Indiana has one of the least diverse teaching staffs in the nation despite large numbers of African-American and Latino students in some of its largest school systems. Consider the numbers: Teachers of color comprise only 7 percent of Indiana’s teaching force, although students of color make up 27 percent of the student body. The dearth of African-American and Latino teachers in this state is indefensible, especially since we know teachers of color positively impact a host of factors regarding the academic performance of students of color.
In and around Indianapolis, the disparity is even worse. Two shocking examples can be found in Carmel and Hamilton Southeastern Schools. Although students of color comprise 25 percent of their student bodies, teachers of color make up less than 3 percent of their teachers. That means out of workforces of more than 1,000 certified teachers, they have fewer than 30 teachers of color, in each. How is this appalling lack of diverse teachers acceptable to anyone? It mimics the 1950s and ’60s, when Indiana schools were legally required to admit African-American students but refused to hire African-American teachers.
In Indianapolis Public Schools, the numbers are much worse. Whites make up almost 80 percent of the teachers, even though students of color make up 80 percent of the students. That is an outrageous disparity. It means that in most classrooms, white teachers oversee classrooms of primarily African-American and Latino students on a daily basis. Yet, we know, in most cases, these teachers have had very limited interaction with African-American or Latino children outside of their classrooms. The reality is that few of these teachers have ever lived or interacted in mostly African-American or Latino spaces or communities and are culturally and experientially distant from their students. Rather than a luxury, the cultural fluency that such interactions and experiences would foster should be a basic job requirement.
Additionally, our schools do not require any evaluation of teachers’ racial prejudices and biases before teaching. It is as if race and racism did not exist. The failure to address race in our classrooms is nonsensical. Whether we like it or not, in America, race is like air. It is always present, regardless of whether we recognize it or not. In racially diverse and homogeneous racial spaces, it remains, and for both those who pretend it does not exist and those who claim racial blindness, it persists. From the president of the United States to the cop on the beat, racial identity frames the way we see the world and the way the world sees us.
The same is true in our classrooms. After second grade, students begin to subconsciously identify the racial reality in which they live. Clear messages are communicated when they sit in classes overwhelmingly made up of students of color that are taught by teachers who are overwhelmingly white. The teacher’s racial fears, doubts, ignorance and biases are a fundamental part of a student’s experiences. They inform the teacher’s comments, perspectives and the discipline they impose. Does that mean white teachers are bad for Blacks and other students of color? Not necessarily, but it does mean that racial education, racial self-awareness and implicit bias testing should be requirements for ALL of our teachers. They need cultural fluency and racial self-awareness to be effective. A basic or even exceptional knowledge of mathematics, the sciences or the humanities coupled with educational theory and practice is not enough to communicate and manage a classroom successfully today.
Our failure to address this issue in Indiana has been costly for African-American students. A recent national educational study showed having an African-American-associated name resulted in punishment and identification as a future problem by teachers for the same behavior overlooked when carried out by students with white-associated names. This hits close to home, as Indiana ranks in the top five for states with racial disparities in the discipline of African-American students compared with their white counterparts. Since the implicit bias of teachers is one of the chief contributors to these disparities, we need more teachers of color and better preparation for all teachers immediately!
Carlton Waterhouse is a professor of law and Dean’s Fellow at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
