Getting Black Students Better Access to Non-Novice Teachers

Every year, thousands of individuals take on one of the most important jobs: TEACHING. While new teachers bring energy and passion into their classrooms and schools, they can find themselves incredibly challenged as they learn how to plan and implement lessons, collect, and use data to inform their instructional practices, build relationships with students and families, manage classroom behavior, and meet the varying academic, social, and emotional needs of their studentsTeachers can face a steep learning curve in their first few years of teaching, and a significant percentage of teacher growth occurs in that very first year. As they gain more experience, they can play a big part in increasing student motivation, increasing homework completion, and even reducing student absenteeism. Ultimately, teachers are the No.1 predictor of student success inside the classroom, estimated to have two to three times the effect of any other in-school factor. This is why having a teacher with more than just a year or two of teaching experience matters. And yet, students of color and students from low-income backgrounds are more likely to attend schools with greater numbers of inexperienced teachers than their peers. This disparity, the result of a variety of factors (i.e., centuries of systemic racism, housing segregation, and resource inequity), means that groups of students are missing out, by no fault of their own, on the critical learning opportunities necessary to prepare them for success in college and/or the workforce.

Right now, many students attend schools where they have a brand -new teacher year after year after year. This “revolving door” of teachers can deeply affect student learning. High turnover creates instability, making it difficult for schools to create coherent instruction and to implement new initiatives. To no surprise, inexperienced teachers and high teacher turnover disproportionately affect the achievement of students who are most underserved.

State and district leaders and local school board members can set clear goals and identify and address barriers to preparing, recruiting, and retaining strong and racially diverse teachers. And school leaders can take steps to create working conditions that ensure teachers, including teachers of color, remain in schools and hone their craft.