Her children have been taught by teachers who are black, Asian, white and Hispanic, those who are young and those a bit older, and teachers with foreign accents and those without. And for that, Kathryn Holmes Johnson is thankful.
The Glenn Dale mother’s daughters, Bailey and Peri — in fourth and seventh grades at Benjamin Foulois Creative and Performing Arts Academy in Morningside — have benefited greatly from the diversity of their teachers’ backgrounds, Johnson said.
In Prince George’s County, the percentage of teachers of color, 67 percent this year, is more than twice the statewide average of 26 percent last year, but the county still is working to close the gap between the vastly nonwhite student population and the diversity of teachers.
The school system long has worked to recruit teachers of color, but now, it is pursuing more Hispanic teachers to meet the needs of the county’s growing Latino student population, said Bob Gaskin, the school system’s director of recruitment.
Hispanics make up 21 percent of Prince George’s students this year, up from 19.6 percent last year, according to data from the Maryland State Department of Education.
“We live in a diverse society . . . and we need to be able to expose our students to a large amount of diversity,” Gaskin said.
In a new push this year, the school system hopes to develop a large pool of applicants and recruit teachers by cultivating relationships with about 10 universities with high numbers of Hispanic students in states such as New York, Florida and Texas, he said.
Recruiters also are identifying — often through referrals by current teachers or through university connections — media outlets and Web sites used by significant numbers of Hispanics and use them to promote the school system, Gaskin said.
These efforts are supported by a recent study of teacher diversity by the Center for American Progress, a D.C.-based think tank that noted students of color perform better academically when taught by teachers of color.
“Teachers of color serve as role models for students, giving them a clear and concrete sense of what diversity in education — and in our society — looks like,” wrote Ulrich Boser, the study’s author and a senior fellow at the center.
In Prince George’s, two-thirds of teachers, administrators and professional staff are of color, according to counts this year from the school system. About a quarter of teachers statewide are of color, according to 2010 data from the Maryland State Department of Education.
Almost 95 percent of students are black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or another nonwhite race in Prince George’s, according to 2011 MSDE data. Statewide, 57 percent of students are of color.
“Diversity is important,” Boser said. “It is the benchmark of a strong and robust society.”
Boser said the gaps between teachers and students of color don’t have to be completely closed, but significant discrepancies are a problem.
Phelecia Membhard’s son and daughter have been in classes at New Carrollton’s Lamont Elementary and Charles Carroll Middle schools with Hispanic, black and white teachers and with younger and older teachers.
“It exposes them to other cultures, backgrounds,” said Membhard, a Jamaica native who lives in New Carrollton. “They’re not stigmatized by thinking they should be taught by one type of teacher.”
Race and gender are the two factors the school system emphasizes most heavily when looking to recruit a diverse cadre of candidates, Gaskin said.
“We want our students to see themselves [as professionals] to be encouraged to further their education,” he said.
It is particularly important for boys to see professional men in their schools, said Dorothy Clowers, the principal at William Paca Elementary School in Landover. The school’s six male teachers and specialists inspire her male students to achieve and be good citizens, she said.
The racial diversity among Clowers’s staff simulates the world in which students will find themselves after finishing high school, she said.
“We’re in a melting pot,” she said, “and they need to see people outside their race and be able to interact with them.”
The results of the school system’s recruitment efforts are satisfying parents like Johnson, who wanted her daughters to attend historically black colleges and universities to be exposed to a wealth of black role models. After seeing African Americans and women in positions of leadership within Prince George’s public schools, she said, that doesn’t seem as necessary.
“Because they’ve had such solid footing . . . I don’t feel like that has to be reinforced so much in college before I send them into the big, big world,” Johnson said.
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