Though the proportion of minority students in district public schools is rising, the percentage of non-white teachers – currently at 20 percent – is stagnating or declining in some states. One charter school network, realizing the academic and social benefits that a teacher of color can have on students of color, is working to meet this need.
Research finds that black students witness academic benefits and are subject to fewer erroneous disciplinary referrals when taught by a teacher of their own race.
Despite these well-documented benefits, the teaching force in traditional public schools remains about 80 percent white even as black and Hispanic students comprise more than 50 percent. Districts report difficulty with hiring non-white candidates simply due to the supply of these candidates.
Charter schools, which already benefit from more flexible hiring policies and can hire more teachers with non-traditional teaching certifications, are innovating in another way to increase their ranks of non-white teachers.
Within the Uncommon Schools Charter network, about 50 percent of teachers are people of color. Uncommon started a Summer Teaching Fellows Program in 2010 that provides guided teaching apprenticeships to more than 500 college students during the summer before their senior year.
Working to address the racial disparities between teachers and students, nearly 80 percent of Uncommon’s fellows are college students of color.
The program is a pipeline for urban schools in general and the Uncommon network in particular. Of last year’s group of teaching fellows, more than half returned to Uncommon to teach as full-time teachers after graduating from college.
Uncommon schools serve 18,000 students through 52 schools in New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts.
