Yasmine Wilson, a teacher int he Sachs-TFA teaching program.
Research shows that the presence of just one African American teacher in grades 3-5 increases low-income, African American boys’ interest in college by 29% and lowers the high school drop-out rate by 39%. Unfortunately, the number of African American teachers in the U.S. has been in decline since public schools were legally desegregated in 1954. In Colorado, for example, 150 of the 178 school districts have no Black teachers.
To address this teacher shortage, the Sachs Foundation has partnered with Teach For America (TFA) Colorado, part of the larger TFA organization, which has worked with 350 urban and rural communities across the nation since 1990. Sachs and TFA are working to build a community of Black educators in Colorado with TFA recruiting and training teachers and Sachs providing financial support for African American teachers working in Colorado.
One obstacle to recruiting Black students into the teaching profession is that they typically graduate with higher debt than their white peers due to lack of access to wealth. As a result, they tend to move away from teaching as a career even if they desire to be a teacher. Instead, they look to business. law, or engineering for careers. In order to address that challenge, the Sachs-TFA partnership augments teacher salaries. Another barrier is that African American students are discouraged by the idea of being the only Black teacher at their school. Because the Sachs-TFA partnership operates using a cohort model, African American teachers are immediately part of a community of support that also fosters networking.
Prateek Dutta, Executive Director of TFA, Colorado
According to the Executive Director of TFA Colorado Prateek Dutta, “We’ve been committed to building a pipeline of diverse teachers for Colorado from the beginning. Black teachers have to overcome so many barriers, and this partnership is the perfect step in the right direction because now we have the resources to attract and retain Black educators by addressing the two major challenges they face: lack of funding and isolation.”
Ben Ralston, president of the Sachs Foundation.
Nearly all new teachers are facing the prospect of low wages while the demands asked of them are increasing. In the words of Sachs Foundation President Ben Ralston: “Prospective educators, especially those from lower income backgrounds or first-generation households have to decide if the time and money spent toward their own education is worth it if they enter a lower paying profession.” He added, “The lack of Black teachers means that Black youth do not have the same number of role models in the profession that they can identify with. Nor do they have the same number of peers they can identify with and lean on. So, the downward spiral perpetuates itself.”
Not having African American teachers in the classrooms has a negative impact on all students as they are not given the opportunity to learn in the fullest sense. As Dutta explained, “Out of nearly 55,000 teachers in Colorado, less than 900 identify as Black. The majority of Colorado students will go through their K-12 education never having a Black teacher in front of the classroom. This hurts every one of our students who are robbed of the opportunity to learn from someone who might have a different life experience or perspective. It specifically hurts our Black students who do significantly better when taught by a Black teacher.”
Yasmine Wilson is a teacher in the Sachs-TFA program and hails from Colorado. She shared that she loves being a teacher because she is passionate about leading others to “discover the power and abilities that make them unique and useful in society.” As a preschool teacher, she believes that children in pre-school are at an important stage to become familiar with cultural diversity. She recalled her own education in Colorado, noting, “The only two Black teachers I had during K-12 were significant in my encouragement to become an educator. Black educators are impactful on a student’s world perspective and what they believe they can achieve, especially for Black students.”
Ashlyn Brown, a teacher in the Sachs-TFA teacher program.
Ashlyn Brown, another teacher in the Sachs-TFA program, works with children who come from lower-income homes. She shared, “Students are thrilled to learn in a classroom that is lovingly safe. As a Black woman, I have curated a space for active listening and conscious observing.” Brown believes that trust is built, in a classroom space, when students can talk about their surrounding environments in a comfortable way.” She added, “ There is no place for judgement in culturally diverse communities; all that is needed is a listening ear and an open heart.”
In order to educate our diverse nation, it is imperative that students have access to teachers who hail from diverse backgrounds and have similar cultural reference points. The Sachs-TFA program is aimed at ensuring that Colorado’s African American students have access to African American teachers.
