To make ends meet, she also worked over the summers and during school breaks at a child care center, earning $10.25 per hour. A single Black mother of two, Marie loved children and knew she wanted to be a teacher, but couldn’t afford to pay for a licensure program, which can cost $30,000 or more at local universities for a degree and license.
Lewis loved the work and the difference she felt she could make in children’s lives, but the way things were going, neither her dreams nor her potential were going to be realized.
Sadly, her story isn’t unusual. Such lack of opportunity disproportionately affects people of color at a time when we are facing a national teaching shortage of teachers of color.
The diversity of students in this country is increasing, but the diversity of our teaching force is not. Just seven percent of our country’s teachers are Black. Yet research tells us that exposure to a Black teacher in elementary school can reduce the high school dropout rate for low-income Black male students by 39 percent.
There is also a related but largely unseen crisis: the number of CONTINUE READING: OPINION: We need more teachers of color. Here’s how one teacher residency program is grappling with the problem
