I recently participated in a Twitter chat, #4percent, with researchers from Research for Action and other educators as a follow up to RFA’s insightful recent report, Patching the Leaky Pipeline: Recruiting and Retaining Teachers of Color in Pennsylvania.
Welcome to the #4percent chat! PA’s teacher workforce is overwhelmingly white. Today we want to bring attention to this issue and brainstorm solutions. For reference, we’ll be bringing in findings and recommendations from our recent brief: https://t.co/N8hGmuq6Zi
— Research for Action (@Research4Action) May 3, 2018
Let’s get started: #4percent pic.twitter.com/67ZEd8F2Rl
— Research for Action (@Research4Action) May 3, 2018
The lack of diversity has consequences. #4percent pic.twitter.com/TZAkkDxXc0
— Research for Action (@Research4Action) May 3, 2018
Patching the Leaky Pipeline: Recruiting and Retaining Teachers of Color in Pennsylvania
Q2&3 related & bring up chicken & egg issues — Historic racism disinvestment –>lack of opps for students of color –>achievement gaps –>fewer teacher of color candidates –>fewer tocs –>harmful impact on students of color (and all students)–>more achieve gaps, etc #4percent
— David Lapp (@davidblapp) May 3, 2018
@Research4Action
.@lapp_david brought up the leaks. Sounds like it's time to zoom in on the problem. #4percent pic.twitter.com/kQdbqxEI5w— Research for Action (@Research4Action) May 3, 2018
The problem is real–now we need solutions. What have you seen work? #4percent pic.twitter.com/hoZV2RlbxO
— Research for Action (@Research4Action) May 3, 2018
Jason Fontana noticed in his research that while we (as a state / nation) report tons of student demographics by race, teacher race demographics are rarely reported, especially at the school level. #4percent
— David Lapp (@davidblapp) May 3, 2018
Former teacher, former student's right attorney, and advocate for education equity. As researcher I've been following the work of @selmekki and the research of richard ingersol at @PennGSE to learn about the importance of the teachers of color! #4percent https://t.co/HB8eslmg5w
— David Lapp (@davidblapp) May 3, 2018
The problem is real–now we need solutions. What have you seen work? #4percent pic.twitter.com/hoZV2RlbxO
— Research for Action (@Research4Action) May 3, 2018
0/17 of the Black men who launched @BMECFellowship were encouraged to become teachers. We weren’t invited until after we graduated college. My white female friends say they were invited in elementary school #4percent
— Sharif El-Mekki (@selmekki) May 3, 2018
Raises so many questions about how we socialize young black men and young white women along disparate racial and gender lines. #4percent
— Research for Action (@Research4Action) May 3, 2018
Check out Principal Dingle and her team @bethune_sdp #4percent https://t.co/tH9gsLx50t
— Sharif El-Mekki (@selmekki) May 3, 2018
At @masterycharter we partner with @RelayGSE and our alum are beginning to see leading a classroom as a way to tip scales of justice back in favor of their communities. Policy makers can support students like this by helping the teacher pipeline #4percent
— Sharif El-Mekki (@selmekki) May 3, 2018
Well put! This is especially concerning when research shows that students who aspire to teach in high school are more likely to become teachers than those who do not. #4percent @IERC_SIUEhttps://t.co/9mVMnTYA3p
— Alison (@alisonstohr) May 3, 2018
Q4: It's hard to make progress when you don't have clear goals. Would be great if PDE and/or districts created teacher diversity goals and crafted plans to achieve them. #4percent pic.twitter.com/krdlJ3v1EA
— Alison (@alisonstohr) May 3, 2018
So many leaks. So many missed opportunities. This has consequences for student performance, for aspirations, for higher ed enrollment, for social mobility. And on and on. #RepresentationMatters #4percent https://t.co/Z5lGqpvsem
— kri burkander (@krizybee) May 3, 2018
This means a lot of places in PA are missing out on the proven benefits of teachers of color. #4percent pic.twitter.com/B1miNxGBTG
— Alison (@alisonstohr) May 3, 2018
@selmekki was the first person I heard talk about presenting teaching as social justice work as way to improve recruitment. I was interested in the approach of @P2Teaching in Colorado, which does just that. #4percent pic.twitter.com/G3cWCKXCtq
— Alison (@alisonstohr) May 3, 2018
YES! @MargaritaBianco Does incredible work. When we share that education is justice and denying it is a pervasive and longstanding injustice in this country, it resonates with our youth. #4percent
— Sharif El-Mekki (@selmekki) May 3, 2018
Lots of solutions in the RFA brief and lots of these are also featured in the new brief by @LPI_Learning here – https://t.co/LBTxYyTNUd #4percent
— David Lapp (@davidblapp) May 3, 2018
So many great ideas already discussed. I'm encouraged that this issue is penetrating the public consciousness. Collaboration between @PADeptofEd and @BMECFellowship is a great first start to making sure that we as a state do not stay #4percent
— David Lapp (@davidblapp) May 3, 2018
[…] This was not surprising. After all, Pennsylvania ranks last in the nation in teacher diversity, with 96% of its teaching force being White serving a student population that is 33% of color. In Philadelphia, despite its diversity, the percentages of Black teachers has dropped from 40% to less than a quarter. And, according to state officials, the number of Latinx teachers has been almost stagnant. […]