Extensive research surrounding Black teachers in the nation’s public schools reveals that 45,000 of such educators lost their jobs in the decade after the Brown v. Board of Education.
Valerie Hill-Jackson, a clinical professor of critical teacher education at Texas A&M University College of Education and Human Development who conducted the study, also discovered during her research that while African Americans currently comprise just 7 percent of the 3.2 million teachers in the United States, Black men account for 2 percent of all teachers.
“Whether we’re putting together a group in our community or we’re trying to staff a school, we need to make sure that these institutions reflect who we are as Americans,” Hill-Jackson said. “All of us say that we believe in democracy, in theory, but this is our opportunity to implement diversity ideas into practice.”
As a result of her research, Hill-Jackson has made several recommendations for increasing the number of Black teachers, including strengthening efforts to recruit and support students of color who have expressed interest in a teaching career.
Hill-Jackson also determined that public school districts must increase their efforts to make Black teachers feel welcome and offer them support to increase retention among their ranks.
