What's Behind The Black Teacher Shortage?

Jet, Jan 29, 2001

Black America is not making the grade when it comes to education. One reason could be that there are too few teachers in the nation's classrooms.

More than a million veteran teachers are nearing retirement, according to statistics provided by the National Education Association.

The nation will need two million new teachers in the next decade. In high poverty urban and rural school districts alone, more than 700,000 teachers will be needed in the next 10 years.

Why is there a shortage of Black teachers? JET recently interviewed educators and experts to find out, What's Behind The Black Teacher Shortage?

Distinguished educator Marva Collins, who founded the prestigious Westside Preparatory School in Chicago, believes that money has played a major role in the shortage of teachers.

The average salary for beginning teachers was about $25,735 in the academic year 1997-1998, according to the American Federation of Teachers.

"America doesn't value its teachers. Garbage collectors, almost every profession we can mention, make more than teachers," Collins points out.

She continues, "One must have a real commitment to teach. But people just cannot eat dedication. Most teachers are working two jobs just to keep going. Teachers actually cannot live on $20,000 to $30,000 a year. I think America needs to reprioritize what's really important."

Collins notes that teachers help and inspire young people to lead responsible lives. "Everyone has had a teacher. Everyone benefits from having a teacher. Everyone owes gratitude to some teacher, including Michael Jordan and Oprah. Everybody had a teacher. I think we tend to forget that. America does not celebrate education, not even its politicians. It's always on the back burner. Education is something people talk about and do very little about it."

The problem of the shortage of teachers is compounded by the anticipated increase of student enrollment. By 2008, public school enrollment will exceed 54 million, an increase of nearly 2 million children more than today. Enrollment in elementary schools is expected to increase by 17 percent and in high schools by 26 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Quentin R. Lawson, executive director of the National Alliance of Black School Educators in Washington, D.C., believes that fewer people are entering teaching to fill the shortage because the job market has opened its arms to Blacks in other fields.

"In the 1940s and 1950s, you had a preponderance of Blacks going into education. Teachers were looked up to and well respected because it was one of the three professions (including social work and postal service) that Blacks could go into and not face discrimination. But today, Blacks are going into other professions because of equal opportunities," explains Lawson.

The shortage of Black teachers has been extremely detrimental in urban and rural schools. The nonprofit Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning found that in the poorest schools, 16 percent of the teachers lack credentials, but in the richest, only 4 percent lack credentials.

This education crisis disgusts Lawson.

"If there was a shortage of airplane pilots, you wouldn't dare have flight attendants fly people across the country, but you have people who aren't qualified developing the minds of our young in the classrooms. The standards have gotten so low that you find school systems reaching for live bodies no matter what the credentials are. It's a sad state of affairs because schools are left with unqualified people who are not respected because they have no training, qualification, preparation or certification."

Dr. Katherine P. Flanagan, principal of Manley Career Academy in Chicago, believes that teacher accountability is to blame for the teacher shortage.

"Systems are asking that teachers maintain a certain standard in the classroom. Expectations on the (students') test results must be on a certain level or the teacher could possibly be dismissed or put on probation," says Flanagan, who has been at the high school for 11 years and in education for three decades.

The task of maintaining an up-to-par level, she asserts, can be near impossible when some students are unmotivated and parents are uncooperative. "Lots of teachers, based on where they are, go home. They say the students aren't motivated. We don't have the support of parents. Why take this on myself?'"

Flanagan, a board member of the Illinois High School Association, also cites that young people aren't eagerly entering the teaching profession because not everyone is willing to put forth that extra effort. "There are going to be good days and bad days. You must decide to meet the challenge. Teaching is not as easy as people perceive it to be. It's almost a 24/7 job. You have to act as a social worker, a mother, a father or whoever it takes to get your point across. It can be draining. Those who enter teaching often leave and go into the corporate world."

Joe Clark, the former principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ, who was depicted in the movie Lean On Me, believes classrooms are no longer thought of as a safe haven for education but a battleground. Discipline has been a major deterrent in attracting more teachers, he says.