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May 24, 2012

Dr. Ivory A. Toldson
Dr. Ivory A. Toldson

Shortage of Black Male Teachers Remains a Complicated Issue

There is a dearth of black male teachers in the nation's school systems for a variety of reasons but not because of a lack of interest in the profession, said Ivory A. Toldson, Ph.D., and an associate professor of the Counseling and Psychology Program at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Toldson told attendees at the second-annual Midwest Black Male Education Conference on Saturday, May 19, in Chicago, black men comprise less than 2 percent of the 4.8 million public school teachers, compared with 63.4 percent of teachers who are white women and 7.08 percent of teachers who are black women.  The Black Star Project, which is based in Chicago, sponsored the conference.

He explained that black men are 6 percent of the overall adult population and among those 25 years old and older only 16 percent earn bachelor's degrees.

“A person has to have a bachelor's degree to become a teacher, and it would take a significant increase in the percentage of the black men earning bachelor's degrees to increase the numbers of black men in the classroom,” Toldson said.

 He cited as examples that 30 percent of white males earn their bachelor's degree and 70 percent of Asians, primarily Chinese, Japanese and East Indian, earn their bachelor's degrees. Africans who study in the United States earn their bachelor's degrees at the same percentage as Asians.
 
Black men who become teachers don't stay long, according to Toldson.

“They don't stay in the classroom,” he said. They ascend to other positions, becoming principals, administrators and counselors. They move up faster than other groups.” (Toldson did not provide figures for comparison.)

There is a movement to get more black men into the classroom, but it is not clear whether the initiative addresses complicated issues Toldson outlined in his presentation.

In January, Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, launched a five-year national initiative to recruit, train, place and develop 80,000 African-American men as teachers by 2015.

“With more than 1 million teachers expected to retire in the coming years, we have a historic opportunity to transform public education in America by calling on a new generation to join those already in the classroom,” Duncan said. “Education is the great equalizer in America and the civil rights issue of our generation. If we care about promoting opportunity and reducing inequality, the classroom is the place to start.”

Nationwide, more than 35 percent of public school students are African American or Hispanic, but fewer than 15 percent of teachers are African-American or Latino, he added.

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