"Surface Spin": Only Mention the good, NEVER the bad

December 29, 2013

Can Minnesota's achievement gap be closed by diversifying teachers?

Mao Vang , center, instructs her students in how to build candy houses during her Level 1 Reading Class at LEAP High School in St. Paul, on Friday, December 20, 2013. From left: Kevin Pineda Rodriguez, Walter Caceres Jimenez, Vang, Nurto Hirabe and Moo E. Paw. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Mao Vang knows good teaching is about connecting with her students.

The California-born St. Paul resident says her Hmong heritage makes it easier for some of her students at LEAP High School to identify with her.

"For me, it doesn't take as long to build a relationship," Vang said. "We understand each other."

Vang's students are "newcomers" whose families recently immigrated to the U.S., and they are learning a new language and culture.

"A lot of them, if they don't understand something, they feel more comfortable letting me know," Vang said. "I can become a voice for them."

As the Twin Cities student population diversifies, teachers such as Vang are still rare.

Data from the Minnesota Department of Education show that from 2001 to 2012, the number of minority students in metro-area schools grew by nearly 55,000. They now make up 36 percent of public school enrollment.

A dozen years ago, students of color made up 26 percent of metro students, and much of the new diversity comes in the cities' inner suburbs.

During those dozen years, metro districts added about 300 minority teachers, barely moving the percentage of people of color leading classrooms in the Twin Cities. In the metro area, 94 percent of teachers are white.

Charter schools do better diversifying their teaching staffs, but the schools have seen a decline in minority teachers and students as the number of charters has increased.

In 2012, 11 percent of teachers in metro charter schools were minorities and 57 percent of the students were races other than white. That's a decline from 2001, when 20 percent of teachers and 65 percent of students in metro charter schools were minorities.

Minnesota is not alone in the struggle to bring diversity to the teaching ranks.

A federal survey from 2008, the latest data available, found that nationwide, just 17 percent of educators were minorities while 40 percent of the country's students were children of color.

Every state in the nation has a "diversity gap" between the percentage of minority students and the teachers they see every day.

Another national study, by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of Pennsylvania, found retention of minority teachers played a larger role than recruitment in the diversity gap. Schools where teachers had more autonomy and staff members were more involved in administrative decisions were more likely to retain minority teachers.

SPECIFIC ACTION

Many educators believe the disparity between the number of minority students and teachers who educate them is a direct contributor to the nation's achievement gap. White students regularly academically outperform minority students on standardized tests and other measures of achievement.

Education leaders here and across the nation believe bringing a more diverse group of teachers into the classroom could help close that gap.

State Sen. Patricia Torres Ray, DFL-Minneapolis, says the Legislature needs to do more to diversify Minnesota's teachers. When the legislative session begins in February, she plans to hold hearings on teacher training and recruitment.

"This is going to be my No. 1 priority," said Torres Ray, who chairs the Senate Education Committee. "To me, the conversation about the achievement gap has become a rhetorical conversation. We get together and shame ourselves, but we haven't taken specific actions. This is a specific action."

Torres Ray noted that Minnesota's lack of teacher diversity isn't just a problem for metro districts. In outstate Minnesota, there are districts with large minority populations, particularly in American Indian communities, that have almost no teachers of color.

To improve, lawmakers need a better handle on how state funding is used to recruit and train minority teachers, Torres Ray said. There are programs in various school districts and at universities, but not a concerted statewide effort.

"What we do now is fragmented," Torres Ray said. "I don't think it allows us to see and understand the impact of the investments we provide."

State Rep. Sondra Erickson, R-Princeton, the leading Republican on the House Education Policy Committee, agrees that Minnesota needs more diversity in its teaching workforce. Erickson doesn't believe state lawmakers are the ones who should be out recruiting them.

Past programs initiated by the Legislature have been a modest success at best, she said.

"We don't get many enrollees," Erickson said. "I'm not sure where we have gone wrong in the United States and in Minnesota. Honestly, I don't think teaching looks attractive to many of our minority students. I think they are choosing other professions."

Erickson says the effort to recruit more minority teachers "needs a cheerleader," but that person should come from inside the profession's leadership.

DECLINING NUMBERS

The overall number of students studying education at Minnesota's public colleges and universities has declined over the past decade. During that time, the number of minority students receiving bachelor's degrees in education also fell.

In 2011, Minnesota institutions of higher education awarded 2,619 bachelor's degrees in education, state data show. That's down from 2,849 four-year education degrees in 2001.

While the total number of students receiving education bachelor's degrees fell by 9 percent, the number of those degrees awarded to minority students dropped 33 percent, with 245 receiving diplomas in 2011.

The state data on bachelor's degrees does not include graduates who enter the teaching force through alternative pathways.

Deborah Dillon, University of Minnesota associate dean for professional, graduate and international programs, says her school is increasing recruiting, scholarships and alternative teacher training programs to draw more diversity to its teaching students.

"We are actively working to improve our numbers," Dillon said, noting that an ongoing effort to redesign how the university trains teachers includes close partnerships with several school districts. Those partnerships, such as one at Minneapolis' Roosevelt High School, allow younger students to see teacher training firsthand.

Stacy Ernst, who coordinates the program, says it provides college graduates who want to teach with a yearlong experience of working in area schools. When students see teachers in training who are "doing exciting work," they are more likely to become interested in the profession.

'A PROFESSION PEOPLE WANT TO GET INTO'

Education Minnesota, the state teachers union, is hosting a series of "community conversations" across the state talking to parents and educators about how to draw top-notch people into the classroom. Those discussions also focus on diversifying the workforce.

Denise Specht, union president, says if educators are going to recruit the best of the next generation into teaching, then teaching needs to look like a desirable career. Too often, teachers face insufficient professional support, unwieldy accountability systems and unnecessary hurdles to licensure, Specht said.

"One thing we need to address is making sure this is a profession people want to get into," Specht said. "Our own students don't view it as a profession they want to get into."

In the coming legislative session, lawmakers are expected to debate whether to modify or throw out a skills test educators now have to pass to receive a license. A committee examining the issues is expected to make a recommendation in January.

Some believe the current test has a cultural bias and keeps some people of color who are interested in teaching and otherwise qualified from entering the classroom.

Lawmakers also are likely to discuss how districts should fund and implement a new teacher-evaluation system that includes measures of student performance.

TRAINING AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Advocates for reforming how teachers are trained and held accountable say higher standards are the answer to improving teacher diversity. Better teachers will result in improved achievement of all students, who will go on to college, and some will choose teaching as a career.

"I think there is both anecdotal evidence and quantitative research that shows having a teacher that shares the background of a student can help improve achievement," said Daniel Sellers, executive director of reform advocate MinnCAN. "You have to have a high-quality teacher, too. One of the worst things we can do is put unprepared teachers in the classroom."

Sellers says young people won't see teaching as a viable career if the standards of the profession are constantly changed or lowered. Changing how teachers are compensated and reforming systems that use seniority to determine staffing cuts are other key ways to draw more young people to teaching.

"We have to start thinking of talented individuals of color as talented individuals," Sellers said. "They want to advance and grow. They want to be professionally evaluated. How do we make teaching attractive to talented people?"

Arthur McKee, managing director of teacher preparation studies for the National Council on Teacher Quality, agrees that raising the bar for teachers is in the long-term interest of the profession.

McKee says better teacher training will result in better instruction and increase the number of minority students who go to college. If those students see teaching as a challenging and viable career, more people of color will study education.

"We need to change the pay, but we also need to change the status. One way to change the status is by raising the bar," McKee said. "That will change who is attracted to teaching. We are not going to have a significantly more diverse teaching force until we have more minority people going to college."

PATH TO THE CLASSROOM

LEAP High School's Vang isn't surprised that education leaders struggle to recruit more teachers of color. The classroom appealed to Vang at a young age, but as a child of immigrants, it didn't always seem accessible.

"In my community, a lot of parents want their children to become doctors and dentists," Vang said. These are careers children are taught to aspire to and often have chances to job-shadow to learn more about.

Students see teachers every day, but few students understand what the job entails or the satisfaction that comes from it, Vang said. "If they did, it would be (a career) they wouldn't think twice about," she said.

Vang is pleased with her career choice and her job at LEAP. Her students have even helped her stay connected with her Hmong culture.

"LEAP has been very good at supporting me," Vang said. "I tell my kids I'll stay until my hair is gray."

That kind of job satisfaction makes it easier for LEAP's principal, Rose Santos, to continue to bring diversity to her school's teaching staff.

"I try to go to my teachers of color and have them recruit for me," Santos said.

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