BUFFALO, NY (WKBW) — A push continues to create a more diverse teaching workforce across New York State.
The Education Trust — New York says more than one in five students across the state attend a school without any teachers of color.
“I went through school and I never had a teacher of color, so I understand how important that is,” remarked Dr. Kathy Wood, associate dean of teacher diversity & recruitment, SUNY Buffalo State.
Dr. Wood is on the front lines of trying to convince students of color to become future teachers, but she tells me it is a challenge.
“The outside narrative is not always positive about our profession, so it's a little bit more challenging to get them excited about coming in to do this work,” explained Dr. Wood. “It's really challenging.”
Wood serves as associate dean of teacher diversity and recruitment in Buffalo State's Education Department.
Student diversity in the classroom continues to grow, but teacher diversity is not keeping pace.
An Education Trust report reveals that despite efforts to improve recruitment and retention of a more diverse teaching workforce, efforts are falling flat.
I spoke with Education Trust NY deputy director Jeff Smink.
“What's going wrong from your perspective?” Buckley asked.
“There's a lot of efforts out there to increase diversity, but we have just not moved the needle, so our study shows that there's been really no change since the 2017-2018 school year,” replied Smink.
Education Trust suggests school districts use those American Rescue dollars to support ways of recruiting future teachers of color.
“Would that be allowed for them to use for recruitment of this effort?” Buckley questioned. “Yes, absolutely 100 percent, and many states and districts have already done that,” responded Smink.
Buffalo State has a specific pipeline program for its education students designed to tackle the issue.
“We give them field experiences and so having students go out into the field — we invite them to campus — we find that talking to other college students who have chosen the teaching profession is really affirming to them,” Dr. Wood noted.
Smink noted in Erie County 98% of teachers are white.
“If you are a teacher of color, it can be an isolating experience, so a lot of what we have do is support teachers of color once they are recruited and give them the support they need to stay,” Smink explained.
But Buff State's effort goes even deeper, reaching students in high school. The college operates two urban teacher academies in the Buffalo Public School District — McKinley and International Prep.
I visited the teacher academy at McKinley High School in 2021. Five students who graduated are currently at Buff State studying to be teachers.
Dr. Wood says changing the narrative is “critical”.
“I'm not sure how others see the teaching profession and we do have young people who are bright and would be phenomenal teachers. But some of them will say — 'my parents want me to be in engineering’ or ' my parent wants me to be a doctor or lawyer’. — so what is the perception of the teaching profession? How do we get people to understand how important this profession is? And how no one can get where they are without a teacher.” Dr. Wood described. “It is disheartening, but I won't give up. We are continuing to do the work and trying to come up with creative ways to get younger people excited."
Dr. Wood says the goal is to start encouraging students of color as early as middle school to be teachers.
The following are among the key findings of this new analysis from Education Trust — New York:
- New York’s teacher workforce does not come close to representing the rich racial/ethnic diversity of its student population;
- Between the 2018-2019 and 2021-2022 school years, the racial/ethnic makeup of New York’s teacher workforce remained relatively stagnant;
- Although having access to teachers of color benefits all students, more than one in five New York students attend schools without any teachers of color on staff. Roughly one in ten Black and Latinx students attend schools without teachers of the same race. The proportion of Asian and American Indian students attending a school without a same-race teacher is even higher at 19% and 76% respectively. Roughly one in three White students attends a school without any teachers of color;
- Access to teachers of color varies widely across type of district, with students in rural high-needs districts being most likely to attend a school without a teacher of color, and students in New York City and the Big 4 being least likely;
- Students of color are far more likely to attend schools with more than five new teachers compared to their White peers. White students also had overwhelmingly more access to the most experienced teachers than students of color.
