Recruiting and Retaining Educators of Color Is Key in Responding to the Teacher Shortage
By Myrna Castrejón, President & CEO, California Charter Schools Association
California’s schools have long contended with a lack of teachers of color, especially Latino and Black teachers. As we look to respond to the current shortages that schools are facing across the country, we have an opportunity to invest our time and efforts in increasing the recruitment and retention of teachers of color.
Studies have shown that when educators reflect the diversity of students on campus, there is a stronger school climate which positively impacts academic outcomes, college-going rates, and school climate. The California Charter Schools Association study “Charting the Course to Equity” showed that, on average, California public schools with a school leader of color scored higher on state tests and had lower suspension rates, especially at high schools.
In my role, I get to witness firsthand the positive impact of representation in the classroom. I see how students respond to teachers who have a common background or culture. The capacity for a student to learn increases when they have stronger bonds with their educators, not just in the classroom, but school wide.
In 2019, the most recent year that the California Department of Education released data on teacher diversity, 60 percent of public-school students in California were reported to be Black or Latino, yet only 25 percent of teachers were — a significant gap.
In LAUSD, our nation’s 2nd largest school district, public schools enroll some of the most diverse student populations in the nation, yet our teachers and school administrators do not yet reflect that diversity. LAUSD data from the 2021–22 school year show that 82 percent of students, 55 percent of teachers, and 67 percent of administrators were Black or Latino.
Schools working to close these gaps have realized benefits for all students, especially to Black and Latino students.
Rosebud Charter Academy in Pasadena, which has a majority Black student body, is the highest performing charter public school for Black students in the district and attributes recruiting and retaining teachers of color with their students’ academic success. School leadership has made it an intentional practice to hire teachers of color to align with the research that finds educators of color provide benefits to all students, especially to Black and Latino students.
At Lighthouse Community Charter Public Schools in Oakland, which has a student body that is more than 80 percent Latino, school leaders made it an intentional focus to recruit and retain more teachers, administrators, and board members of color. By taking meaningful action, they have been able to reflect in a more meaningful way what diversity looks like and the various roles people of color should play in educating students of color. The administrators at Lighthouse believe that when the teacher reflects the students in the classroom, there is more engagement and students feel more supported.
This opportunity to ensure equitable inclusion of educators of color across school is vital and timely — which is why California needs to be more innovative in attracting new teachers. One wonderful example of this the California Teacher Residency Lab, a new program to recruit and support potential teachers that reflects a community’s diversity. Funded by the California Department of Education, this program makes it easier for teacher candidates to earn their credentials by combining on-the-job training with coursework and mentoring.
We also need to do a better job to increase and retain teachers of color once they are in the classroom. The Diversity in Leadership Institute, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization focused on increasing diversity among educators to provide better outcomes for students of color, recently released a study, “Within Reach: Racially Diverse School Leadership and The K–12 Educator Pipeline in Los Angeles County,” which examines the practices that administrators in LA County successfully use at schools with high retention rates for teachers of color.
The study found that successful schools actively work to create a community among teachers and students. Administrators work to bring staff together for collaboration and involve students in setting the culture and tone on campus. This intentional building of a community extended to students’ families, by engaging parents and increasing involvement.
Teachers were also given more autonomy to make their own decisions and provided them the opportunity to teach in new and creative ways. Providing a teacher greater agency to teach their students in the way they find most effective results in greater engagement in their classrooms and increased student learning.
School administrators should take note of these findings and implement the practices that will work in their schools to attract and retain more teachers of color as our state becomes more diverse each year.
Building strong teaching and learning environments begins with attracting more smart, passionate people to the profession and then providing environments where they can thrive and become the next generation of leaders in education.
You can learn more about California’s nonprofit charter schools by following CCSA on Twitter @CALcharters.
