● National Student Journalist of the Year Runner-Up ●
My Portfolio: Editing
It all starts with your ABCs.
When reporting, I always have three goals in mind: increase Accuracy, ensure Brevity and maximize Clarity. When editing, I only focus on these three areas — I have learned that the best editors do not always have the heaviest hands. My purpose is not to step on reporters' toes; rather, it is to help them grow to become the best journalists they can be.
When I was The Spoke's Copy Editor, I reviewed every article with a fine-toothed comb, fixing AP Style, grammar and structural issues. Over time, I subconsciously started memorizing every AP style rule — a great Jeopardy skill.
When I was The Spoke's News Editor, I worked one-on-one with the reporters to ensure every article in the News Section was true, concise and clear. (Though I could never stop myself from fixing AP Style and grammar errors too. Once a copy editor, always a copy editor.)
Now, as Editor-in-Chief, I invite the current copy and section editors to take over those responsibilities and expand their skill sets. Before we go to print, I do the final read-through of the paper for any last-minute errors. Once I determine that it's set, we send the PDF to our printer.
During "Production weeks," The Spoke's Editorial Board stays after school for hours creating pages, fine-tuning articles, designing spreads and (most importantly) editing everything upwards of 10 times. To the right, you can see what the typical page I edit looks like. Even though multiple Section Editors, both Copy Editors, both Managing Editors, the Photography Editor and two faculty advisers look over the page before I do, there are always grammatical, technical and design errors to catch.
Production nights are stressful, exciting, nerve-wracking and hilarious. They are when I get to collaborate with my fellow editors, pick apart articles, enjoy the company of some of my favorite people at school and hone my journalistic and editing skills.
The editors who came before me taught me everything I know, and I hope to pass on that knowledge to those who will follow me.
The Writing Diagnostic
With a staff of more than 60 people, one of my biggest struggles at the beginning was teaching the basics of journalism to a staff with widely varying skill levels. I was teaching in a one-room schoolhouse filled with brand-new freshman and fourth-year reporters. The editorial board spent a month on the basics, and by early October, assigned a writing diagnostic to assess where the staff was. We made up a story and provided the reporters with background information and quotes. The assignment was to write a 400-word article.
I spent a week hand-editing 60 articles — marking them up like crazy because, as I always say, edits = love. Over the course of the next couple of weeks, the editorial board reviewed with the reporters how to avoid subconscious bias, write a headline and condense their copy.
The Editing Cycle
As a staff reporter my freshman year, I often felt confused or unsure of who was editing my article, when and where I had to submit a round of revisions, and how I knew my article was finalized. The year after, as The Spoke's Copy Editor, I worked to fix this. I started designing the ideal issue and editing cycle to reduce the number of rounds of edits each story went through and streamline the writing process without sacrificing quality. Coming off of the COVID-19 pandemic, I felt that we were too reliant on technology — sometimes, putting pen to paper leads to the best revisions. I finessed the editing cycle to bring the paper back to the "old days" of paper-and-pencil edits while also moving the paper forward.
The Spoke produces seven print issues a year. This is how I perfected the copy cycle and confined it to four distinct, repeatable weeks.
As Editor-in-Chief, I created a running Google Document that laid out the print cycle calendar for the entire year. This calendar ensures that both reporters and editors know what is happening, when their articles are due and when the paper goes to bed. Not only does this calendar deflect the millions of questions that would have otherwise come to me about due dates, but it also helps to hold the staff accountable throughout the year.
Week #0: Story Ideas
The Spoke is constantly in motion. There is never any "dead time": the news waits for no man. Right after we send one issue to the printer, we get started on the next issue. The Friday before we release a print issue, reporters submit their story ideas for the next issue by homeroom (8:37 a.m.). By the end of school (2:50 p.m.), the section editors go through the ideas submitted and assign their reporters a story. They get started right away.
The requirements I put in place for story ideas are pretty simple: all reporters must do is produce two unique, usable, timely ideas with a brief background, angle and list of potential sources. Sometimes section editors can't assign everyone to write one of the stories that they pitched, so our communal Trello workspace promotes collaboration and the sharing of ideas.
The Spoke's Story Ideas Trello board on which reporters submit two ideas per issue. The section editors then go through the submissions and assign each reporter one story to cover for the print issue. Reporters will work on these stories as well as attend and cover sports games, school board meetings and any events their club beats host.
Week #1: Budget
Section editors send out story assignments on Friday at the end of school. By homeroom the next Tuesday (8:37 a.m.), reporters must turn in a budget, an overview of the story they will be writing, with an angle, background information, sources and photo/design ideas. By the start of 8th period, when The Spoke meets (2:08 p.m.), the section editors have gone through the budgets they received that morning. As I learned as the News Editor, editing roughly 15 of anything during the school day in which I am also taking classes requires a lot of work and time management skills.
I made it a point this year to dedicate this day in class for section editors and their reporters to meet one-on-one to talk about their stories. Even before they receive feedback from their section editors, staff members have already started reporting.
A budget one of my reporters turned in last year when I was the News Editor. I left some edits, things to look out for and any other notes I had for Faith, the reporter. Faith went on to become the Copy Editor of The Spoke this year.
Week #2: Copy Due
After reporters meet with their section editors during the "budget day," they have about a week and a half to finish up their stories. By homeroom the next Thursday, their articles are due. This time, section editors get the night to review the content they received. Section editors give reporters their edited copy by 8th period the next day (Friday).
Week #3: Revisions Due
After making the edits over the weekend, by homeroom the next Tuesday, reporters submit their revisions. Section editors follow the same timeline — they have until 8th period the next day to return the marked-up articles to their reporters.
When I finally came back to school in-person post-pandemic as a sophomore and Copy Editor, I was thrilled to begin editing physical pages during Production with Kate, my co-editor at the time.
Week #4: Production Week
With completed copies, reporters tap out of the issue cycle by week four. Their task now is to start coming up with their story ideas for the next issue so we can repeat the process all over again.
For editors, however, this week marks the crux of the issue. On Monday, the Editorial Board stays after school until 7 p.m., gorging on greasy pizza, family-sized packs of Oreos and boba tea from one of the paper's advertisers. Between bites of food, Section Editors lay out their pages, Copy Editors edit, the Photography Editor lays out photos and approves captions, the Design editor adds her pizzazz to each page, and I make sure everything is running smoothly. That night, we all go home tired but excited for the issue. I stay up late this night, editing the pages online and updating The Spoke's printer about the issue's status.
On Tuesday, everyone continues their production jobs and responsibilities — although today, everyone gets to go home at a normal time. On Wednesday, we stay late again. This time, we're putting the final touches on the paper, catching last-minute AP style and layout errors. We come back Thursday morning and send the final PDF to the printer. The next Monday, 1,500 copies of the paper arrive at Conestoga.
An Article I've Edited
Disproportionate diversity
Impacts of teacher racial diversity on Pennsylvania and TESD schools
By Jui Bhatia, Aren Framil and Soumya Sathyanarayana
Published in The Spoke's January 2023 Issue
The text below underwent six distinct rounds of edits. What started as a 2,400-word jumble of ideas and quotes eventually morphed into an in-depth look at racial disparities in K-12 education, published alongside original graphs.
The article received praise from a POLITICO state policy and politics reporter and won two first-place awards in the 2024 Keystone Media competitions under the Public Service/Enterprise Package and Excellence in Reporting on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion categories.
Racial reflection: Sophomore Senae Harris looks into a mirror and sees English teacher Christopher Brown reflected back at her. A Research for Action study in 2022 showed that teachers of color can make students of color feel represented in their education.
Background: While I was serving as The Spoke's News Editor, this team of reporters pitched me a story about the diversity and racial makeup of our high school. After some back-and-forth and revisions to the original story idea to focus more on the racial diversity of our school district's staff and its implications, I gave the reporters the green light to start researching. Quickly, we realized that this story was going to be larger than The Spoke's typical 500-word piece; it deserved long-form coverage. As you can see, the original copy the reporters submitted was a good start but was confusing to follow and, frankly, too long. After weeks of editing, I helped the reporters restructure the piece and cut around 800 words — without losing any of the vital information. My overarching edits were as follows:
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Rethink the lede: You don't want to bore the reader within the first paragraph. Try to bring up some personal testimony to make the lede more interesting before diving right into the numbers-dense statistics. This will also help create a more focused angle and clearer picture of the impacts of low diversity among teachers for the reader.
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Reorganize: There's a lot of important information in this article, but it's all over the place. It seems like there are three primary areas on which the article focuses: the effects of teacher diversity rates on students, the low numbers of racially diverse teachers in the state in the first place and the retention of these racially diverse teachers. Find this information within the original copy and break it up. Make sure connecting information and quotes are next to each other so the reader can more easily follow the story.
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Once you've made the point, move on: This is a long article, even for a long-form piece. That's not a bad thing, but make sure it's not because you're repeating information. Once you pair connecting information and restructure the article, take out any quotes or information that restate what was already said. If it's not new information, take it out.
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Think about how to best use quotes and statistics: A lot of the time, quotes can tell your story better — and more interestingly — than you can. Let me hear from the people who have a stake in the matter. Let them do the explaining. The more you try to summarize what others say, the more it turns into an essay, not an article. The same thing goes for graphs: when possible, present information visually. Readers are much more likely to look at a colorful image than they are to read another 500 words.
Original Copy
As of 2021, 33% of the Conestoga student body is non-white, as opposed to 8% of the teaching staff being of diverse backgrounds. In the district as a whole, the pattern is much the same, with 39% of students and 8% of teachers being non-white.
Much of Pennsylvania, however, has a lower diversity rate. In April 2022, Research for Action (RFA) released their ‘The Need for More Teachers of Color’ project, in which they researched and examined teacher diversity in Pennsylvania and how they enhance the educational experience. As part of RFA’s project, data detailing the race and gender demographics of the student and teacher population was collected from Pennsylvania districts.
They found that 36% of Pennsylvania school districts do not have a single teacher of color. In the districts that do, 56% have less than 5% teachers of color, 7% have between 5-20%, and 1% has over 20%. TESD lies in the middle, with 8% of teachers being teachers of color.
These numbers have consequences for students in the district, since they miss out on the important perspective non-white teachers can add, according to Leanna Cabral, Research Associate for ‘The Need for More Teachers of Color’ project.
“Students of color are more successful in their academic journey when they have teachers of color; they feel more seen and affirmed, they perform better academically and they're just more successful when they have teachers that look like them,” Cabral said.
Another effect of lack of diversity is on discipline and attendance rates. The “Miseducation” study put together by ProPublica, details the disparity in disciplinary rates in the district, showing that Black students, who make up only 3% of the TESD population, are 10.6 times more likely to be suspended than their white counterparts.
Christopher Brown, who worked previously as a teacher and administrator in other districts has firsthand experience with the effects of lack of diversity as a Black educator.
“As a former administrator, I noticed that there were fewer absences with students when they had diverse teachers. There were also fewer disciplinary infractions, because diverse teachers were able to understand the culture and the background of the students and with that, you eliminate implicit biases,” said Brown.
Causes
The reasons for this disparity stem from various sources, such as the small pool of teachers of color and challenges school districts face in retaining and supporting their teachers of color.
The pool for diverse candidates is small and districts compete with each other to attract whatever possible candidates there are. In addition, fewer people are choosing education as a career, and for people of color the number is even lower. According to RFA, in Pennsylvania, around 27.3% of college-bound graduates are non-white, while 13.7% of teacher prep enrollees are non-white, cutting the percentage of potential teachers of color in half.
Anthony Stevenson, the Director of Human Resources, has come across a cause for the small numbers of Black teachers and other teachers of color.
“My parents were first generation college graduates, and they grew up in the segregated south, so teaching became the only and best option they had,” Stevenson said. “So they went into education, but when it came to my generation, and then the next generation, there are more opportunities that they have where they can afford occupational aspirations.”
In the 1960s, before desegregation, only 5% of Black students attended integrated schools, according to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). In 1970, that percentage rose to over 90%.
But accompanying the integration of schools was a 31.8% decrease in the employment of Black teachers in the deep South. These Black teachers were fired en mass during integration, and the education of America’s youth largely fell to white teachers.
The toll integration took on the Black teacher population is still felt today, and some attribute the current shortage of teachers of color in the hiring pool to this era.
If districts are able to hire teachers of color, another problem they run into is the inability to retain those teachers due to lack of support. They can do this by supporting teachers in the form of affinity groups and spaces to share experiences, as well as building a community in the district.
From an already small pool, teachers of color often don’t join districts that are not already diverse because they don’t want to be the only person of color there. Being the only voice expected to speak to a certain issue can take a toll on the teachers.
Brown experienced this as the only person of color in his classes in college, which affected his participation and interactions with his peers. This continues in the professional setting, with teachers of color being expected to take initiatives toward equity.
“Teachers (of color) should not be expected to do everything that's diversity, equity and inclusion,” Brown said. “We're expected to take the lead on that oftentimes, which leads to burnout.”
In her research with RFA, Cabral found through talking to teachers of color that support systems amongst colleagues are important to teacher retention.
“When there are more teachers of color, other teachers of color feel more comfortable. They feel like there are others who may share experiences and commitments that they have. They don't feel like the token person of color,” Cabral said.
Current diversity practices
T/E released an Equity Initiative in 2019 that included a statement/commitment to hiring and firing practices.
“Therefore we commit to recruit, hire, and support the development of a racially and culturally diverse faculty, administration, and staff," according to the TESD webpage.
Diversity and equity initiatives are implemented throughout the hiring process. When potential teachers are being interviewed, they are given diversity focused scenarios to test their responses. Once teachers are onboard, they must undergo a mandatory one to two day training on diversity.
The district specific data from the 2013-2014 school year to the 2020-2021 school year does not show much change: the percentage of non-white teachers in the district has gone up one percent, while the percentage of non-white students has gone up 15%, a clear difference.
The district has taken steps toward diversity in the hiring process. Wendy Towle, the District Director of Curriculum Instruction, Staff Development and Planning, has, along with the rest of the administrative staff, started to focus her efforts on attracting teachers of color to the district, which comes through a seemingly simple place: advertising.
“The first thing we do when we have a position available is we advertise it, but we've been trying to broaden our reach to get the information out there to a more diverse population. We use LinkedIn or organizations like the Delaware Valley Consortium for Equity and Excellence,” Towle said. “Actually, I first met Mr. Brown, who is one of the SOAR advisors now, through an online job fair specifically for diverse candidates.”
The district has taken more steps towards building a diverse staff: in RFA’s demographic data, the district is showing an upward trend in diversity rates. In 2019, the district implemented measures to improve diversity practices, partnering with multiple organizations, such as the Pacific Educational Group, to “engage in sustained partnerships with educational organizations to transform beliefs, behaviors, and results so people of all races can achieve at their highest levels and live their most empowered and powerful lives,” according to the district’s equity statement.
The District Equity Leadership Team (DELT), LEADership for Racial Equity (LEADS) and Equity Teams (E-Teams) were created in the 2018-2019 school year to improve diversity practices in the school district, at various levels. DELT and LEADS are district-level teams and the E-Teams were created at a school level consisting of the respective school’s principal and a combination of teachers and administrators. Each faculty member also receives a mandatory one to two-day diversity training.
At the student level, Students Organized for Anti-Racism (SOAR), was created at Conestoga in 2019. Through SOAR, students engage with equity work throughout the district and help provide a safe space to voice their opinions.
SOAR split into subgroups such as District, Elementary, Curriculum and Student during the last school year. Students chose their preferred subgroup and worked to improve diversity and equity practices in that group under the supervision of advisers.
Junior Giu Presa Vespa, an active member of SOAR, the District Diversity Committee and the Equity Leadership Alliance believes that diversity in education is essential. She feels the lack of diverse teachers and recognizes the effect this has had on her education.
“We miss a lot of really important things that we could have been learning and we could have been discussing,” Presa Vespa said. “I think it would be nice if we had more perspectives in the teaching staff.”
Along with the Equity Initiative, T/E launched an Ongoing Curricular Review to ensure that curriculum is up to date and inclusive. To aid this review, teachers were given a tool called the Curricular Inquiry Process that helps them plan out their lessons, emphasizing historical and societal context, personal values and multiple perspectives in the curriculum.
Emily McGready, a World History teacher at the high school, often does her own research to find sources. She uses sources from the textbook, databases, and news outlets to ensure that students are getting a variety of perspectives in their learning.
“I work with my colleagues of all different backgrounds (to find sources); it's really beneficial as a World History teacher because you get those different perspectives,” McGready said. “I also love when students send me stuff. They're like, ‘Hey, you should read this article on this topic because it really helped me understand it.’ I love getting extra resources.”
Another subject that most often interacts with the topic of diversity is English. Karen Gately, an English teacher and the head of the English department at Conestoga, works with the department to improve the English curriculum.
She does so by choosing specific pieces of literature that bring new voices to the course that many students enjoy. These new voices can sometimes discuss triggering topics and to avoid student distress, Gately issues content warnings and does not read those chapters in class.
One book Gately believes brought diverse perspectives into the curriculum was the ninth-grade summer reading book, “Patron Saints of Nothing”. The book was also mandated as summer reading for all grades in the 2020-2021 school year.
“(We chose) a book that was of high interest, (that was) for all different reading levels, and then also brings in a voice that we haven't necessarily heard a lot of, the voice of a of the Philippines. For a lot of students, they didn't know anything about the Philippines and what had been going on there,” Gately said.
Generally, the Curricular Inquiry Process aims to enrich the curriculum by highlighting diverse perspectives, using teacher and student feedback to evolve the subject matter. This process is still ongoing, and, as of now, is to proceed indefinitely.
Are the initiatives working?
For many teachers who joined TESD after working at other districts, this district has been an improvement.
Ryan Howard, a history and government teacher, started working at Conestoga this year. At his former school district, he was the only Black teacher and experienced racism and microaggressions. Many students came to him for support on racially sensitive matters and he was the adviser of the Black Student Union.
His experience at Conestoga has been different. He is surrounded by a more diverse teaching staff and feels supported by their presence.
“Clearly ’Stoga is doing something. What even impressed me more than the teachers is the amount of diverse administrators, especially at the higher level outside of the buildings,” Howard said.
Despite the work the district has put in, there is always room for improvement, and in Brown’s experience, especially in supporting teachers of color. Efforts toward a support system had been taken, but they were short-lived.
Previously implemented support systems included affinity groups for teachers of color, similar to the ones created for students. The effort was aimed towards giving teachers a space to debrief and voice their struggles and experiences.
“There was an affinity group for teachers of color here that was led by Tricia Ebarvia. However, it hasn't been consistent. We just need to make sure that our district focuses on getting time for people to be able to be a community,” Brown said. “We need an affinity space for teachers of color.”
Often, spaces like affinity groups tie into retention, as do other things teachers of color face: a pressure to comment on any racially sensitive issue. By pushing responsibility onto teachers of color, they can feel forced into being the only voice speaking on the issue.
“What can help with retention is that teachers should not be expected to do everything that's diversity, equity and inclusion related. We're expected to take the lead, which leads to burnout, ” Brown said. “But I think that if the district can focus on providing mentorship and affinity spaces (for teachers of color), that can definitely help maintain retention for diverse educators.”
Similarly, Howard, who often had ot be the sole support for students of color in his previous school recognizes the toll it takes on teachers of color, who often burn out under the stress.
“To use one word, it's very heavy, because you feel that you have to support the students, and that's obviously your first priority. But then you also feel like you have to be the mouthpiece every time that there's an issue,” Howard said. “It gets very heavy after a while.”
As for students, opinions are mixed.
Senae Harris, President of the African American Student Union (AASU) and SOAR member, feels that there is more work the district could be doing, especially in the hiring process, to diversify the teaching staff.
“(The district) is not very diverse. In elementary school, I didn’t even have the only African American teacher in the school, Mrs. Hayes. I didn’t have her, but just seeing her in the hallway made me feel so special,” Harris said.
“It’s equally as important for non-black students to also see black teachers in leadership and establish relationships with them,” Harris said.
“It felt like home. I'm in the African American Student Union homeroom and it feels like a breath of fresh air coming into a room and being able to talk about things that I wouldn’t always be able to talk about with my (white) counterparts,” Harris said.
Published Copy
When sophomore Senae Harris thinks back to her time at Valley Forge Elementary School, she recalls walking through the hallway and seeing the only Black teacher in the school — one who never taught her.
“In elementary school, I didn’t even have the only African American teacher in the school, Mrs. Hayes, but just seeing her in the hallway made me feel so special,” Harris said. “Seeing somebody that looks like you makes you feel like you can do anything.”
In 2017, when Harris completed fourth grade, she was one of the 40% of the 532 students at Valley Forge Elementary School whose guardians identified them as people of color. In the same year, 9% of the 32 teachers at the school self-reported as non-white.
Today, these percentages remain the same at a district-wide level. At the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, 40% of the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District’s student body self-reported as non-white during registration, as did 9% of the staff, according to Dr. Oscar Torres, Director of Equity and Public Programs for TESD.
At Conestoga, the pattern is similar to the district as a whole, with 37% of students and 9% of teachers self-reporting as non-white (see pg. 3, Fig. 1).
In 2021, TESD ranked second in Chester County in teacher diversity after Coatesville Area School District.
Across Pennsylvania, 99% of public school districts have a lower racial diversity rate among their teaching staff than among their student population, according to the nonprofit research education organization Research for Action.
In April 2022, RFA released its project “The Need for More Teachers of Color,” which investigated the racial diversity among teachers in Pennsylvania. In TESD, teachers self-report their race when the district first employs them.
The study found that in 36% of Pennsylvania public school districts, there is not one teacher of color, and in 56% of Pennsylvania public school districts, teachers of color make up less than 5% of the teaching staff.
In 7% of districts — including TESD — teachers of color make up 5-20 percent of the teaching staff (see pg. 3, Fig. 3).
Effects of racially diverse teachers on student performance
A low racial diversity rate among teachers can have educational consequences for students. Without racially diverse teachers, students are more likely to miss out on the important perspectives teachers of color can offer, according to Leanna Cabral, a Research Associate for RFA’s project.
“Students of color are more successful in their academic journey when they have teachers of color; they feel more seen and affirmed, they perform better academically and they’re just more successful when they have teachers that look like them,” Cabral said.
Senior Nargis Wardak, who identifies as Afghan-American, feels that although the district is improving, there is still a long way to go, and continuing to pursue racial diversity in education is important for both students and teachers alike.
“The majority of teachers (in the district) are white. I’ve been here for eight years, since middle school. I feel like, in the district, I couldn’t really relate to any of my teachers or empty out my problems to my teachers, as they wouldn’t understand because they don’t have the same experience in life,” Wardak said.
A 2021 study by David Blazar, an Associate Professor of Education Policy at Brown University, found that when fourth and fifth-grade students of all races had a teacher of color, they “performed better on end-of-year exams, were more engaged in class, and attended school more often.” These trends persisted up to six years later.
Similarly, Torres has seen first-hand how racially diverse educators can benefit students of all races.
“As educators, we bring ourselves to the classroom. We’re teaching not only the content but the connection that we have with the content and the impact that we have on our students,” Torres said. “When I was teaching, I would give a little piece of my story to my students, and I remember some of them would say, ‘I never knew that.’ (Personal stories) help all of us to better understand each other.”
Senior Ariana Tanha, who was a student of a teacher of color for the first time in her junior year, feels that racially diverse teachers add depth to a class’s content.
“I get that all teachers teach the same material, but if you have teachers of color, they would provide different insights,” Tanha said. “They would give you different opinions and perspectives.”
A lack of racial diversity among teaching staffs also affects discipline and attendance rates. The Future Ready PA Index, a Pennsylvania Department of Education database submitted by public school districts across the state, found that Black students in TESD, who make up 3% of the population, make up 10% of disciplinary action (see Fig. 4).
A 2021 study by Brown University states that Black, Asian and Latinx students who have at least one teacher of the same race are 3% less likely to face suspension than if they only had teachers of other races.
English teacher and African American Student Union (AASU) adviser Christopher Brown attributes the imbalance in disciplinary rates between students of color and white students to cultural differences between teachers of color and white teachers.
“As a former administrator (in another district), I noticed that there were fewer absences and fewer disciplinary infractions with students when they had diverse teachers because diverse teachers were able to understand the culture and the background of the students, and with that, you eliminate implicit biases,” Brown said.
Acquiring racially diverse teachers
The national pool of teachers has a lower level of racial diversity than the pool of students, with teachers of color making up 6% of the workforce in the 2020-2021 school year, according to RFA. School districts often compete with each other to attract candidates of color.
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education attributes the small hiring pool to the fact that, in general, fewer people are choosing education as a career, with enrollment in undergraduate programs for education dropping by 11% from 2020 to 2022.
From this already small pool, despite making up 40% of the national population, people of color make up 13% of undergraduate education program enrollees, according to RFA.
Dr. Anthony Stevenson, the Director of Human Resources for TESD, partially attributes the low number of teachers of color in the hiring pool to the generational effects that Black educators — like his parents — faced post-segregation.
“My parents were first-generation college graduates, and they grew up in the segregated south. Teaching became the only option they had,” Stevenson said. “But, when it came to my generation and then the next, there are more opportunities they have where they can afford occupational aspirations.”
Accompanying the integration of schools in the 1960s was a 32% decrease in the employment of Black teachers in the South, according to a study by Faculty Research Fellow Owen Thompson from the National Bureau of Economic Research. School districts fired Black teachers en masse during integration, as some white parents and administrators did not want Black educators teaching their children. From then on, American education of both Black and white students largely fell to white teachers.
Presently, the majority-white teacher workforce is a deterrent for teachers of color when applying for jobs, according to Stevenson.
“When you don’t have a diverse pool, sometimes it’s harder to attract folks because they don’t want to be (the) only person (of color) there,” Stevenson said.
Retaining racially diverse teachers
Ryan Howard, a new U.S. History and Government teacher at Conestoga, found that when he worked for the Owen J. Roberts School District, he ended up being the only voice speaking on diversity-related matters. He also experienced “overt racism and microaggressions,” which played a role in his ultimate decision to leave and seek a new job.
“As the only (Black) voice in my old school, I almost got to the point where I felt like I was the militant beating the drum every day,” Howard said. “It’s nice to have a place where there is more than one voice of a diverse background.”
Brown agrees with how stressful being the only voice can be and adds that the pressure to respond to diversity-related matters “leads to burnout.”
In his experience, affinity groups help with teacher retention and reduce the possibility of burnout because they provide much-needed support for teachers of color. Conestoga created an affinity group for teachers of color in the 2020-2021 school year, but according to Brown, it has not held consistent meetings in recent years.
Cabral, while conducting research for RFA, found that support systems among colleagues — such as affinity groups — are important to teacher retention.
“When there are more teachers of color, other teachers of color feel more comfortable. They feel like there are others who may share experiences and commitments that they have. They don’t feel like the token person of color,” Cabral said.
Dr. Wendy Towle, TESD’s Director of Instruction, Staff Development and Planning, recognizes the importance of attracting teachers of color to the district. To do so, TESD has reached out to organizations that are dedicated to increasing diverse educators’ visibility as candidates for teaching jobs.
“The first thing we do when we have a position available is we advertise it. We’ve been trying to broaden our reach to get the information out to a more diverse population. We use LinkedIn or organizations like the Delaware Valley Consortium for Equity and Excellence,” Towle said. “Actually, I first met Mr. Brown through an online job fair for diverse candidates.”
As of this school year, seven of the 42 newly-hired teachers self-identify as non-white.
“I’m witnessing how the school is changing. It’s becoming way more diverse,” Wardak said. “We still have a long way to go, but it’s taking huge leaps and becoming more diverse because everyone is coming here.”
