Dive Brief:
- Leslie Fenwick, dean of education at Howard University, is calling for changes that would bring more people of color into the teaching force.
- Her new book, the yet-to-be-released "Jim Crow's Pink Slip: Public Policy and the Near Decimation of Black Educational Leadership After Brown," traces the history of how black teachers were excluded from the workforce following Brown v. Board of Education.
- Just 7% of teachers and 11% of principals are black, although minority teachers and principals tend to hold more credentials.
Dive Insight:
Fenwick points to historically black colleges and universities, as well as schools that serve large Hispanic and first generation college-attending populations, as one of the major avenues for people of color to enter teaching. Over half of the country's African-American teachers graduated from HBCUs, and 90% of Hispanic teachers graduated from Hispanic-serving institutions.
"Without those institutions, the pipeline for those teachers would disappear," Fenwick told District Administration. But she says the federal government has not provided those institutions with the same support it gives to programs like Teach for America.
Howard University launched a program in 2007 called Ready to Teach that aims to recruit underrepresented groups like African-American men into the teaching profession. Fenwick called the program "wildly successful," but says federal support for the program faltered under Arne Duncan.