Black Teachers
Research says that Black teachers are essential for modeling black success and that assigning a black male to a black teacher in the third, fourth, or fifth grades significantly reduces the probability that he drops out of high school, particularly among the most economically disadvantaged black males. Exposure to at least one black teacher in grades 3-5 also increases the likelihood that persistently low-income students of both sexes aspire to attend a four-year college. (The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers http://ftp.iza.org/dp10630.pdf). Other studies do show that good instruction can override ethnicity in relation to academic outcomes. However, for more holistic outcomes, black teachers are vital.
In 2018, TDP was a part of initiating the Black Teacher Retention and Recruitment Taskforce and we were proud to share the recommendations of the team with Dr. Santelises and others who chose to attend our final session. We firmly believe that when we listen to teachers, school decision-making goes better.
This video shows a discussion held at Liberty Elementary Middle in December 2018 in which many of the issues surrounding the recruitment and retention of Black teachers are discussed.
We presented the final recommendations of the Taskforce to Dr. Santelises in June 2019.
You can see the summary of the final recommendations of the Taskforce, by clicking the button below.
The Decline in Black Teachers
In Baltimore, during the time period 2003 to 2015 Black Teachers decreased 24.5 percentage points from 63% to 38%. This video explores why the decline occurred.
Is New Teacher Mentoring Working?
The Black Teacher Recruitment and Retention Workgroup met to discuss various elements of what it would take to hire and retain Black teachers. This video shows the discussion about the efficacy of mentoring.
How Do Certification Issues Impact Black Teachers?
Another aspect of the retention and hiring of Black teachers that we looked into was the impact of certification issues. We found that there were widespread problems with transcript review, notifications regarding certification status, and with support for how to resolve certification questions.
Teacher Pipeline
Our panelists in this session talked about how the status of teaching in general has diminished, in recent years, in part because of the heavy work-load, the increased emphasis on testing, and adverse effects of media. We also discussed ways in which we might improve the pipeline into teaching to offset these adverse trends, and raise the profession back to the status it deserves.
The Importance of Black Men in Schools
This video shows a discussion with district employee Anthony Pena about why Black men are important in schools.
Black Teachers Matter Panel
Cristina Duncan Evans facilitated a panel discussion after the screening of the Black Teachers Matter video. The panel features:
Kim Trueheart, Education Advocate
Ui-Seng Francois, Baltimore City Schools Student
Tyrik Moore, Baltimore City Schools Educator
Diamonte Brown, Baltimore City Schools Educator, Organizer, and BMORE Steering Committee Member
Khalilah Harris, Founding Co-Chair, Coalition of Black Leaders in Education