Increasing the Number of High-Quality African American Teachers in Urban Schools – Statistical Data Included

Martin Haberman
Distinguished Professor
School of Education
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

The problem of recruiting, preparing, and retaining African American teachers in urban schools can be resolved. The primary place to seek minority candidates is in the expanding pool of mature adults with college degrees who already reside in the particular metropolitan area. This follow-up study tracked the graduates of a post baccalaureate urban teacher preparation program now in its tenth year. The procedures involved tracking the graduates, securing their evaluations of the program, and gathering the evaluations of the principals of the schools in which participants currently teach. In an urban school system in which almost half of the traditionally prepared beginners leave in three years or less and in which the African American teachers are fewer than 19 percent of the teaching force, this program had a 94 percent retention rate and 96 percent of its graduates rated as satisfactory or exemplary by the principals. The results support the contentions that (1) successful urban minority teachers can be locally recruited, selected, and prepared; (2) that minority college graduates who already reside in the particular metropolitan area are very likely to remain: and (3) that the on-the-job approach prepares teachers evaluated as successful by superiors.

The conventional wisdom in teacher education is that it is not possible to increase the number of African American teachers. The problem is that teacher educators are looking in the wrong place. Rather than assuming the recruitment of African American teachers must be done in universities, urban school districts are now looking in their own metropolitan areas for African Americans with college degrees. Using the opportunities offered by alternative certification, adults are trained on the job in the same urban districts where they reside and are very likely to remain. This study supports the contention that there are untapped pools of highly qualified African Americans who can and will effectively teach urban children.

The Problem
Table 1 illustrates the need for minority teachers in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) in order for the professional staff to become more representative of the student population. As the student population increased 13 percent over a nine-year period, the minority teacher population increased 3.5 percent. This difference in the proportion of minority students and teachers worsened considerably as the ethnic gap for African Americans and other minorities declined 5.4 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively. As a result, more minority students had fewer minority teachers by the end of this period.

Table 1 Change in Racial Composition of MPS (1988-1997)

1998 1997
Number Percent Number Percent
Enrollment
White 30,578 31.8 19,963 18.6
Black 52,908 54.9 65,587 61.3
Other 12,804 13.3 21,493 20.1
Total 96,290 107,043
Teachers
White 4,493 78.9 4,682 75.5
Black 1,023 18.0 1,176 19.0
Other 179 3.1 346 5.6
Total 5,695 6,204
Ethnic Gap(*)
White 47.1% 56.9%
Black -36.9% 42.3%
Other -10.2% -14.5%
Change
1988 – 1997
Number Percent of  Total
Enrollment
White -10,615 -13.2
Black 12,679 6.4
Other 8,689 6.8
Total 10,753
Teachers
White 189 -3.4
Black 153 1.0
Other 167 2.5
Total 509
Ethnic Gap(*)
White 9.2%
Black -5.4%
Other 4.3%
(*) difference in % of teachers and students by race.

This study seeks to answer four questions:

  1. Can the School of Education, UWM, recruit and prepare more minority teachers?
  2. Do these teachers remain in MPS?
  3. How well do they do?
  4. How do they evaluate their preparation?

Procedures
The focus of the study are graduates of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Teacher Education Program (MMTEP). This program is offered by the Milwaukee Public Schools, the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association, and the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). The purpose is to offer a high-quality preparation program to individuals who have completed a bachelor’s degree in an accredited institution, but who have not completed a certification program. There are approximately three times more applicants than the number who can be accepted into this program each year.

The program includes seven weeks of work in the summer beginning in mid June and finishing the end of July. The summer portion includes work in the MPS Summer School Program in the morning and UWM courses in the afternoon. The summer portion of the program is designed to observe participants interacting with children. From September through June the participants are teachers of record in their own classrooms for the entire school year. During this residency year, participants are paid at the rate of a beginning teacher plus all fringe benefits. Each four Residents have a mentor who makes regular visits and provides on-site coaching. Mentors are outstanding Milwaukee teachers released full time to coach beginning teachers. Upon successful completion of the program, residents are guaranteed a contract by the Milwaukee Public Schools and recommended for certification by the university for grades 1-8.

All graduates were located by using an informal network and the official records of the Department of Human Resources of the Milwaukee Schools. Those not found in the MPS, DHR computer are identified as “not teaching in MPS.” A telephone survey was conducted of all graduates to get their reactions to the program. A mailed questionnaire to their principals was used to gather principals’ assessments of the teaching.

Findings
Can the UWM School of Education recruit and prepare more minority teachers? Table 2 summarizes these data.

Table 2 MMTEP Participants Who Have Successfully Completed the Program and Remain in MPS- 1990-1999

Male Female Total
African American 24 (19%) 68 (52%) 68 (52%)
European American 3 (2%) 25 (20%) 28 (22%)
Hispanic 2 (1%) 6 (5%) 8 (6%)
Asian 1 (1%) 1 (1%)
TOTAL 30 (23%) 99 (77%) 129 (100%)

MMTEP is producing 78 percent minority teachers, 71 percent of whom are African American. In absolute numbers as well as in percentage, MMTEP produces more African American males than males of any other background.

Do MMTEP graduates remain in MPS? Table summarizes these data.

Table 3 Retention of MMTEP Completers in MPS – 1990-1999

Graduates still teaching in MPS 129 (94%)
Graduates teaching outside of MPS 8 (6%)
137 (100%)

Of the MMTEP participants who have completed the program, 94 percent are still teaching in MPS (two are assistant principals and one is a mentor for the Compton Program). This retention rate surpasses that of any teacher source utilized by MPS.

Table 4 summarizes the status of MMTEP non-completers
Table 4 MMTEP Non-completers 1990-1999

Deselected 12
Self-selected out of program 3
Dropped MMTEP and completed traditional program 1
Forced to leave country by Immigration Authorities 1
Died 1
Stopped out–planning to complete in 1999-2000 1
Total 20

How do graduates evaluate their preparation in the MMTEP? Following is a summary of these respondents’ statements:

Table 5

149 Positive Statements
22 Negative statements re: how program might be improved

9 First cycle has no mentors
1 Poor mentor
1 Needed assertiveness training
1 Too much paperwork
1 Felt discriminated against as white
2 Not enough reading methods
1 No preparation for record keeping
2 Poor summer program
1 Not enough art/music
1 Not enough focus on middle school
1 Needed more assessment tools
1 Needed more assessment tools
22

The question of how well the graduates did in their teaching was answered by a mailed questionnaire to their current principals. Table 6 summarizes these data.

Table 6 Principals’ Ratings of MMTEP Graduates

African
American
European
American
Hispanic Asian
Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Total
Exemplary 10 35 1 8 1 2 57
(8%) (27%) (1%) (7%) (1%) (1%) (45%)
Satisfactory 13 29 2 16 1 4 1 66
(10%) (22%) (1%) (1%) (1%) (3%) (1%) (51%)
Needs
Improvement 1 1 2
(1%) (1%) (1%)
No Response 1 3 4
(1%) (2%) (3%)
Total 24 68 3 25 2 6 1 129
(19%) (52%) (2%) (20%) (2%) (4%) (1%) (100%)

Summary
The MMTEP prepares 78 percent minority teachers. Ninety-four percent of all who complete the program stay in the Milwaukee Public Schools over a ten-year period of study. The school principals rate 51 percent as satisfactory and 45 percent as exemplary. The participants are overwhelmingly positive about their preparation.

Discussion
There are large numbers of African Americans and other minorities with college degrees residing in metropolitan areas nationwide who can and should become urban teachers. The number of minorities available for urban teaching is not a function of the number of Black undergraduates but of urban universities’ willingness to prepare minority adults on-the-job.

Dr. Martin Haberman, Distinguished Professor, School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Martin Haberman, Distinguished Professor, 397 Enderis Hall, University of Wisconsin -Milwaukee, PO Box 413, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201

COPYRIGHT 1999 George Uhlig Publisher
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group