Earlier this year Springfield School District 186 made a job offer to an aspiring
African-American grade-school teacher who had performed well in the district
as a student teacher.
“She accepted the offer, then went to Atlanta to visit a friend,” says Bob Leming, assistant superintendent and head of human resources at District 186. “Her friend says, ‘You ought to teach here.’ She went to the board of education for Atlanta Public Schools and they offered her a job with financial incentives to take it. She did.”
Leming says there’s not much the district could have done. “We’re not upset with [her],” Leming says. “We understand. We just can’t compete with Atlanta.”
Although nearly 35 percent of District 186’s student body is African American, only 6 percent of its teaching staff is, according to Illinois State Board of Education records. Hiring more minority teachers is considered a crucial step toward closing the district’s wide achievement gap between African-American and white students.
The district created a task force to improve its recruitment of minority teachers, but Leming, who’s on it, says it’s been hard enough to keep the current rate of 6 percent from falling.
“Urban school districts are at a complete disadvantage for recruiting anybody, let alone minorities,” Leming says. Unions often require that districts give preferential treatment to teachers requesting voluntary transfers and contracted faculty seeking tenured positions. Plus, the pool of candidates is very limited. Leming recalls asking one Illinois university how many students will be looking for teaching jobs. “There were hundreds in the teaching program, but only about six minorities.”
The district has made progress, of a sort. The union has agreed to relax its requirement that certain members be on top of the hiring ladder, at least creating the possibility for more outside minority hires. David Welch, education chair for Unity for Our Community, says the task force has done a good job so far.
“[The members] have done a wonderful job of developing strategies to increase our hiring of minority teachers and administrators,” Welch says. “Over time, I feel this task force will bring the school district and community into an even more aggressive position to bring minority staff into the district.”
Leming’s claim is a little more grounded. “We’ve made a difference,” he says. “We just can’t make progress.”
Leming will discuss issues relating to teacher recruitment and retention at this Tuesday’s VOICES meeting. The meeting is the fifth of ten in which the community can provide ideas to improve the district. The meeting takes place at Springfield High School, 101 S. Lewis St., from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
More information about VOICES is on-line at www.springfield.k12.il.us/voices/.
This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2003.
