Barriers to Racial Equity for Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers in California’s Teaching Pipeline and Profession
Introduction
New research from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools and the UCLA Civil Rights Project explores obstacles to recruiting and retaining Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers (TOCIT) in California’s schools.
Researchers sought perspectives from teachers and system leaders in teacher preparation to better understand current policies and practices that are contributing to teacher burnout, turnover, and early retirement.
Despite California’s recent, large investments toward improving educator diversity, persistent higher rates of burnout, turnover, and early retirement among teachers of color and Indigenous teachers indicate other factors are at play. At a time when many states are eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs designed to foster positive race relations and equity, the research provides examples of persistent discrimination in the training process and the enormous economic barriers that many students of color face in accessing the educational and professional resources and support they need to become teachers.
Key Findings
Financial Burden
Growing tuition fees, unpaid student teaching, mounting student debt, meager salaries, and the relentless rise of inflation and living expenses are disproportionately magnified for TOCIT.
Recommendations
For California:
- Place a high priority on establishing debt-free pathways for pre-service and in-service TOCIT, ensuring that they can start their careers without being burdened by substantial financial obligations.
- Collaborate with school districts to implement stipend programs
- Address cost-of-living adjustments (COLA)
- Provide improved healthcare coverage and higher initial salaries, especially in costly regions like the Bay Area, to support new teachers as they embark on their teaching careers.
For the United States:
- A dedicated “G.I. Bill” tailored for teachers can be introduced, offering comprehensive coverage that includes tuition and support for future professional development, living expenses, housing stipends, tax breaks, and dependent tuition grants. This bill should also prioritize enhanced social benefits and recognition for teachers, acknowledging their invaluable contributions to society.
Structural Racism
Study participants report being underserved in overcrowded programs, undercompensated compared to other high-skilled professions, and their life experiences and perspectives devalued throughout the teacher pipeline and profession. Structural racism emerged in the data through various practices, policies, and institutional norms that disproportionately impact TOCIT.
Recommendations
Once acknowledged, the best way to combat racial exploitation is to fairly compensate TOCIT for their labor. This includes paying for their student teaching, providing stipends for their supplemental and support work, such as translation services, discipline duties, and mental health guidance for students.
For teacher preparation programs:
- Implement a reasonable enrollment cap to ensure institutions have the capacity to provide students with appropriate supports, financial or otherwise.
- Programs that reside within historically white institutions should have their own program-level office of support for historically underrepresented students that is overseen by administrators of Color and Indigenous administrators.
Culture & Climate
Hundreds of respondents expressed feeling “silenced,” “ignored,” and “dismissed” by their colleagues and administration when trying to discuss issues around race and racism. Through systemic and institutional norms, pre-service and in-service TOCIT experience pervasive microaggressions, discrimination, and dehumanizing situations within largely race-evasive environments.
Recommendations
For districts:
- Maintain a reliable database of incidents and complaints, similar to what the Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Office has for the UC system.
- Monitor databases regularly for repeat offenders and to track what actions have been taken to address the issues.
For California:
- Implement a state-mandated annual cultural responsiveness training (similar to Sexual Assault Prevention training conducted by all UC schools) for all public-school teachers, including supervisors, superintendents, and regional representatives, by 2030.
Curriculum & Pedagogy
A lack of representation within teacher education programs (TEPs) and K-12 curriculums, along with having to contend with outside political pressure and limited support for their pedagogical style, has left TOCIT struggling to identify with their courses and their work, limiting their ability to provide culturally responsive teaching and engage students in critical thinking.
Recommendations
For TEP programs and K-12 schools and districts:
- Consider establishing mandatory three-to-five-year audits of curriculum to ensure material is culturally relevant, accurate, and inclusive.
- Have at least one reviewer that works outside of the organization and has a background or expertise in diversity, equity, inclusion, ethnic studies, cultural sustainability, and/or anti-racist practices. The review committee should also be composed of teachers, students, and parents.
For K-12 administrators:
- Stand firm on ideals and policies that best support students in cultivating critical awareness and critical consciousness.
For schools:
- Prepare students for life outside of the classroom and assist them in understanding, negotiating, and navigating their way through concepts and living systems of power, equity, and justice.
High-Stakes, Standardized Testing
Teacher licensure exams are a barrier for entry into the educator workforce that imposes stress, time constraints, and financial burdens on pre-service teachers. Academic testing of K-12 students also contributes to the exhaustion of in-service teachers, especially for those working in under-resourced schools and communities.
Recommendations
For California:
- Alternative methods for in-service teachers to fulfill credential requirements should be made available, such as demonstrating subject-matter and teaching competency through college coursework or program completion.
- Mandate that all scorers receive training that includes diverse examples of teacher/student interaction, lesson study, and pedagogical practice.
- The use of standardized tests should be dramatically reduced and supplemented with more authentic and relevant performance assessments. Performance-based assessments allow for more student-centered learning and give teachers more opportunities to employ the use of culturally responsive teaching practices, which may alleviate their frustrations of having to “teach to the test.”
Quotes from Teachers
Financial Burden
“PAY them like you do a lawyer, doctor, nurse, or other high-paying professions. Teachers are the lifeline of our future generation. Pay them like you care deeply for their unconditional care and support of your children. They deserve much more than the average or less than average salary.”
-Latine Teacher
“I am already barely hanging on financially, working a second job for eight hours a week and teaching extended school year every summer just to make ends meet. If things get any worse, I won’t be able to continue to teach.”
-Indigenous Teacher
Structural Racism
“[I was] forced to take on additional students with behavior problems because it was assumed ‘[I] could handle them.’”
-Black Teacher
Teachers reported administrators going to the extreme of reclassifying support staffs’ job descriptions to include additional responsibilities and duties without extra pay:
“Regular classroom aides [were] given a new title so they can provide services such as ‘one on one’ without providing additional/adjusting [their] pay rate.”
-Latine Teacher
Culture & Climate
“When I spoke up about my concerns about our school having a Native American mascot and a KKK member’s name on a building and said that it was triggering for me as a POC, my Latina principal told me I was ‘hypersensitive’ about issues of race.”
-Latine Teacher
“The principal made a comment that we couldn’t have too many Black teachers in one building. We are kept under surveillance and questioned if we gather. Only one Black teacher has been hired in the last 10 years at my site. I feel gaslit at times. The principal would call the police on children of color regularly.”
-Black Teacher
Curriculum & Pedagogy
“How can I express myself as an AAPI [teacher] when none of the curriculum celebrates or recognizes who I am? NONE.”
-AAPI Teacher
“The current California curriculum is still centered around colonization.”
-Indigenous Teacher
High-Stakes, Standardized Testing
“The edTPA had the worst impact on my preparation because it was an unrealistic measurement of my teaching abilities and it felt like a huge waste of time. I had done very well in my program up until I had to pass that assessment. I almost walked away from my program because of it.”
-Latine Teacher
“We are testing students and the only people benefiting are the test-making companies. I am ready to leave teaching because we are not given the freedom, time, and resources to make lifelong learners and free thinkers.”
-Black Teacher
