CCSP Leader Aims to Develop Innovative Pipeline to Recruit Teachers of Color

Recruiting teachers of color has become an increasingly important focus for schools throughout the country, especially as research continues to show the significant impact of having teachers of color in the classroom. Teachers of color have been found to improve outcomes for all students with improved problem-solving, critical thinking and creativity, and, according to a Center for American Progress study, teachers of color also:

• have higher expectations of minority students;

• provide culturally relevant teaching;

• develop trusting relationships with students;

• confront issues of racism through teaching; and 

• become advocates and cultural brokers.

With so many challenges facing today’s schools, teachers of color can have an enormous impact on changing the lives of many students in need.

For these critical reasons, the Diverse Teachers for Diverse Schools (“DTDS”) , a teacher recruitment and development initiative at Rutgers-Center for Effective School Practices, focuses on strengthening support for more candidates of color to become teachers in diverse schools in New Jersey. Curtis Palmore, CEO of Community Charter School of Paterson (“CCSP”) and a partner in the DTDS initiative, has long recognized this importance. “I’ve been taking a hard look at how to best support and improve instruction,” explains Mr. Palmore. “We started this journey a few years ago when I first started and, around the same time, I had heard that minority teachers have more opportunities to address mindset and commitment to excellence with urban students. I was also introduced to research from Harvard, which helped to solidify some of my thinking around my efforts to recruit people of color. The research helped to further push this notion that it’s important to have these faces and people and experiences and background in front of the students of color that we serve here. I’ve always wondered that, and when this research came out it helped to solidify it.”

Mr. Palmore decided to make a concerted effort to attract teachers of color to his district. “CCCSP looks under every stone to find diverse talent. We attend job fairs, conduct open houses on campuses, and use a variety of online tools to attract candidates who may have been otherwise overlooked. We look at diverse teaching pools like Teach for America and similar groups, and also decided to do a hard focus on universities.”

Based on this experience, Mr. Palmore is working on developing an innovative strategy for developing a pipeline of teachers of color – by working with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (“HBCUs”) to better educate students about teaching careers. “I attended an HBCU – Morgan State University – for undergraduate and I was able to meet with the Dean of Education to talk about recruitment for their students. We’ve also met with the President and Dean of Education of William Paterson University. Enrollment at Schools of Education is declining across the country as more students focus on skills like engineering, so it’s beneficial for all of us to create a better pipeline.” 

The exact nature of the partnership is still in discussions, but the idea is that the HBCUs will identify more opportunities to target students who may be interested in a teaching career in Mr. Palmore’s charter school in Paterson. “One of the things I’ve discussed is introducing the idea at freshman orientations to have an opportunity to speak to students with an undeclared major. They’re also looking to see if they can provide scholarships to incoming students who would like to pursue education.” 

While this work is just at its initial stage, Mr. Palmore is working to continue to grow the program. “My hope is that we’ll be able to connect with more schools and have opportunities for recent graduates to student teach in our schools. The conversations have started and we are starting to see some resumes come in.”

Beyond these next steps, Mr. Palmore has a grand vision for how the pipeline might evolve. “I’d love to have this be an integral part of these universities. My dream would be that some of our [CCSP] alum would matriculate through this program and come back and teach at our school. I would love for this to be a national blueprint for how urban districts recruit teachers of color. If it’s done right and enough attention is paid to it, others can replicate this across the country.”

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If you’re interested in becoming an agent of change like the teachers Mr. Palmore is looking to recruit, visit the Rutgers Alternate Route website to learn more about the program to jumpstart your teaching career. To keep up with more news and stories from the education field, be sure to follow Rutgers Alternate Route on Twitter for more information.