U.S. public school educators, most of whom are white, often don’t reflect the racial student populations they teach in K-12 schools, research indicates. Black educators, for instance, make up about 6% of public K-12 teachers, according to recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics, while Black students are 15% of that population. On the other hand, white teachers represent 80% of public school educators, but less than half of students — 46% — are white.
“Between 1988 and 2018, the number of teachers of color hired in the U.S. increased at a faster rate than the number of white teachers, yet those diverse educators also left their positions much more quickly, on average,” says Sharif El-Mekki, founder and CEO of the Philadelphia-based Center for Black Educator Development, host of the Black Men in Education Convening in Philadelphia Nov. 20–22, 2025. “To this day, there is not one state that nears the 35-50% of Black educators of the segregated era.”
There are opportunities to rebuild the Black teacher pipeline specifically, he says, “but first, we need to tell the truth about teaching.”
“We need to spread the well-researched and well-documented story of the positive impact of historic and current Black teachers. Teachers such as Jo Ann Robinson — who organized the Montgomery bus boycott — have shaped our history in critical ways but are not properly represented as revolutionary leaders. By illustrating the true social impact of teaching, we can motivate Black students to join the corps of future educator activists that we need. The purest form of activism is teaching Black children well.”
[SEE: What to Know About ‘Grow Your Own’ Teacher Programs.]
El-Mekki — a public school teacher and principal for more than 25 years — spoke with U.S. News about strides being made to improve equity and access in the teaching profession. The following email interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: How important is it to have teachers and professors reflect student populations in K-12 and college classrooms?
There are several critical reasons to increase educator diversity and ensure teachers represent their students. To achieve educational justice, we first need to close the massive opportunity gaps that dominate our public education system, which begins with increasing the number of Black teachers in classrooms. Research shows that when Black students have Black teachers who reflect their racial identity, experiences, worldviews and see in their students a future full of possibilities, the students perform better in school. One study showed that Black students who have just one Black teacher by third grade are 13% more likely to enroll in college. With two Black teachers in the mix early on, that stat jumps to 32%. For Black boys from low-income households, their on-time high school graduation rate soars by nearly 40%. Research shows all students benefit from increased educator diversity. An educator corps that better reflects society brings more opportunities for school experiences that counter racism and negative stereotypes, promoting intercultural understanding and preparing all our children for an increasingly diverse and complex world.
Q: What factors are contributing to the low representation and/or poor retention of Black educators?
Nationwide, Black teachers were removed following the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and, later, the 1964 Civil Rights Act. As white schools integrated Black students, Black educators lost their jobs, got demoted or were denied tenure, while new Black teachers were simply not hired. Black teachers did not flee the education profession or abandon their students to pursue new careers after school desegregation started, as we’ve been told for generations. Rather, racist structures systematically eliminated 100,000 Black teachers through illegal firings, dismissals and demotions through the 1970s. Post-desegregation, it was taboo for Black teachers to instruct white children, let alone lead ‘their’ schools. To keep the ranks white, school leaders manufactured a teacher shortage to lower state requirements for education degrees and teacher licenses, and fast-tracked emergency certifications for white candidates — all resulting in substandard teaching for generations to come. To this day, Black teachers are less likely to be invited into the teaching profession. Experiences in pre-K through 12th also impact a student’s vision and aspirations. Some of our students say they are determined to become the teachers they wish they had and knew they needed to be. Others feel like returning to work in a school is akin to returning to a psychologically harmful place. Others see the disrespect current Black teachers experience and wonder if that will happen to them.
[Read: Consider Faculty Diversity When Applying to College.]
Q: What are you seeing colleges do to encourage more Black students, especially Black men, to pursue the teaching profession? What’s being done well in terms of recruitment strategies?
There are initiatives out there that are working to address student recruitment and retention. One notable college program that supports Black male educators is Call Me MiSTER, which provides holistic assistance, including tuition assistance and job placement, to future educators who commit to teaching in hard-to-staff communities. Morehouse College in Georgia — under the leadership of Nina Gilbert, executive director of The Morehouse Center for Excellence in Education — has been successful in recruiting and developing Black male educators to serve as culturally responsive leaders. Here at the Center for Black Educator Development, our Future Teachers of Excellence Fellowship, which currently has nearly 160 fellows in partnership with the United Negro College Fund, provides tuition support, academic coaching, mentoring and retention bonuses to support recruitment and retention.
Q: What further needs to be done to address the shortage of Black educators in the U.S.?
To reach proportional parity between Black teachers and students, we need to hire 280,000 more Black teachers in our public schools. The center has developed its own vision of the Black teacher pipeline, which begins in high school. Students are invited into the profession, given opportunities to teach and take college courses while still in high school. Then they’re supported through fellowships, targeted programming, e-learning and certification support as they progress to college and begin their teaching careers. The cost of teacher attrition is high. In urban districts, the average cost to replace every teacher who leaves is around $20,000. The cost of losing a quality Black teacher, especially for Black students, is immeasurably high. The best recruitment strategy is a robust, comprehensive and thoughtful approach to retention.
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Q&A: How to Improve the Black Educator Pipeline originally appeared on usnews.com
