- A new paper published by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University this month suggests that the presence of a black principal at a school increases the likelihood of hiring new black teachers by up to 7%, in addition to increasing the likelihood of retaining them, Education Week reports.
- The study, which was conducted by researchers at Vanderbilt University, focused on schools in Missouri and Tennessee and suggests black principals have better success with diversity hiring because they are drawing from different networks to find teachers, are more likely to draw qualified black teachers who prefer to work for black principals, and are more likely to hire black candidates than white principals are.
- The study also found black students are more likely to have higher math scores under black teachers, but they also had positive gains under the leadership of a black principal even if black teachers weren’t present. This could be because of the effect of a black principal on school culture, the difference in discipline policies under a black principal, and the effect of having black leaders as role models, one of the paper's authors suggests.
While studies have shown the benefits of increasing diversity on the teacher workforce, teachers of color are still underrepresented in comparison with student demographics at most schools. School districts do better when they provide better incentives to attract teachers of color and better support in order to retain them.
But one of the best methods of increasing teacher diversity is to hire more principals of color, this new study shows. Teachers of color often feel more comfortable working for principals of the same race because they tend to better understand the challenges they may face and the advantages they can offer in the classroom. Black principals may also often have stronger connections with historically black universities or other sources of potential teacher candidates that can help form a more diverse faculty, as well.
The paper suggests school districts can benefit by expanding networks to include a larger pool of teacher candidates of color, hiring more principals of color, strengthening the principal pipeline by identifying great teachers of color and encouraging their development and advancement, and gaining a better understanding of the hiring practices of successful black principals.
However, recruitment for both teachers and principals of color has remained largely stagnant over the past few decades and is one of the biggest problems in hiring educators. Schools need to do a better job of convincing promising students of color to pursue educational career pathways so there is a larger pool of teacher candidates to choose from. They need to strengthen diverse teacher and principal pipelines. They also need to research and develop better strategies and practices for finding candidates of color, attracting them to the school district, and retaining them when they get there. While this is not always easy, it seems that developing talent within the district and expanding the number of principals of color may be a worthwhile place to start.