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May 28th, 2009, 01:01 GMT · By

Teachers Leave Schools with Inflow of Black Students

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A new study shows that American teachers would rather work in a White-dominated classroom, than in one where African Americans are represented as well
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According to the first study ever to assess the behavior of high-quality teachers in American schools, top educators are very likely to leave the institutions that are experiencing an affluence of African American students. In other words, whenever a learning institution – that is supposed to offer equal opportunities for everybody – gets more Black students, the best teachers move away, presumably to schools where White children are predominant. The new research paper was authored by Cornell University expert C. Kirabo Jackson, and will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Labor Economics.

“It's well established that schools with large minority populations tend to have lower quality teachers. But it is unclear whether these schools are merely located in areas with a paucity of quality teachers, whether quality teachers avoid these schools because of the neighborhood or economic factors surrounding a school, or whether there is a direct relationship between student characteristics and teacher quality,” the expert wondered.

According to the troubling results, it would appear that it's not the neighborhoods in themselves that keep quality teachers away, but the race or ethnicity of the students themselves. And the correlation was most obvious in the case of the African American ones. “This is particularly sobering because it implies that, all else equal, black students will systematically receive lower quality instruction. This relationship may be a substantial contributor to the black-white achievement gap in American schools,” he added. “This study implies teachers may prefer a student body that is more white and less black.”

For the new research, Jackson used data he collected from the North Carolina Education Research Data Center, focused on the Charlotte-Mecklenberg school district, in North Carolina, PhysOrg reports. In 2002, the minority population in predominantly Black schools was distributed evenly to schools around the area, which meant that some of these institutions suddenly received an inflow of African Americans in their classrooms. And that was the point at which some of the best teachers in those institutions simply left or asked to be reassigned.

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READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: TPA on 28 May 2009, 04:07 UTC reply to this comment

This study merely opens the door to investigating the motivations of teachers who move away from schools that begin to show a predominant population of black students. It does not answer those questions, however. As the summary here indicates, the study "implies" quite a bit - but it does not actually demonstrate those things it is said to imply. We cannot infer from what is presented here that it is merely skin color that drives the "best" teachers away. How are teachers' qualities measured in the study? Are the teachers themselves white, black, Hispanic, Asian, etc.? Are there other pressures - political, cultural, behavioral, linguistic - that the rapid growth of the black student population might place on the school administration and/or the teachers? Because those pressures might also contribute to teachers' decisions to move. It is a much more complex issue than this study seems to make it out to be.

Comment #1.1 by: Bo on 28 May 2009, 23:52 GMT

You should REALLY read the study before you knock it. It has some important new implications.


Comment #2 by: drago on 28 May 2009, 04:16 UTC reply to this comment

Well,
i live in Canada and iv'e had many black friends in school,and they were very gentle and nice guys,so saying that a white teacher would leave a school because of the increasing numbers of none whites in some schools is true and not true at the same time.
Some old white teachers and educators are't that social with colored people and they won't spend any additional day in a none white school,the reason is because they are not comfortable amongst nonwhites.

Seriously, I think those emigrants that are coming to our countries should really consider one important thing,and thats they are welcome to live and thrive, but they should consider limiting their breeding.


Comment #3 by: Joe on 28 May 2009, 17:26 UTC reply to this comment

The reason for this phenomenon is simple: black students are less academically disciplined and cause more headaches for teachers than do other races. This is 100% a failure of the black community to police their own and demand that their children focus on their studies. Why would any competent teacher want to deal with a classroom that simply will not shut up and listen, no matter what they do?

Comment #3.1 by: jose on 29 Dec 2009, 09:08 GMT

Why would any competent teacher want to deal with a classroom that simply will not shut up and listen, no matter what they do?

That's precisely why most teachers of all colors don't want to teach in schools that are predominantly black. Specially when both, most of the students and the administrators are black. Believe me, these schools grades are almost always low and the black principal has to be replaced by a non black one.


Comment #4 by: BadMommy on 29 Jul 2010, 19:08 UTC reply to this comment

Coloration or "race" is not the issue. Many find that dealing with less disciplined , more prone to violence students with "chip on the shoulder " uneducated parents is the problem. Whether you are dealing with mild students or Future Thugs in the making, you still get paid the same. If you have a chance to teach you take it rather than wasting your efforts as a glorified baby sitter
of non caring kids of non caring parents.

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