A Companion Piece To Our Panel Discussion at ASU-GSV: No Struggle, No Progress - An Argument for a Return to Black Schools

Author's Note: Written in collaboration with Laci McKenzie

Teach For America Hiring Fair 2019

For weeks my team talked about the resume of the next superstar teacher at our school. He has a 3.5 GPA, test scores off the charts going back to high school, and is a proud Howard University Bison. Credentials like this would make any principal salivate at the chance to land an impressive first year teaching candidate.

Now add that the candidate is a black male.

Every Charter Management Organization (at least a dozen) could not wait for a chance to meet this person. He’s number five on our list but we feel confident that we can sell the mission and vision of our school to this person.

He didn’t show up.

School leaders were obviously disappointed. Principals were upset that they missed an opportunity to add diversity at the school level and give their students (statistically speaking) the best chance for them to succeed.

According to an article by Chandra Thomas Whitfield, since 2014 people of color make up half of the student population in public schools within the US but make up less than 20 percent of the population of educations. Furthermore, Black males make up a mere 2% of the total population of educators. This is especially troubling considering that a student regardless of race is 39% more likely to earn a high school diploma if they have at least one Black male teacher during elementary school.

The data speaks for itself. Recruiting teachers of color particularly teachers from within the communities our students reside can be a major lever to academic success.

The question is are CMOs willing to put the work and resources together to truly make a difference in the matter? Are we willing to go to where the students are and increase the talent pool so that we aren’t all wait on the one black male teacher?

When Does Trying No Longer Mean Enough

Out of the three major hiring fairs that TC Howe has been invited to in the spring of 2019, less than a handful of Black candidates were presented.

At the conclusion of each meeting either myself or a member of my team approached the organizers with one question, “What is with the lack of presentable Black candidates?”

Excuses on this issue have been around long enough. The idea of just trying is not enough.

Is anyone willing to go out into our universities and overtly target Black students with a chance to make a difference?

A call to action needs to be made that as CMOs we have a duty to go and find the absolute best candidates possible to educate our students. Statistically, students that are taught by people of their community have a higher success rate than when taught by someone outside of the community. This is not a call for diversity for the sake of diversity. Rather, this is a student centered strategy to improve academic gains within our schools.

Nobel Education Initiative has partnered with AmeriCorps to answer this specific issue. Last fall we met with the team and stated that we wanted to begin our own teacher recruitment program to actively seek out people of our community to become teachers for our students.

They have stepped up to the plate to work towards finding a location issue to a national education issue.

Research shows that Black students are more successful when they are taught by someone of their community.

Where to Find Black Educators

It isn’t enough to hope that we will see more Black candidates walk through our doors, we have to recruit them before furthermore CREATE THEM.

There are great Black students (millennials) that want to have an impact on the world around them. They may just not know how much it would mean to their own community and others if they decided to enter education.

Wall Street and Silicon Valley will always be there but no one will argue that working within those places is a rewarding as changing the life of a student that never thought about a high school diploma or graduating from college. Well run inner city schools create amazing opportunities for personal fulfillment as almost everyone within the school is of high needs.

For many teachers, Nobel Education Initiative finds creative ways to put educators in position to still work on the passion they majored in.

Many of our teachers were theatre majors so we started our own theatre club.

Some were in athletics so they coach or call games.

Others even majored in political science so they organized our student council.

CMOs have all the copy needed to sell someone on waiting to be the next millionaire to give back to a community and country that desperately needs our help.

Our students need more Black teachers within our inner cities.

Less Race, More Community

The black schools movement is less about race and more about making our schools a part of the community once again. The case within my school for most of my career has been on in which the vast majority of my students were Black. So the research shows that test scores are better and students are suspended less. What about the qualitative aspect of the argument.

For instance, I once knew a teacher at one of our Nobel led schools that was friends with the mom of one of her students. The teacher went to school with the mother of the student. The student knew this even hear from mom a few times that she can “tighten you up” if I get out of pocket because I’m not about to embarrass her... 

To go even deeper, they went to church together and bonded on a spiritual level on several occasions.

An educator can be in a school for a decade and can only dream of having a connection this within the community this strong. This type of connection only comes from being embedded within the community that is served.

So HOWE (my school is TC Howe) do we train our teachers to increase cultural competency within their classrooms?

HOWE can we recruit within our community to bring the community further into our schools and air advantage of the breakthrough research behind it?

Educators have to meet students where they are. We have to stand in front of students within our inner cities and discontinue the narrative of getting out of your neighborhood to have a better life. Instead, replace that message with a challenge to stay and make their neighborhood a better place.

That can begin a cycle of education success for our students. Former students coming back to teach will change the path of an entire communities and also raise the level of achievement for students from generation to generation.

It starts with us. Today.

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