Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer

Digital Promise

Search

Menu

Close

Blog

AI and Emerging Tech

The Teacher of Color Shortage: Addressing a Pressing Problem

Kimberly Smith

Share

It’s not a secret: The teacher workforce does not reflect the demographics of our student population. Today, 54 percent of students are of-color while only 18 percent of teachers are of-color.

Historically, the teacher of color workforce was decimated with the passing of Brown v. Board of Education. As schools were segregated, Black and Brown teachers were displaced by the thousands as a result of racist policies that devastated communities of color and de-prioritized high-quality teaching and learning practices developed by teachers of color.

The effects of the landmark Supreme Court decision are underscored within the context of the COVID-19 crisis across the United States. Communities of color are bearing a crushing burden due to a lack of access to quality healthcare, food, and education. The need for teachers of color is even more paramount as they provide a relationship lifeline—caregivers, supporters, mentors—for our most disadvantaged students.

This illustration shows a colorful grid of nine squares containing a mix of brown and pale tan silhouettes, with more pale tan silhouettes, to depict the lack of diversity in the United States teacher workforce.
This literature review summarizes research on factors that contribute to the continuing decline in the teacher of color workforce and presents promising practices to improve teacher of color recruitment and retention.

Today, we are releasing a literature review that summarizes research on factors that contribute to the continuing decline in the teacher of color workforce. These factors include inadequate teacher education funding and existing teachers dissuaded by a lack of career opportunities outside of purely disciplinary roles.

At the heart of the issue is a history of biased institutional structures and systems that impede the path for aspiring teachers of color and stunt the careers of practicing teachers of color. The literature review looks across the landscape to understand the pipeline barriers, outline why teachers of color are being pushed out, and begin to identify promising practices to drive pipeline and retention.

At Digital Promise, we believe the most effective ideas for solving this challenge lie with the teachers who are impacted. We are building on the research by inviting teachers of color to design pipeline and retention solutions. Over the course of the calendar year, we are hosting Design Studios in partnership with seven school districts and four charter schools across the country:

We will emerge with a set of concepts developed by teachers, then convene groups of district leaders, higher education leaders, and policymakers to create plans for evolving the concepts to pilot implementations. We will ultimately publish the concepts in recognition of the ingenuity of teachers of color to stem the tide on retention and rebuild the pipeline.

“You will receive no medal,” he said. “Your name will not be emblazoned across the world’s great daily papers. Your stories of sacrifice and devotion will not be dramatized over the great radio chains.” But these teachers should be about the business of “preparing for the world of tomorrow.” The “impressionable minds” entrusted to their care needed inspiration to seek a world of freedom, justice, and equality of opportunity.

– Quote from I.E. Washington, President of the Georgia Teachers and Educators Association,
from The Lost Education of Horace Tate by Vanessa Siddle Walker

To learn more about how we are working with teachers of color to identify and co-design solutions to address teachers of color pipeline and retention, follow the hashtag #TOCDesignStudios.

Authors

Kimberly Smith

Chief Innovation Officer

Read bio

Kimberly A. Smith is the co-lead and chief innovation officer of the Digital Promise Center for Learner Pathway Innovations. She works in partnerships with school systems across the country in creating and sustaining Unbounded Pathways—accelerated, future-forward, responsive, co-created, credentialed pathways that enable learners to design their futures to achieve agency, well-being and economic mobility. She is a co-creator of the Digital Promise’s Collaborative Innovation model, a co-research and design methodology centered in students and communities working in partnership with school systems, industry and post-secondary to build innovative pathway solutions. Prior, she was executive director of the League of Innovative Schools, Digital Promise’s flagship network of forward-thinking school systems leaders.

Prior to Digital Promise, Ms. Smith was chief learning and innovation officer with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), leading the innovation strategy for the global leader in youth entrepreneurship education and vice president of education at PBS where she directed the digital education strategy, including launching a national public broadcasting PreK-12 digital curriculum service in partnership with school districts. She also served as vice president of product development for Discovery Education where she led the creation of a portfolio of broadband services for K-12 schools, including Discovery Streaming and curriculum digital products. Ms. Smith began her career in education innovation at the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Project where she was on a team pioneering delivering college courses for credit at a distance through online and broadcast.

Ms. Smith is an Aspen-Pahara Institute fellow focused on building sustainable, values-aligned education leadership. She is co-founder of the National Charter Collaborative, a non-profit focused on supporting single-site charter leaders of color in creating quality schools. She has served on the boards and advisories including the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), the Arts and Technology Academy Public Charter School, Catalyst Exchange, Learner Centered Collaborative, Education Reimagined, and Beach House in Washington, DC. She received her M.B.A from Johns Hopkins University and her bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Featured Resources

See All