Dear Commons Community,

The achievement gap between students of different races has been well-documented, and the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) has an initiative to hire more black teachers in an effort to address the disparities.  Swen Ervin, a SFUSD human capital specialist tasked with recruiting more teachers of color to the district, told The Huffington Post that a black teacher recruitment event last week was a success, drawing about 45 attendees and giving them the chance to meet with district educators, participate in informational interviews and submit their resumes. The effort, Ervin says, revolves around a single finding: Students perform better when they can identify with their teachers.  The Huffington Post article goes on to comment:

“…research shows that students of color do better on standardized tests and have a stronger sense of self-efficacy when they have adults in their schools who look like them,” Ervin said. “And I think teachers, more than anyone, provide an image of success for students.”

Just as important, Ervin argues, is putting more black teachers in front of students who are not of color.

“For white students, having more teachers of color in their schools provides them with an image of what people of color are that can go a long way to dispelling a lot of stereotypes that they might pick up,” Ervin said.

“This is part of an overall strategy to provide equitable outcomes for all SFUSD students,” he noted.

According to data from the 2013-2014 school year, SFUSD’s black students are among the lowest performers on standardized tests and have one of the highest dropout rates. They make up 8 percent of SFUSD, but only 5.5 percent of the district’s teachers are black, local public media outlet KQED reported. It’s not a huge disparity, but Ervin says hiring more black teachers is a priority because they have the lowest retention rate in the district and often feel overwhelmed helping students of color work through issues the students are facing in their community.”

This is a good policy that other school districts should try to emulate.  I am also concerned that recent new teacher certification policies such as the edTPA (education Teacher Performance Assessment) implemented here in New York may have the exact opposite effect on the employment of minority teachers.

Tony