|
When I (Tony Bouyer) was
attending Pickett Elementary School in the early 70s, TPS
had many black male teachers: Mr. Huard, Mr. Smith, Mr.
Warmly, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Stretchens, and, of course, the
teacher who had the most impact on my educational
aspirations, Mr. Ernie Jones. It was Mr. Jones who made me
feel that I was capable of academic success through
personally engaged pedagogy which enhanced my learning
experience. Those black male teachers mattered to me.
Black Teachers Matter in
Our Present
As an advocate for my community and its children, I (Twila
Page) have watched Toledo lose, by retirement or the Toledo
Plan, a contingent of black teachers, and I have seen the
harm and devastation this has caused Toledo's black
community physically and economically. Neighborhood schools
are disappearing and the economic base provided by the
teaching population has dwindled.
For me, Black Teachers Matter because without them there is
no diversity of thinking. A black teacher brings a whole
different perspective and outlook for how and why black
students are educated and disciplined. When I have supported
parents and students in various schooling situations, I have
seen a lack of responsibility, a lack of accountability and
a total disregard for education opportunities for black and
brown students.
The current crisis in Toledo
Currently Toledo Public Schools is in a state of emergency –
academically and fiscally. This state of emergency has
driven students out of the TPS system into mostly
substandard charter schools, parochial and private schools
which nullify and erase any cultural or social welfare for
black and brown students.
Suspension and expulsion rates have risen as the student
population as fallen. The graduation rate is at an all-time
low. What should take a student four years to graduate from
high school now takes five years if the student does not
drop out altogether. Scott High School, which has created
some of Toledo's most prolific graduates in the past, just
recently graduated a class of 90 seniors.
Most of the blame has fallen on the shoulders of parents,
when the most important person in a classroom is the person
standing at the head of the class. That person is usually a
white female teacher, who has no connection to the changing
demographics in the classroom. The school and the classroom
has always been a safe haven for students, regardless of the
social or economic status of the parent. That is no longer
the case.
Toledo has a failing school system because in order for a
child to learn, he or she has to be in the classroom.
Suspensions, expulsions, removals and arrests keep a student
out of the learning environment. The student who is
disciplined the most and the harshest is the black male,
followed by the black female, then the white male and lastly
the white female.
Both common sense and research indicate that since the
classroom teachers are 80 percent white females, that a
white female teacher is more comfortable with, identifies
more easily with and is more accepting of disruptive
behavior of someone who shares the same
biological, physiological and cultural make-up as she
does. This has got to change because there should not be one
way of thinking to the exclusion of all other discourse
surrounding the local environment and the global world.
Black Teachers Matter to white students just as much as they
matter to the black community. Diverse learning, diverse
thinking, diverse teaching methods and tools enlighten all
students and all students would benefit by having a more
diverse pool in which to learn.
What research shows on why Black Teachers Matter
In a report entitled
Breaking Barriers, Ivor A. Toldson (2011), a senior
research analyst with the Congressional Black Caucus
Foundation (CBCF), offers important clues to improving
academic success for a group with persistent low achievement
rates – young black males – by arranging the needs in
“domains.” Toldson also highlights the need to increase the
number of black teachers, specifically black male teachers.
The first domain Toldson
discusses is: Personal and Emotional Factors. This domain
examines the quality of life, measured by how happy the
student felt about his life, and was the strongest emotional
predictor of academic success. Toldson suggested policy
implications for this domain should emphasize mentoring
programs and other means to reduce isolation among
school-age African-American males, as these are likely to
improve academic progress. Black Male Teachers are one set
of possible mentors.
The second domain Toldson discusses is: Family Factors.
African- American families with fathers in the home reported
higher levelers of academic achievement. Findings indicated
that modeling is an important component to academic
development among black adolescent males. Parents who felt
comfortable talking to teachers had higher performing
children.
Toldson’s policy implications for this domain are: education
policy should increase attention to parent involvement, tax
breaks and other incentives can be given to parents who
devote a certain number of hours to parent-teacher
associations, and funding for fatherhood programs. lthough
this is not directly dependent on having more black
teachers, having more black teachers might lead more black
parents to feel welcome in the school.
The third domain Toldson discusses is: Social and
environmental factors. African-American males reared in
homes with more financial resources had better odds of
performing well in school. African-American males are the
highest unemployed group in America. Involvement in the
juvenile justice system impairs academic achievement among
black males.
Young black males are involved in the justice system at
twice the rates of young white males. Toldson’s policy
implications for this domain are: (1) Educational policies
should address the natural social disadvantages that
students might have from low-income homes by supplementing
schools in. impoverished areas with resources to build and
maintain school-based activities and (2) Policies should be
examined to reduce the burden of jail involvement among
black males. It is unclear to us that having more black
teachers can directly affect this domain, but worth thinking
about.
The fourth domain Toldson discusses is: School Factors.
Enjoying school and not being bored seem particularly
important for black males. Teachers’ profiles were
particularly effective in fostering academic growth among
black males. These students identified the following needs:
·
Teachers who were interested in their students as a person
·
Teachers who treated them fairly
·
Teachers who encouraged them to express their views, and
gave extra help when needed
·
Teachers who were effective also routinely let their
students know when they did a good job.
·
Environments they perceive as safe.
Toldson suggests the
following policy implication for this domain should address
inquiry-based science, student-centered learning, inclusive
multicultural education and critical pedagogy and
anti-oppressive education. While white teachers can learn
to do this, black teachers are more likely to have shared
experiences and the empathy that might make them more likely
to.
Overall, Toldson
identified a need to break over the unnatural barriers and
find higher ground when discussing the need to have black
teachers and particularly black male teachers in classrooms.
The classroom teacher is the critical linchpin in student
engagement.
The statistical findings
in Breaking Barriers are consistent with the research
literature that confirms a relationship between teacher
quality and diversity and student success. There is a
demographic mismatch between the public-school student
population and its teaching force. Nearly 20 percent of
public school students are African American. Yet slightly
less than eight percent percent of the nation’s teachers are
African American and less than two percent are
African-American males.
The demographic mismatch
between African-American students and the adults who teach
them has reached the point that many African-American
students can get through 13 years of public education and
never have an African-American teacher.
Toldson’s findings lend
support to a growing body of evidence of the impact of
teacher diversity on student success. His findings and the
research indicate that African-American students attending
schools with a large percentage of African-American teachers
are less likely to expelled or suspended. They are more
likely to be recommended for gifted education. They are less
likely to be placed in special education. They are more
likely to graduate high school.
Couch-Maddox’s(1999)
findings support Toldson’s research in suggesting the need
for African-American teachers because they are more likely
than their white peers to describe African-American male
students as “intellectually gifted” and report that
African-American male students are engaged in positive
behavior such as homework completion, attending school
regularly and assuming leadership roles in classroom
activities
Conclusion
Teachers do more than
teach: They stand as models of what it is like to be
educated. They also serve as surrogate parents, guides and
mentors to young people. If students are to believe that
they may be educated people, then they need to see diverse
examples.
Perhaps the singular thing that policymakers and citizens
can do to respond to Toldson’s charge is to expand the
minority teaching pipeline and fund efforts to increase the
number of African-American male teachers.
Less than two
percent of the nation’s teachers are African-American males.
When African-American male children are inundated
with negative images of African-American male adults, there
is a deleterious effect. Having African-American teachers
means having strong role models they are in contact with
daily. Black teachers matter and Teach Toledo is a program
that can help educate them.
The University
of Toledo and Toledo Public Schools, recognizing this need,
have created an opportunity to begin to address this lack of
black teachers in the public school system, Teach Toledo.
Now it is time for the Black community to step up to the
plate and examine these issues and support this effort.
Teach Toledo needs you to either become a teacher or
support a black student— of any age, 18-50+ - who wants to
become a teacher, because Black Teachers Matter.
Teach Toledo
provides many perks--financial and social and
pedagogical—for becoming a teacher. If you want to learn
more about Teach Toledo, contact one of the authors, or
visit the website at
http://www.utoledo.edu/education/teachtoledo/about.html,
or call 419-530-2495.
References
Couch-Maddox, S. (1999).
Teachers’ Perceptions of African American Male Students
in an Urban School System. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, Clark Atlanta University.
King, S. (1993). Limited
Presence of African Americana Teachers. Review of
Educational Research, 63(2), 115-149.
Toldson, I. (2011).
Breaking Barriers 2: Plotting the Path Away from Juvenile
Detention and toward Academic Success for School-age African
American Males. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Black
Caucus Foundation, Inc.
Anthony L. Bouyer is a candidate for the Ph.D. in Social
Foundations of Education in the Department of Educational
Foundations and Leadership at the University of Toledo,
specializing in African American male student success. He
is writing his dissertation on how African American young
men who are on probation succeeded in graduating from high
school and how they view life success. Bouyer has been a
probation officer for twenty years, as well as a parole
officer, police officer, and mental health professional. He
is a licensed drug and alcohol counselor with the State of
Ohio.
Twila Page is president of the African American Parent
Association and has been advocating for clear and
transparent disciplinary policies, and for the rights of
children and their parent-guardians in disciplinary
hearings, for over two decades. She is on the Steering
Committee of Community Conversations for School Success.
She has conducted action research and has written or
contributed to numerous reports submitted toward achieving
equity in education for all children.
|
