NHPS Aims For 1/3 Teachers Of Color

One would hope that Educational HR departments would always hire the best possible teaching candidates based on recommendations, resumes, and interviews.

Simply basic information:
In the 201718 school year, the racial and ethnic composition of public school teachers in the United States was as follows:

79% of public school teachers were White and non-Hispanic.
9% of teachers were Hispanic (of any race).
7% of teachers identified as Black and non-Hispanic.
2% of teachers were Asian and non-Hispanic.
2% identified as Two or more races and non-Hispanic.
Less than 1% were Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic or American Indian/Alaska Native, non-Hispanic.

https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020103/index.asp

It is important for students to see their trachers and principals as people they can emulate and perhaps aspire to become an educator themselves; it is also important that they see these educators as reflections of themselves, sharing similar cultures and backgraounds. I, myself, can attest to that fact, as my 6th grade teacher was an Italian-American just like me. After 6 years in elementary school I had a teacher to whom I could relate. She took a special interest in me and helped me realize that I had potential to succeed in school and to set my sights on college.
I'm not proposing that all of my teachers should have been of Italian ancestry, the first was a good start, and there were others as I progressed from one grade to the next. The fact that there were a few was evidence that I could succed just as they have.
I am in favor of NHPS hiring competent, highly qualified educators of diverse cultures and backgrounds in numbers great enough to inspire all students to embrace learning and respect for one another.

lots of talented interesting and educated people decide every day to go into teacher. maybe not as many anymore, but they exist. nhps is smart to want to make becoming a teacher simpler and make a better first impression to prospective teachers.

teachers understand they are in demand and can teach anywhere they want to. they will go where they think they're valued and respected.

free charlie rich!

thank you for the data @ElvinTapper. So this means that New Haven - with 11.2% of educators of color is at 160% the level as measured by available teachers. The only way to increase that % is o accept lower than average educators who meet skin color criteria. Very sad for the students and for the city. Don't we praise diversity and the ability to learn from other cultures?

To test the sanity here, ask yourself 1) Should NHPS turn away a great Chinese teacher due to quota levels? 2) In one of the many CT communities that are 98% white, should they remove black teachers if their current teacher ratio is 95% white?
3) Will these guideline be an excuse in 2030 when student continue to go through New Haven schools without getting a decent education?

NHPS - do your job.

What goes into the best possible candidate? How do you determine the best qualified? People, usually white people, act as if theres some precise calculation of what that is. While this is not the forum for me to go into detail, suffice it to say its much more complicated than that. And sometimes the most qualified are actually the least caring and qualified.

I appreciate the desire to have teachers to represent the students that they teach but in a time when schools are struggling filing positions in New Haven and all across the country setting this as a priority is concerning. Lets focus on instruction and making sure our children have the materials needed now to succeed. Teachers are leaving our district and sharing their concerns at BOE meetings about what is happening today in our schools what is going to attract teachers of any background to want to come? Maybe we pay for the education and then they will leave. Is there going to be a contract in these programs that requires them to stay when our tax dollars pay for their degree? Give us the cost of these programs. And as stated do not sell our kids education short by lowering the standards of our teachers based on their race. I recall other cities doing minority recruiting out of state and it did not go well when it came to passing the Praxis and getting CT teaching certificates. Connecticut has standards for its teachers for a reason to benefit our children. Being a minority myself I understand that my children want to have connections with others that they can relate to but a good education is most important to me as a parent and we seem to always focus of race, ethnicity and language at NHPS.

We need more teachers of color across the board. We also need to make NH Public Schools a destination for teachers to come work. They also may need to think about fixing the 37.5 years to make 80 percent pension, social security benefits that are slim to none. Do you know if you predecease your spouse you will not get their benefits. Make teaching a destination and not a career that many young folks today will re-think.

I was an education major dropout at SCSU. To become a teacher in CT you have to have a double major, with one degree in another subject besides education. At Southern, it was very difficult to get all your required credits in under 5 years. The sports team students had first priority for registering for classes, as well as the more credit you had, the sooner you were able to register for classes, and I spent two years not being able to take Spanish classes (which I knew would benefit me very much in the NHPS) due to no available openings for language labs due to this registration priority system. I talked with many fellow students who were in their 6th year or longer of trying to get all the credit courses they needed to graduate. That was in addition to most college students working a full time job or even more jobs, in order to pay their living expenses and college related costs. And many had families to take care of. And you have to pursue a masters degree after you start teaching, which with the lower pay that teachers earn, and the amount of money they pay out of their own pockets to buy classroom supplies in poorer schools, is a tremendous financial burden. Many lower income education majors I knew simply could not afford to work for the NHPS system, and were looking for wealthier suburban schools jobs so they wouldnt have to pay for classroom supplies, and to earn higher pay that would make it easier for them to afford to live while pursuing their masters degree, and pay back their student loans.
I had friends who became teachers in other states, and wanted to move back to CT, but the CT requirements for teachers would have required them to return to college for up to 2 years to match CT requirements, even with years of experience teaching in another state.
If you want to make it more likely minorities from lower and lower middle income families become teachers and will want to work in the NHPS system, youre going to have to change things.

I've taught or long-term subbed in 4 NHPS buildings since 2015 and I've taught all over the state at most types of schools: charter HS, public magnet HS, public comprehensive HS, public MS, and a magnet k-8. Teacher diversity is sorely needed for many reasons, only one of which is that far too many of white teachers simply do not have a working knowledge of race and culture and how they play out in behaviors, and the emotional turmoil of even having the issue brought up usually results of retaliation and fragility to get back to the status quo of white comfort, often at the expense of the students and teachers of color, especially the particularly marginalized ones (ELLs, Black students, Muslims). There is literally a knowledge gap, which is exacerbated, as Robin Diangelo writes about in her second book, Nice Racism, by the terror of talking about it, even in predominately-white environments, let alone in diverse environments. The deep dissonance of living in one of the most deeply racially-segregated states in this nation and also being "a good white person" comes out in very troubling adult behaviors in schools.
Our problems are not ONLY about race, but it's just dumb to claim that it's not a factor at all. Are there great white teachers? Of course! BUT, most of our teachers grew up in mostly-white towns, went to mostly-white schools, learned from mostly-white teachers a curriculum written by mostly-white folks highlighting mostly-white heroes and perspectives (and completely ignoring others), and they bring that glaring, gaping blind spot into buildings full of students who are not white. Most concerningly is the massive difference in standards for behavior and quality of work. The research is very very clear that TOCs have higher standards and push their students more. TOCs who speak up about too-low standards crippling students are isolated, harassed, and/or driven out by white fear.
The "most qualified = white" crowd won't acknowledge this.

@Westville man: I'd ask you to explain, but I'll take you at your perception of how you view life. Of course, I disagree with you to the max. Some of my best teachers were men and women of color. But their most important qualitiy wasn't their color, but that they were excellent motivators, they were smart and they deeply knew the content and how to teach it. Quality, excellence and a love of working with kids will always supercede anything else. Hopefully NHPS's hiring team will interview well. Take care wm.

It's school lottery season! I know giving preference is contentious, but a practically free way to help attract and retain teachers would be for the school district to give them points toward placing their own kids at their preferred school. I don't work for NHPS, but all my kids get sibling preference to attend their school because my oldest child got in there. Which is much appreciated, but I think employee preference should rank too--happy teachers benefit my kids! Teachers get to work earlier than most of us (and can't work remotely), so those who are parents can have a much tougher time than many of us arranging school transport (and you can't send kids to the bus by themselves until 2nd grade!) I wouldn't at all be surprised if this was a greater burden on parent teachers of color.

This isn't hypothetical. Just today I was told that a potential neighbor of mine--an experienced teacher from out of state--has bought a house here, turned down a private school job offer, and has been asked to start by several district schools. But they are waiting to commit to the move until they learn the results of the school lottery for their own kids.

In Connecticut there are enough educators of color to boost New Havens teaching ranks up to 70%, 80% or more!

Its all economics. We need to be willing to pay six figure hiring bonuses to any new hire whose skin is the right color to accomplish our goal. Then we need to somehow begin to dial out the white teachers. (Severance packages?)

New Haven needs to commit ourselves to this objective. The over-abundance of white teachers is the number one problem. How can we expect children of color to learn from people who dont look like them?

@William Kurtz: "Does anyone really believe that all of the attributes that go into being an excellent teacher, police officer, or firefighter can be measured on a multiple-choice test?"
Respectfully, William Kurtz, but when and where did I mention multiple-choice testing? You've read too deeply and too sideways into the meaning of what "qualified" means.

Until you address the working conditions in NHPS you will keep losing teachers. Most people would ask for hazard duty pay in those conditions. It's getting to the point that I will need to act as body guard for my wife when she goes in for meeting. Good teachers will gladly travel out of NH to get better pay and safer working conditions.

Wait, how is selecting someone based on ethnicity for a position not racial bias?

Oh, it is but it's fine as long as it fits what "we" think is good - said every extremist group ever.

And the left continues to eat itself leaving us rationale liberals in limbo.

Such a crock. Student need teachers they can relate to Boo freakin hoo. I had buns for teachers. I didnt relate to any of them, but I did work for them (or else I caught a beating from my parents). Students today need to be held accountable by not only their teachers, but also their parents. Students and their adult apologists need to stop with the excuses. State, district and school leaders need to stop catering to students and parents and start holding them accountable instead of blaming teachers, race, history, etc. Enough already.

"...implement anti-bias hiring practices with diverse interview panels and a simplified application process..." For the longest time, through the '70s, '80s, '90s, and into 2000+s/present the Superintendents, the HR Dept., many Directors, Supervisors, Principals, several members of the BOE, very often members of the school based SPMTs, and occasionally the Mayor were POC. All tasked with recruiting and hiring education staff. Now maybe they all did a terrible job of hiring good teachers, but you would think that most were already inherently "anti-biased." Just possibly, as the data shows, TOC were, and still are few and far between. Since the available pool of TOC is so small, and apparently shrinking, hiring good, competent, and dare I say "qualified" teachers from so small a professional population will be difficult. Please interview well and always hire the most qualified and best possible person.

What our children really need are Teachers of Excellence.

So do white teachers who have mixed children count as white teachers who cant connect with students of color? How about white teachers who grew up poor in new haven vs teachers of color who grew and went to private schools in the burbs? Who can relate more? Can that even be quantified and does it matter? I remember an administrator telling me they thought a white teacher was racist and that she was to tough on the students. Well that white teacher took her mixed child that the admin didnt know she had and left NHPS. The same admin told me that when a teacher of color was tough on her students it was because she held them to a high standard because she believes in them.
See the issue? Racism and prejudice clouds everyones judgement when taken into account.
I know so many white teachers with mixed kids who are wonderful teachers to students of color and when they see their students they see students who look like their children!
But your Data wont tell that story. There are great teachers in New Haven and they are a parade of every shade and they are all beautiful!