Getting Latino & Black Students Better Access to Non-novice Teachers

The Education Trust is excited to release these new companion reports exposing the inequities in access to non-novice teachers for Black and Latino students:

• Getting Black Students Better Access to Non-Novice Teachers
• Getting Latino Students Better Access to Non-Novice Teachers

Every year, thousands of individuals take on one of the most important jobs: TEACHING. While new teachers bring energy and passion into their classrooms and schools, they can find themselves incredibly challenged as they learn how to plan and implement lessons, collect, and use data to inform their instructional practices, build relationships with students and families, manage classroom behavior, and meet the varying academic, social, and emotional needs of their students.

Teachers can face a steep learning curve in their first few years of teaching, and a significant percentage of teacher growth occurs in that very first year. As they gain more experience, they can play a big part in increasing student motivation, increasing homework completion, and even reducing student absenteeism. Ultimately, teachers are the No.1 predictor of student success inside the classroom, estimated to have two to three times the effect of any other in-school factor.

This is why having a teacher with more than just a year or two of teaching experience matters. And yet, students of color and students from low-income backgrounds are more likely to attend schools with greater numbers of inexperienced teachers than their peers. This disparity, the result of a variety of factors (i.e., centuries of systemic racism, housing segregation, and resource inequity), means that groups of students are missing out, by no fault of their own, on the critical learning opportunities necessary to prepare them for success in college and/or the workforce.

Right now, many students attend schools where they have a brand -new teacher year after year after year. This “revolving door” of teachers can deeply affect student learning. High turnover creates instability, making it difficult for schools to create coherent instruction and to implement new initiatives. To no surprise, inexperienced teachers and high teacher turnover disproportionately affect the achievement of students who are most underserved.

These new reports reveal whether these inequities for Black and Latino students are due to varying levels of teacher experience between the districts in a particular state or within a particular district. In either case, these disparities are not inevitable.

State and district leaders and local school board members can set clear goals and identify and address barriers to preparing, recruiting, and retaining strong and racially diverse teachers. And school leaders can take steps to create working conditions that ensure teachers, including teachers of color, remain in schools and hone their craft.

We’ve put together a roadmap for success to aid state and district leaders make the necessary changes to address long-standing gaps in access to strong teachers.

1. Establish Data Systems and Examine Data for Disparities.
2. Determine Whether Disparities are Due to Within- or Between-District Differences. Engage With Teachers to Determine the Root Causes of Disparities and Examine District Policies.
3. Set Clear Goals and Interim Measures of Progress.
4. Implement Policy Solutions Based on Data.
5. Commit to Ongoing Data Transparency, Monitoring, and Holding Leaders Accountable.

Check out the full reports (Black Student Access) (Latino Student Access) to see how your state measures up and then share it with your network with this toolkit of ready-made social media posts and graphics (Black Student Access) (Latino Student Access).