If You Listen, We Will Stay

I was speaking with a Black educator who was unhappy with how she was being treated at her campus. She works hard at building meaningful relationships with the most difficult kids, she puts out fires, she has started several groups and organizations for different students on campus, and she is a go-to person for people of color on her campus and their families.

But she felt that her efforts weren't being valued by her administration team. Instead of seeing all of the things that she was doing well for her campus, she felt that her admin team focused on all of her mistakes and was searching for reasons to write her up and get rid of her.

Because of this feeling, she was ready to leave her campus.

School districts across the country are facing common HR problems: How do we recruit, hire, and retain quality and diversified faculty and staff?

It is a tough time in education. There are more teachers than ever leaving the profession, and there are fewer teachers coming into the profession. Add to that the raised awareness for the need for more teachers of color, and we have a problem that we are all trying to figure out how to tackle.

According to the article, If You Listen, We Will Stay, a majority of the nation's public school students are students of color, but less than 20% of our teachers are teachers of color, and only 2% are black men.

The Education Trust and Teach Plus today jointly released new research that examines the challenges teachers of color face and it documents the experiences of staff in schools that intentionally work to retain teachers of color.

HIGH-LEVEL FINDINGS
Research conducted focus groups with teachers who identify as Black or Latino who talked about their experiences in the workforce and what schools and school districts could do to keep them in the field.

In the focus groups, five things emerged as challenges that teachers of color face and the reasons why they leave schools, districts, or teaching:

1. Create culturally affirming school environments;
2. Affirm teachers’ humanity and racial identity;
3. Support, empower, and invest in teachers;
4. Build a schoolwide “family”; and
5. Adopt a district priority related to retaining teachers of color.

5 ACTION ITEMS The research produced 5 actions that schools and districts could use to intentional improve teacher retention and recruitment:

1. Create a culturally affirming school environment 2. Affirm teachers' humanity and racial identity 3. Support, empower and invest in teachers 4. Build a schoolwide 'family' 5. Adopt a district priority to retain teachers of color

5 RECOMMENDATIONS
Trust and Teach Plus collectively propose four recommendations for state, district, and school leaders to disrupt the culture of turnover for teachers of color, including:

1. Value teachers of color by providing loan forgiveness, service scholarships, loan repayment incentives, and relocation incentives for teachers coming into the field;

2. Collect and disaggregate data (by race/ethnicity) on teacher recruitment, hiring, and retention;

3. Invest in the recruitment, preparation, and development of strong, diverse leaders committed to positive working conditions for a diverse workforce; and

4. Empower teachers of color by ensuring curricula, as well as learning and work environments, are inclusive and respectful of all racial and ethnic groups.

Read the research here: If You Listen, We Will Stay: Why Teachers of Color Leave and How to Disrupt Teacher Turnover