{"id":78611,"date":"2020-01-13T10:56:15","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T16:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=78611"},"modified":"2024-09-27T10:01:35","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T15:01:35","slug":"uwm-researcher-studies-importance-of-diversity-in-recruiting-retaining-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-researcher-studies-importance-of-diversity-in-recruiting-retaining-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"51ÁÔÆæ researcher studies importance of diversity in recruiting, retaining teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"

African American and Latinx K-12 teachers in Wisconsin are more likely to leave their schools than their white counterparts, according to a study by 51ÁÔÆæ education researchers.<\/p>\n

The report also found that African American teachers feel lower levels of trust with fellow teachers than white or Latinx teachers, which likely factors into the higher likelihood of leaving for African American educators.<\/p>\n

The results can provide direction to Wisconsin schools to create environments that help recruit and retain teachers of color. Doing so has the potential to narrow Wisconsin\u2019s wide achievement gaps, said Curtis Jones<\/a>, director of the Office of Socially Responsible Evaluation in Education<\/a>. He noted previous research showing that teachers of color have higher academic expectations of students of color than white teachers do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least in part due to those expectations, having at least one experience of having a teacher of color throughout elementary school of the same racial background makes you much more \u00a0likely to graduate high school on time and go to college,\u201d Jones said. \u201cSo it has a lasting impact on these students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intersection of race and trust<\/h3>\n

The report<\/a>, titled \u201cRace, Relational Trust, and Teacher Retention in Wisconsin Schools,\u201d looks at the intersection of race and trust within schools for possible explanations into the lack of diversity in the public teaching ranks and the challenge of retaining diverse educators.<\/p>\n

While 9% of all Wisconsin students are African American, only 2% of Wisconsin teachers and 5% of principals are African American, the study found. While 12.3% of Wisconsin students are Latinx, only 1.9% of teachers and 1.4% of principals are Latinx.<\/p>\n

The statewide numbers are skewed because 71% of black teachers and 39% of Latinx teachers work in the diverse Milwaukee public school district. Outside of MPS, only 0.6% of teachers are African American and 1.3% are Latinx.<\/p>\n

Overall, 86% of Wisconsin schools do not have African American teachers, and 83% do not have Latinx teachers. Only 10 schools across the state do not have any students of color.<\/p>\n

Fewer stay two years<\/h3>\n

The study found that, across all teachers, only 58% of African American teachers stayed in their school more than two years, compared with 68.9% of Latinx teachers and 76.7% of white teachers. Also, 82.5% of African American teachers remained in public education at all after two years, compared with 87.1% of Latinx educators and 90.7% of white educators.<\/p>\n

Among teachers new to public education in 2013-14, barely half of African American educators (51.9%) remained in public schools after two years, compared with 63% of Latinx and 81.3% of whites. Retention rates increased for African American and Latinx teachers over the next four years, suggesting that some did return to public schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you keep them for two years, you\u2019re pretty much keeping them for the long term. We know that a lot of this is about trust, but what are the things that happened in that school that resulted in less trust,\u201d Jones said in echoing the need for more study to answer those questions.<\/p>\n

Among other key findings:<\/p>\n