From Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, CT Mirror:
First the good news: hundreds more minorities have become teachers over the last 10 years following several changes that made it easier to become an educator in Connecticut.
Now the bad news.
The growth hasn’t kept pace with the influx of Hispanic and Latino students entering public schools and those students are now less likely to have a teacher who looks like them, a review of state data by CT Mirror has found.
Twenty-three school districts last school year didn’t have a single minority educator on staff, state data show. Several districts have had an all-white staff for years.
Districts with the highest rates of minority students have the highest percentages of minority educators working in their schools. Several charter school districts have the highest rates–by far. Among traditional school districts, Bloomfield, Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven have the highest rates, with about one-in-four educators being a minority.
“Many students of color in Connecticut will spend 13 years in school only learning from white teachers. These students will miss out on the academic and social benefits from learning from a teacher who shares their cultures, family contexts, and whom can serve as unique role models,” Camara Stokes Hudson, an associate policy fellow at the left-leaning think tank Connecticut Voices for Children, told the legislature’s education committee earlier this year. Stokes Hudson wrote two reports on the issue this year–see here and here–and has experienced firsthand what it is like to not have teachers look like her.
Full story here.
| DISTRICT | MINORITY STUDENTS (% OF DISTRICT) | MINORITY EDUCATORS (%) | DISPARITY % | MINORITY EDUCATORS FOR EVERY 100 MINORITY STUDENTS | MINORITY STUDENTS (#) | MINORITY EDUCATORS (#) |
|---|
| Bridgeport Achievement 1st | 99 | 60 | 39 | 4.5 | 1055 | 48 |
| Bridgeport | 87 | 26 | 61 | 2.4 | 18245 | 440 |
Lets not for get at the end of the day regardless of the hue of the person or architecture style of the building the lights are on and a teacher in the class, and everybody needs a decent paying job when the graduate form school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzYXid7tUk
#ESL Grammar. 🙂
i want my children to have the best teachers,PERIOD…….black,white,hispanic,purple for all I care. How about these parents having children being the roll models????????…OH i’m Puerto Rican
I didn’t have not 1 Puerto Rican teacher in my life…..Actually 99% were white if I recall……MY Hero and Mentor was my MOM
Coach T let me ask a few questions, we’re both of your parents in your household your entire time while you were in school and did they have jobs?
My mom and dad were divorced…My mom raised us…5…..welfare….then she took some classes to learn a bit of English and started working at a sweat shop……we all graduated from high school and overall doing well.
Thank you for sharing, who was your Puerto Rican male role model if there was none in the household?
well my dad would come by a few times a year and I had 3 older brothers and older cousins……I grew up knowing right from wrong. What is expected….mentally strong…Into sports …but that was a different time…..when was the last time you drove to one of the local school yard a seen a baseball game with just the local kids going on????…or a football game…….good luck remembering…..todays kids are all about games in the house , texting, and trying to get the quick buck……..Zero social skills
Coach T, if you can agree, it’s not working now, right. Can we also agree that what worked 20 – 30 years ago might need be critiqued and changed for this era student? Could this be another method to assist our youth in their pursuit of a quality education. Having said that;
Authors, Seth Gershenson and Constance A. Lindsay of American University, Cassandra M.D. Hart of U.C. Davis and Nicholas Papageorge at Johns Hopkins, looked at long-term records for more than 100,000 black elementary school students in North Carolina.
How important is it to have a role model?
A new working paper puts some numbers to that question.
Having just one black teacher in third, fourth or fifth grade reduced low-income black boys’ probability of dropping out of high school by 39 percent, the study found.
And by high school, African-American students, both boys and girls, who had one African-American teacher had much stronger expectations of going to college. Keep in mind, this effect was observed seven to ten years after the experience of having just one black teacher.
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/04/10/522909090/having-just-one-black-teacher-can-keep-black-kids-in-school
well if that’s what the studys show then so be it ……I just feel at times we are always trying to find an excuse…PARENTS don’t have children if you are not going to be responsible for them …It is suppose to start at home…….the school is there to help the children but not raise them
yes, it surely is a different age…..
Coach T, really, think about what you just wrote? Unfortunately, American society decided building bombs, tanks, wat machines is much more important than providing good education for the underclass of America. How a days schools are teachers, disciplinarian, babysitters, counselors, psychologist, the mother, the father and more he students life. We expect this out of the teachers but we don’t want to pay them for ALL of the work that they perform. Low paying jobs, single parents, drug, alcohol, depression, poor housing are just some of the social issues that school children have to deal with every day with no true role model in their lives, in school and out.
Day if it’s not working now, when was it ever working? On average a teacher is in a student’s life for a year or so. While it’s important to have a role model I don’t think a teacher should be the bar. Respected, trusted, mentor. Not saying how having a black teacher wouldn’t be beneficial for black students it would just like it would be for a Hispanic student have a Hispanic teacher teaching the class. Probably more so because of the language barrier the new immigrants are facing. To be honest I don’t think it’s really has anything to do with the teaching, per se but having a job opportunity to teach for minorities. That’s fair question and fair battle. At the end of the day what needs to be more of a concern is what and how effective the schools and teachers are doing regardless of the hue the teacher has. Teaching go far beyond the inside of a classroom. Take Ernie’s statement when he told me Jesus was black. That was somewhat misleading and inaccurate, but the question was why he said it? Believe it or not, it was not the first time I heard someone, a black person, tell me that Jesus was black. What was ironic about the whole situation was it didn’t bother me, and I believed him for the most part until I learned how to read, and not too long ago might I say, I thought Jesus was black based on what I was told or “learned” that day. I’ll tell you what I also remember, the other “minority” group that I was with was kind of upset about it. And I remembered saying why would you be mad because Jesus was black. So, when Ernie said that to me. Only two possible conclusions came to my mind. One, someone told him, and he believed it and never really read the actual passages, and like a black student having a black teacher it was somewhat beneficial. Or two He did read the actual passages and was race baiting Racism on my intellect and perferred hue “TEACHER” Racism plays in this country, and racism is not solely between white and black. There is a famous quote “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and Day when we were debating between a black person and a Porto Rican person, Moore and Christopher, running for mayor. You said, “black people will never vote for a Porto Rican and white people love black Moore.” If that statement is true in your afro centric mind, then what racism are we talking about in this country? Coach T is right, the home is going to have the greatest impact in success over a teacher who happens to be the same race as them in a classroom. I can honestly say my up bring is somewhat very close to Coach T’s and for the most part most of us have done well, except for one, but he’s a lazy, slacker, fuckin asshole, apparently 😊I always say racism is a privilege in America. It’s the path of least resistance. To point your finger and say that the reason. I say this not because the path of racism is not real in America and obstacle are purposely placed in front of you to keep you down, yet it is easier to stay down down and point the finger at another race instead of getting back up. China has over a 1 Billion more people, yes, a billion, and I’m sure they have every social economic class we have here in America. From Doctor’s lawyer, farmer, car washer, janitors, bums and homelessness, too yet what race can they point their finger at, for they are all Chinese. PS Ron we spend a lot of money per child on education and are in the top 5 countries on spending, do you think we are not the only country that spend on defense? 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Qc8jJ0TjSY
#ESL CLASS 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj5z3dhTpVw
The biggest influence on a child’s education comes from home. If there is no one there to be sure they are prepared for school, it will not make much difference what color the teacher is. If your primary care giver did not finish high school , don’t care if you do your homework or go for that matter, you will end up with the same result. Kids these days need to realize how important an education is, the days of dropping out to work in some factory or with a relative are long gone.
I don’t think college student cares that their teacher(s) are not a reflection of them. For one they paid for that seat. At that level they are more focused on getting their degree and hopefully find a job in their field. Kids need a role model in their lives regardless of gender who has completed their education even if they have not go to college. The fact they have a high school diploma speaks volumes. Kids need better examples to follow than what they see other kids are doing.
Take a poll, ask ten kids who dropped out of high school. Ask them if the teacher was the same race as them would it have changed their mind? If a student has a drug problem or mental illness or some other physical ailment, the race of the teacher will not matter. These issues need to be addressed in order for the student to complete their education.
That’s why Donald Day and myself stated what we did, there are many things that must be address at the same time. Different types of school systems must be used and not just age old public school system that has not really changed that much in hundred years. Society feels that education can be achieved without paying for it with tax dollars. We are no a farm culture or a manufacturing culture country anymore where a high school education was not needed. If children don’t start off each day with a healthy breakfast each day is a setback in their development to be a positive student who is able to learn when their basic needs are not there for them.
Perhaps it’s time to change the curriculum to fit the current times. After all how’s does knowing about the pilgrams help in today’s society? Perhaps there should be a limit how far back in history you want students to know about.
Only the technical schools are teaching trades. When I went to Central there were several trades you could take. There were more choices for students back then. Those days are gone but need to be revisited.
Not everyone is going to go to college for those who don’t they need a choice too. Have programs through the year where kids are exposed to different trades. Have apprentice programs where kids can go right to work after graduation. This should not be exclusive to the trade schools anymore.
Introduce students to the medical field such as an EMT or paramedic. The police and fire service too. There could be a large pool of city residents who one day might be cops or fire fighters,. the next EMT might become a doctor.
Teach students how to start their own businesses and how to save money for the future. Real life skills need to be taught so students can be better be prepared then their parents were. The education system should look at teaching more current and relevant events. Your basic math can show you how to balance your check book. Any advanced math should be the choice of the student and not a requirement. The same holds true for the other subjects. Reading and comprehension are a must along with social skills.
The schools should be by now doing a better job but with budgets as they are this is difficult if not impossible. A poor functioning school system is a detriment to the growth of any city.