More minority teachers

NEA Today, Feb 2002

Learning

INNOVATION

The key to achieving this: Get more students of color into college.

It's no secret that today's teaching force is predominantly white and female.

At NEA's recent National Summit on Diversity in the Teaching Workforce, keynote speaker Sharon Robinson, executive vice president of Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey discussed ways to attract more students of color into the education work force.

"Research shows that if we can get a higher proportion of students of color into the postsecondary pipeline, teaching does very well in the competition among career choices," says Robinson. Because a high proportion of minority college graduates choose teaching, increasing the number of minority graduates should boost the number of minority educators.

The problem, says Robinson, is that minority students leak out of the college pipeline during their K12 years. The critical hurdles are third grade reading, fifth grade math, and seventh grade algebra-points at which some students begin to think of themselves as college material, while others don't.

In addition to the academic factors, Robinson notes that "the nature of the work of teaching needs to be revealed to them."

To achieve this, Robinson suggests internships targeted for minority students while they are in high school. Interns could tutor or mentor younger students.

"Identify those kids who find this attractive. Then in college you've got to nurture them and stay with them." she says. "Teachers are in a position to see many signs of student advancement. If the job becomes one of recognizing and nurturing student achievement, it's a joyful job. Who would turn away from that?"

A former high school English teacher, Robinson held leadership positions at the NEA and served as assistant U.S. secretary of education before moving to ETS.

"What brought me into the field was the love of a specific discipline-English and literature," she says. "And as the eldest of five children, I knew I needed to get myself ready for a career and financial independence in a hurry."

For More: See the journal article "From High School to Teaching: Many Steps, Who Makes It?" at www.usc.edu/dept/education/CMMR/FullText/ HighSchoolToTeaching.pdf.