Southern Indiana's teacher diversity struggles

As Southern Indiana schools' student population becomes increasingly diverse, its pool of teachers remains overwhelmingly white.

Local education leaders – who say having more teachers of color provides students with diverse role models and in some cases can increase student achievement – acknowledge that despite efforts to recruit more minority teachers, the state of diversity remains low as school districts nationwide compete for the same small pool of minority teacher candidates.

“The problem becomes that when you don’t see yourself reflected in the faces of teachers, subconsciously, you’re thinking, ‘That’s not something that we do,’” said Sharon Jones, who oversees minority recruitment efforts at New Albany-Floyd County Schools.

As districts in Southern Indiana enter the new school year, educators in the region are approaching the issue with a renewed aggressiveness and identifying more collaborative, innovative ways to attract and retain more teachers of color.

In Greater Clark, the most diverse district in Clark and Floyd counties, 40 percent of the children are students of color and 97 percent of its teachers are white. The figures are similar in nearby New Albany-Floyd County Schools.

The student population is expected to become more diverse in the coming years, said IU Southeast School of Education Dean Doyin Coker-Kolo, adding to the urgency of the issue. School districts and communities, she said, need to be doing more.

“This is an issue that has been ongoing and that we’ve been talking about,” she said. “We need to stop the rhetoric and start acting as a community.”

►BACK-TO-SCHOOL: 5 things to know for back-to-school in Southern Indiana 

Benefits for students

Having a diverse pool of teachers benefits all kids – but especially students of color – because it breaks down stereotypes, prepares children for a world that is increasingly diverse and can help build a school that feels like it’s a caring place for minority students, research overwhelmingly shows.

“You’re going to be in the world with all kinds of people,” Jones said. “When you start working with all kinds of people at an early age – kindergarten, first grade – kids don’t really see that as an issue or a problem.”

For students of color, it helps to share a cultural connection with teachers, she said, and in some cases, can improve student achievement and reduce instances of misbehavior.

According to a report issued last year by the Albert Shanker Institute, there is growing evidence that academic outcomes such as test scores in math, reading and vocabulary, as well as graduation rates, increase when students are taught by teachers of the same racial background.

►BACK TO SCHOOL: Full list of new principals in Greater Clark schools

This could be, at least in part, because teachers of color are more like to hold minority students to higher expectations than white teachers, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Education, and serve as advocates and role models for those students.

“It is important for students to see that professionals come in all forms – whether it’s different ethnic backgrounds, difference disability or ability levels,” said Coker-Kolo. “It’s not only one ethnic group that has a monopoly in terms of being teachers or school leaders.”

Longtime classroom teacher John McLaughlin, president of Greater Clark's teachers union, said a diverse field of educators is also good for the workplace.

"I think it also helps those of us that are teaching to broaden our horizons and expand our abilities to relate to people of diverse backgrounds,” he said.

It's difficult to find critics of the idea that diversity among teachers is good for everyone. A representative from the Sacramento, Calif.-based American Civil Rights Institute, which opposes use of racial preferences in hiring, did not provide comment by press time, and critics of affirmative action may have reservations about schools' efforts. But Indiana University law professor Kevin Brown, who teaches courses in education and race, said districts are allowed to consider a candidate's race when hiring teachers, as long as they can show it was only one factor among many considered.

Ensuring that every student is taught by a highly qualified and caring teacher - regardless of race - should remain the top priority, the Shanker Institute acknowledges, but there is "ample evidence to support the contention that (race) should indeed be a factor" in teacher recruitment and retention efforts, "and an important one at that."

The challenge for small districts

For years, school officials in Clark and Floyd counties have been ramping up recruiting efforts - increasing the number of job fairs they attend with the goal of recruiting more teachers of color. But the numbers don't show much of an improvement.

In Greater Clark, which prides itself on having the most diverse student population south of Indianapolis, the percentage of white faculty members hasn't changed much in the past five years, despite an increase in students of color, state and district data show. In nearby New Albany-Floyd County Schools, where about one out of every five students are nonwhite, about 97 percent of teachers are white.

"It's a complex problem across the country," Jones said, one school districts across the country are trying to remedy, which means districts are essentially competing with one another for a shrinking pool of teachers of color.

"There's not a great deal of people of color who are pursuing education as a career across the country," Superintendent Andrew Melin said. "And when you do have people of color, they're very much in demand."

It's hard for small districts to compete with large urban districts, like Jefferson County Public Schools, he said. The roughly 101,000-student district just across the Ohio River from Southern Indiana fares slightly better in terms of teacher diversity - just over half of JCPS students are nonwhite and 16 percent of teachers are nonwhite, according to the Kentucky Department of Education. Smaller districts lack the resources to pay teachers as much as large districts or offer incentives or scholarships.

And recruiters find it increasingly difficult to find minorities pursuing careers in education. Jones, who is African-American, said she saw teaching as one of a few "very noble" professions an African-American could go into. But things have changed, she said, which is actually a good thing.

"There are so many more options for kids, nowadays," she said.

►BACK-TO-SCHOOL: When is the first day of school?

Looking forward

For districts in Southern Indiana, the key to increasing teacher diversity might actually be developing a way to take a "homegrown" approach in hopes that minority students with an interest in a career in education will return to Southern Indiana to teach.

"People seem to have a vested interest in their own communities, so growing your own is the way to go," Jones said.

At Jeff High, the most diverse high school in Clark and Floyd counties, Greater Clark has partnered with IU Southeast to offer a "pipeline" program in which "teacher cadets" at the high school can take an introductory, dual-credit education course and receive mentoring and encouragement from current teachers. The program, of course, is open to students of all ethnicities, but Coker-Kolo said it stands to increase diversity among teacher candidates.

A similar program exists at New Albany High. Jones said she keeps track of high school students with an interest in teaching and follows them through their teacher education.

This approach is by no means new. According to the Shanker Institute Report, at least one such program identifying high schoolers with an interest in teaching, the Minority Teacher Identification and Enrichment Program out of Eastern Illinois University, has existed since 1993. The program targets both high school and college students, according to the report, however, "the number of certified teachers it has helped to produce is comparatively modest."

Coker-Kolo, Jones and Melin also said a more focused and intentional approach to recruiting is necessary to increase teacher diversity.

"We need to pay attention to what is working and what's not working so we don't continuously do the same thing hoping for a different result," Coker-Kolo said.

Jones has made it a goal to establish a relationship with historically black universities and colleges, which she said are "probably the largest producer of minority teachers."

Coker-Kolo said because Southern Indiana as a whole isn't terribly diverse, district leaders would also have to be more aggressive in locating pockets of diversity. Perhaps this means going into black churches, she said, and pitching the benefits of a career in education.

Jones stressed that the district is interested in all kinds of diversity - Hispanic, Asian and Native American teachers as well as African-American. As districts continue to diversify teaching staff, Coker-Kolo challenges schools to look at all aspects of diversity, not just racial.

"The teacher workforce not only lacks diversity in terms of ethnicity," she said. "It also suffers in gender...we should look at diversity across the board."

Kirsten Clark can be reached at 502-582-4144.