Published on NBCNews.com and the Hechinger Report December 20, 2021.
NBC News/Hechinger Report: Schools Need Teachers of Color. Here’s How to Retain Them.
PHOENIX, Ariz. — When Sandra Jenkins started teaching at Betty H. Fairfax High School in Phoenix 14 years ago, she had three Master’s degrees and four teaching certificates. But it wasn’t that wall of degrees that most strongly informed her passion for teaching: It was the support she received growing up as a Black child taught by Black educators in her Mississippi hometown, and at her alma mater, a historically Black college.
This story also appeared in NBC News
“I know the impact. I’m a beneficiary of what that’s like,” she said, seated at a small conference table in her business classroom, full of gleaming computers. “I just want to share that and make sure our kids know that we know it’s important to them.”
Jenkins said one of the reasons she has been teaching in the Phoenix Union High School District, one of 30 public school districts here, for so long is that she doesn’t feel alone. She feels connected to her colleagues in the district’s Black Alliance, a district-sponsored coalition of Black educators who support one another and advocate for Black students. And she believes her superintendent wants the same thing that Alliance members want: equitable student achievement.
Saniyah Santana, left, a junior at Cesar Chavez High School in Phoenix talks with Sandra Jenkins, a high school business teacher who leads tours of Historically Black Colleges and Universities for interested students. Credit: Brandon Sullivan for The Hechinger Report
“Ultimately we all have the same goal,” she said. “If being more diverse and having more African American teachers and administrators would help our kids and our community, that’s what I think our district [superintendent] would do. He’s listening to us.”
Unlike most school districts around the country, Phoenix Union has managed to recruit and retain a diverse teaching force, with 40 percent of district educators identifying as Hispanic, African American, Asian or Native American, according to district data. That doesn’t exactly represent the diversity of the student body here, which is 80 percent Hispanic and 8 percent African American, but it’s closer than in many other places.
By recruiting and then mentoring new teachers of color, listening to these teachers’ requests, supporting the development of culturally responsive curricula and promoting educators of color into administrative and district leadership positions, Phoenix Union is getting steadily closer to aligning its teacher and student populations.
“This work is possible. It’s happening.”
Cassandra Herring, CEO of Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity
“You have to first set that goal,” said Chad Gestson, Phoenix Union’s superintendent, who is white. “We are publicly and unapologetically clear that we want to have a teacher workforce that’s reflective of our community.”
This story also appeared in NBC News