Sarah Ford | December 19, 2014

Our Teacher Diversity Problem Is Not Just About Recruitment. It’s About Retention.

By Alexandria Neason

As a fifth-grade student in Clarksville, Tennessee, a small city near Nashville, I constantly got in trouble. Just about every day, I came home with a pink slip. I didn’t always know what I’d done wrong. But I knew the pink slips weren’t good and that three of them added up to detention. That’s where I—one of only a few black students at the school—spent countless afternoons.

The teacher, who was white, told my mother that I moved around too much and finished assignments too quickly. The teacher said she didn’t understand me; she suggested I get tested for attention deficit disorder.

My mother had a different interpretation. You were “a black student she couldn’t control,” she told me recently. “She wanted a reason for that.”

I was the child of an Army officer, so we moved around a lot. I attended seven different public schools in six states before leaving home for college. In all, I had just one black teacher: Mrs. Bishop, at MacArthur Elementary School in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. That year was my strongest academically. I’m convinced there was a reason for that.

Nationwide, we have a teacher diversity problem. This year, for the first time in our country’s history, a majority of public school students are children of color. But most teachers—82 percent in the 2011-2012 school year—are white. That figurehasn’t budged in almost a decade.
 

>> Continue Reading on Slate.com

Get Resources and Insights Straight To Your Inbox

Explore More Articles

February is Marfan Awareness Month!

February 3, 2025

Marfan syndrome affects an estimated 1 in 5,000 people regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender, and experts estimate that nearly half the people who have Marfan…

Read Article

February is Cancer Prevention Month

February 3, 2025

A substantial proportion of cancers could be prevented, including all cancers caused by tobacco use and other unhealthy behaviors. Excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, at least…

Read Article

Celebrating the Agents of Change this Black History Month

February 3, 2025

During Black History Month, which takes place each year during the month of February, there is much to celebrate about the past achievements and impact…

Read Article

Get Resources and Insights Straight To Your Inbox

Receive our monthly/bi-monthly newsletter filled with information about causes, nonprofit impact, and topics important for corporate social responsibility and employee engagement professionals, including disaster response, workplace giving, matching gifts, employee assistance funds, volunteering, scholarship award program management, grantmaking, and other philanthropic initiatives.

newsletter-mock