Why Nobody Wants to Teach Black Kids: Beyond Blaming Bad Teachers, Traditional Racism, and Black Students Themselves

Please check out more of our related titles at thePGI.org/global-press!Teachers in schools with a predominantly African-American and high-poverty student body are generally not trained, equipped, paid, or implicitly motivated enough to deal with the unique burden of teaching African-American students from high-poverty backgrounds. Consequently, there's a literal race to flee these schools. And new research confirms it. A recent study in the Journal of Labor Economics boldly asserted that American teachers generally do not favor teaching African-American students from high-poverty backgrounds and as soon as there is an influx of these students into their school they leave (at least those teachers competitive enough to secure employment in a Whiter and/or more affluent, higher achieving district). As a result, schools with large percentages of Black and poor students tend to have lower quality teachers and find it more difficult to attract new high-quality teachers. Of course, few educators-if any-would ever be so candid to admit openly such a thing, particularly in allegedly post-racial America (assuming we're still bothering to make this allegation post-Trump election). But as has universally been the case, actions continue to speak louder than excuse-based facades. And their actions are saying that very few teachers (with "better" options) genuinely want to teach Black kids. Even the notion of "better options" implies teaching at a Whiter, more affluent school. As soon as an opportunity to not teach Black kids comes about, very few teachers (regardless of race) reject said opportunity. Most teachers seem trapped by tenure-inflated salaries in quasi-suburban or even rural school districts that perhaps once were far "less Black and poor," but after unique demographic shifts have become much more "urban-like." Others appear stuck in one of too many urban charter schools that promised something patently different only to deliver the same exact emotional tone common to urban public schools: a stagnant mix of disappointment, frustration, and hopelessness amidst a sea of young, destitute Black faces.