kids thrive.” Make me laugh. Blacks have been fleeing into metro areas for years because the schools fare so much better(in Gwinnett County, anyway) than in the black run school district in Atlanta. Now, I’m hearing there is discontent because the school board is not “diverse” enough. They just don’t get it. Failure promotes failure in their world.

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

In many districts teachers that don’t meet “standards” get kept often. Administrators get kept often not meeting “standards”. “Standards” get lowered and changed to protect administrators. Teachers shaken out are usually ones that don’t get along with or cover for the administrator. They could get targeted by insecure teachers too. Believe one reading your explanation may underestimate the mess that is there. Some districts are hiring anyone they can get for a reason. More veteran teachers command a higher salary and there is incentive to shake them out on the part of the administration. The teachers going out only being the teachers who aren’t good teachers is a myth.

[Alberta's Child]

In my state, most of the school districts that have been taken over by the state due to mismanagement by the local school board are “urban environments.” One of the byproducts of state control is more rigorous testing of the students and closer oversight of the teachers.

[fso301]

the oft repeated lie that teachers are "underpaid." In terms of market wage pressure, number of hours worked, and job qualification, teachers as a group are actually overpaid, and the decline in their numbers is not caused by poor compensation.

We believed that too until my wife began doing work at our children's schools while living in Louisiana.

What we learned was that teacher workdays are not times in which they can do useful things like catching up on grading and improving lesson plans. Instead, they have to attend various training seminars for which they receive no continuing education credits.

Ditto for scheduled early release days when kids are let out at lunchtime. Teachers have to stay at school as if it was a regular day attending training seminars for which they receive no continuing education credits.

Superficially, teachers do receive generous holidays but what isn't realized is unless they use their annual vacation time during Christmas and Spring Break, they will have to report to school during those times, or take unpaid leave.

Teachers that actually try to teach and interact with students can't sit at their desks and grade papers during class. This then means grading has to be done during planning period, or after hours. Because of school crowding, the teacher may not be able to stay in their room during planning period because the class will be used by another teacher. If the school is short substitutes on a particular day, a teacher may lose their planning period and be required to cover a class as a substitute.

Periodically, teachers will be required to attend meetings with the parents and case managers of any children they have receiving special education. These meetings may take place during the teacher's planning period, or after hours.

All of this causes teachers to do grading and planning during unpaid after hours time.

Because of teacher turnover, remaining teachers may find themselves being rescheduled by principles to teach unfamiliar courses which places additional burdens of planning and preparation on them which must be done after hours.

Then there is parent communication which must be done after hours mindful that every word typed in an email could come back at them in a lawsuit.

Depending on the school, administrators may expect teachers to be seen periodically attending after school events and activities for which they do not receive compensation.

Depending on the school, administrators may also expect more senior teachers to take on "leadership: roles by "volunteering" after hours time as advisers to student groups, or by joining faculty school improvement teams.

Teachers are required to attend open house nights but are not compensated for it.

When you add up all of the work a teacher must do throughout the year for which they are uncompensated, that time then seriously erodes their summer vacation time.

[grania]

This is not new. Many black teachers who get their start in the inner city leave as soon as they get a good evaluation and some high-end non-urban system has a quota to fill. This goes back until the 1980s, at least.

A lot stay in the inner city, of course. But many of the best ones leave for greener pastures.

(That's my personal observation, an opinion....not something I've researched)