Teacher Diversity Is Important. Here’s What We’ve Learned about Recruitment Best Practices.
Research has shown that a diverse teaching staff has a positive impact on student performance. Daniel Stinfil, senior portfolio manager for LISC Charter School Financing, shares best practices from school leaders for attracting and retaining a diverse teaching and leadership staff.
Above: Students receive instructions during an ELA Class at KIPP Adelante
When asked to recall their fondest school memories, many people think of particular teachers—the teachers who inspired them, the teachers who motivated them, and the teachers who left them with unforgettable wisdom. Recruiting the talented educators who can make those memorable connections with students is one of school leaders’ most important jobs.
Over the last three years, our Charter School Financing team has worked to identify and acknowledge best practices for advancing racial equity in schools, with the goal of highlighting these as key characteristics that also strengthen a school’s creditworthiness. Teacher diversity is a leading example; it’s a feature of racial equity that, research shows, has a significant impact on student performance.
Within a school community, a diverse teaching staff is critical to improving academic outcomes and school culture. A study titled “The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers,” which leveraged data from the Tennessee Project STAR class-size study, has shown that students of color who have at least one teacher of color perform better on standardized tests and are less likely to have a disciplinary issue. Students with at least one Black teacher in grades K-3 are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college than their same-school, same-race peers.
Unfortunately, in schools across the country, teachers are far less diverse than the population of students that they serve. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported in May 2022 that as of Fall 2020, 54% of students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools identified as persons of color, while 46% identified as white. The same NCES study projected that by 2030, the proportion of students identifying as people of color will increase to 57%, with 43% identifying as white. Across America, the percentage of students of color has continued to grow year over year, however the racial distribution of in-classroom educators has remained relatively stable. As of 2018, NCES reported that 79% of teachers identified as non-hispanic white and 6.7% identified as Black or African American.
As a community development financial institution (CDFI), we at LISC review all elements that drive a school to outperform peer institutions and believe that teacher diversity is a factor. For this reason, we connected with leaders at three schools for their advice on attracting and retaining a diverse teaching and school leadership staff. The school leaders that we had the pleasure of sitting down with were:
- Jarell Lee, founding school leader at KIPP Chicago;
- Llyas Salahud-din, chief development officer at the Texas Empowerment Academy; and
- Robert Clark, founder and chief executive officer of the Newark Opportunity Youth Network.
After multiple conversations with each school leader, we developed the following list of priority actions that a school focused on promoting teacher diversity should pursue.
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Start at the Top
Teacher diversity must be a top-down initiative. School leaders must promote the importance of a diverse teaching team that is representative of a school’s student body. Leadership must lay out the importance of diverse hiring practices to the whole school community. Staff should be able to speak to why having a teaching staff that represents the student body matters. Families should also understand the importance of having a diverse team. If school leadership makes it a priority, the community will consider it important.
At large charter management organizations (CMOs), CEOs must educate school-level leadership about the importance of recruiting diverse talent. Performance goals should be created to ensure that leaders on the ground are focused on diversity recruiting; this could include initiatives like having human resources provide school leaders with talking points that can be disseminated to teaching staff and ultimately used as reference points to start recruiting conversations. At standalone schools with fewer resources, leaders can provide their teachers and staff with in-person training on how to approach others about considering a career in teaching.
Value the Student Body’s Culture
The school must value the culture of the student body. Schools that value the culture of the community in which they operate will ensure that teachers represent and understand the nuances of that community. Schools can demonstrate that they value their student bodies’ culture through the coursework that students are being taught, artwork and graphics on display at the school, the books students are reading, and the performances students are putting on for their school community.
Create a Career Pipeline
Schools should work toward creating a pipeline of qualified candidates by working with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) or local colleges to attract undergraduates to teach at their programs. Providing summer internships to current undergrads can also help to ensure that college students are exposed to teaching careers.
Engage Your Local Community
The number of years a school and its leadership have spent in a community matters for attracting diverse educators because parents and families share information. As schools become embedded in their local community, families will connect strong candidates with school leadership. Families will also encourage community members to consider working for organizations they trust. School leadership developing strong community roots goes a long way toward encouraging people who live in that community to consider teaching.
Minimize Higher Education Costs
Education leaders should work with state or federal agencies to create pathways for candidates of color to obtain required degrees without taking on debt. Education institutions should also work with teachers to cover the costs of required teaching certifications.
Offer Fair and Competitive Compensation
Schools can demonstrate a commitment to teacher diversity by providing salaries that are competitive with alternative job opportunities within their community. Schools can also provide opportunities to earn additional dollars through weekend teaching opportunities, summer teaching opportunities, and senior teaching opportunities like curriculum development. Schools and leaders within the education system should encourage strong teachers of color to consider applying for higher-paying roles in administration where they can help to shape the school community in which they work.
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Bringing together a diverse teaching staff is a challenging task; however, the value-add to students and their school community is clear. A school’s ability to recruit culturally representative talent starts at the top but requires engagement from a school’s full community to be successful. Schools that put in the effort to attract teachers of color should be acknowledged and emulated, as this additional effort improves the experiences of their students and increases the creditworthiness of their program. They should be lauded for the important work they are doing on behalf of their students.
About the Author
Daniel Stinfil, Senior Portfolio Manager
Daniel is responsible for providing research and analysis to support the underwriting of charter school transactions. He is also responsible for tracking and monitoring the performance of LISC’s charter school portfolio. Daniel previously worked as an Operations Fellow and Director of Operations at North Star Academy, a charter school in Newark, NJ, and as a Money Market Fund Portfolio Manager at Deutsche Bank. He holds a BA in Political Science from University at Albany and an MBA from Columbia Business School.