To Be Alone or in a Group: An Exploration Into How the School-Based Experiences Differ for Black Male Teachers Across One Urban School District

Abstract

One urban district administered the Black Male Teacher Environment Survey (BMTES) to each of its Black male teachers to measure their school-based experiences. This article highlights descriptive statistics from the 86 Black male teacher respondents. Findings suggest that participants’ background characteristics and school-based experiences varied by the number of Black men on the faculty. Loners, schools with one Black male teacher on the faculty, reported different experiences when compared with Groupers, schools with four or more Black male teachers on the faculty. Specifically, Loners were more likely to receive alternative certification, reported that their White colleagues had greater influence on school policy than teachers of color, believed that being Black caused people to fear them in their schools, and reported having a greater desire to leave their schools than Groupers.

Keywords

teacher beliefs urban social school urban education organizational behavior Black male teachers

Introduction

On January 31, 2011, former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (2011), along with filmmaker Spike Lee and civil rights leader John Lewis, visited Morehouse College¹ to “call Black men to the Blackboard,” as the Department of Education’s website proclaimed. This Black male teacher recruitment campaign was not the first of its kind: Some recent efforts have been from South Carolina’s Call Me MISTER (Men Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models; Chmelynski, 2006); Prince George County, Maryland’s African American Males Into Teaching Program (AAMTP; Brown & Butty, 1999); and New York City’s recently launched NYC Men Teach, an initiative to recruit 1,000 male teachers of color (Superville, 2015). Moreover, federal, state, and local policymakers continue to design recruitment efforts aimed at increasing the number of Black male teachers in public schools.

While policymakers and practitioners call for such recruitment campaigns, particularly across urban centers, these efforts could be better bolstered by understanding how Black male teachers experience schools and how these experiences influence their decision to stay in or leave the profession (White, 2016). This article begins by highlighting research on in- and out-of-school outcomes of Black males, both students and adults, living in urban centers. It then discusses the emerging research on student and teacher ethnic-matching in urban schools, specifically its association with improved learning for Black students when taught by a Black teacher. The article next builds on the empirical research of ethnic-matching in urban schools, where policy implications point to increasing the teaching force’s racial/ethnic diversity by highlighting findings from the Black Male Teacher Environment Survey (BMTES). One urban district administered the BMTES to each of its Black male teachers to measure their school-based experiences. Findings from the BMTES point to a relationship between Black male teachers’ background characteristics and their school organizational contexts. Finally, this article draws attention to the varying experiences Black male teachers have as a result in working in different organizational contexts and how those experiences influence their decisions to stay in or leave the profession.

Literature Review

In- and Out-of-School Outcomes for Black Males

The focus of national, state, and local policymakers on increasing the number of Black male teachers in schools today might be an attempt to address the in- and out-of-school challenges Black boys face in urban schools (Pabon, 2014). As one U.S. Department of Education official at Morehouse College, who attended the launch of the Black male teacher recruitment campaign, noted,

Faced with the startling fact that black males represent 6 percent of the U.S. population yet 35 percent of the prison population and less than 2 percent of teachers, I can’t help but think how far we have to go. (Graham, 2011)

Researchers continue to explore the in- and out-of-school challenges facing Black boys in urban schools relative to their peers (Bristol, 2015b; Carey, 2015; Dumas & Nelson, 2016; Kane, 2016; Warren, 2016). At the very moment Black boys begin formal education (i.e., preschool), they are disproportionately expelled from school when compared with all other demographic groups (Gilliam, 2005; U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, 2014). These expulsion and suspension patterns hold for Black male students as they navigate the K-12 pipeline (Dumas, 2016; Howard, 2013; Johnson, 2015). In particular, at the end of the compulsory schooling continuum, the disparity between Black boys and their peers increases as it relates to high school completion (Martino, Kehler, & Weaver-Hightower, 2009). The Schott Foundation for Public Education’s (2015) Black Lives Matter: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males highlights this crisis. Nationally, during the 2012-2013 academic year, only 59% of Black male students graduated in 4 years. By contrast, approximately 65% of Latino males and 80% of White males graduated in 4 years during this time period. These gaps in 4-year graduation rates, however, are largest in urban school districts such as Atlanta (38% Black male vs. 71% White male), the District of Columbia (40% Black male vs. 73% White male), and New York City (28% Black male vs. 54% White male).

In addition, Black boys are more likely to be placed in special education (Ladson-Billings, 2011; Noguera, 2016; Thomas & Stevenson, 2009) and are 2 to 3 times more likely than their White male peers to be diagnosed as emotionally disturbed (Crothers, 2009; Strayhorn, 2016). Currently, Black students comprise 15% of the public school population, but are 33% of students classified as requiring special education services (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2009).

The in-school challenges Black boys face, on average, parallel their out-of-school challenges (Alexander, 2010; A. Cooper & Smith, 2011; Guerino, Harrison, & Sabol, 2011; Jackson, Sealey-Ruiz, & Watson, 2013). When compared with White males, Black males are about 10 times as likely to be victims of homicide (Violence Policy Center, 2015) and incarcerated, when compared with individuals from other subgroups (U.S. Sentencing Commission, 2011). In 2014, Black males between the ages of 18 and 19 were 10 times as likely to be in a state or federal correctional facility as White males in this age group (Carson, 2015). Data around the in- and out-of-school experiences for Black boys might well explain, in part, why national, state, and local education policymakers want to summon “Black men to the Blackboard.”

Theoretical Framework: Ethnic-Matching in Urban Schools

Ongoing policy efforts across urban school districts to increase the racial/ethnic composition of the country’s teaching force are bolstered by empirical evidence that establishes a positive relationship between increased learning for Black students when taught by a same-race teacher—that is, ethnic-matching (Easton-Brooks, 2014). Qualitative researchers have long explored the relationship between teacher characteristics and students’ academic outcomes (Foster, 1997; Ladson-Billings, 2009; Shipp, 1999). For example, these explorations have revealed that some White teachers in urban areas have low expectations for their economically disadvantaged Black students (Diamond, Randolph, & Spillane, 2004; Hale, 2001; Hyland, 2009). For those White teachers who lack a critical disposition, their students of color are able to recognize the culture of low expectations (Douglas, Lewis, Douglas, Scott, & Garrison-Wade, 2008; Milner, 2006). Possibly, for some Black students, it may be reasonable to conclude that having a same-race teacher could increase the likelihood of academic success because their Black teachers may be more attuned to their socioemotional needs and are able to create classroom-based conditions that facilitate learning.

More recently, with the use of value-added modeling (VAM), researchers have attached students’ test scores to individual teachers (Callender, 2004; Darling-Hammond, 2015). An analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Through Fifth Grade (ECLS-K-5) pointed to increased learning on math and English scores for Black students when taught by a Black teacher (Easton-Brooks, Lewis, & Zhang, 2010; Eddy & Easton-Brooks, 2011). Other studies drawing on longitudinal administrative data in North Carolina (Clotfelter, Ladd, & Vigdor, 2011), Florida (Egalite, Kisida, & Winters, 2015), California (Fairlie, Hoffmann, & Oreopoulos, 2014), and Tennessee (Dee, 2004) found statistically significant increases in learning for Black students when their teachers were Black. Consequently, as Dee (2005) concluded, “The most widely recommended policy response to these sorts of effects is arguably the ones that involve recruiting underrepresented teachers” (p. 8).

It is, of course, important to guard against sweeping generalizations about the dispositions of White teachers toward students of color. There are, of course, White teachers who embrace the cultural capital their students of color bring into the classroom (Goldenberg, 2014; Wallace, 2016). Moreover, researchers have documented how a subset of White teachers enact high-cognitive demand lessons (P. M. Cooper, 2003) and culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 2009) when teaching Black students.

Similarly, one should not essentialize Black teachers. For example, Milner (2010) described the distinct ways two Black teachers engage their students: Mr. Jackson, a Black male, used popular culture to connect with students, while Ms. Shaw, a Black woman, displayed a more maternal demeanor. It is also true that Black teachers, and in particular Black male teachers, can hold troubling beliefs about gender expectations (Brockenbrough, 2012) and can reproduce stereotypical sentiments about heteropatriarchy (Woodson & Pabon, 2016). However, given the growing qualitative and quantitative evidence that point to increased learning for students of color when taught by a same-race teacher, additional research is warranted on the experiences of Black teachers, particularly Black male teachers.

Only in the past decade have researchers turned their attention to an empirical investigation of Black male teachers. Almost all of this burgeoning research has focused on understanding Black male teachers’ pathways into the profession and their teaching practices (Bridges, 2011; Brockenbrough, 2015; Brown & Butty, 1999; Goings, 2015; Lynn, 2006; Lynn, Johnson, & Hassan, 1999; Sealey-Ruiz & Lewis, 2011). However, little research has explored the relationship between Black male teachers’ background characteristics and their school organizational contexts, as well as how school-based conditions shape Black male teachers’ experiences.

The BMTES and the Tripod Project

The BMTES is an attempt to bridge the empirical gap among Black male teachers by measuring this subgroup’s experiences. BMTES was informed by findings from a nonrepresentative national sample of teacher surveys within the Tripod Project (Ferguson & Bristol, 2012). In 2001, Ronald Ferguson (2007, 2010) developed the Tripod Project, which measured student engagement in classrooms. Similar to the student survey, the teacher survey asks educators (n = 3,467) in 121 schools to report on their school-based experiences and interactions with colleagues and administrators. Approximately 1.4% (49 teachers) were Black men. This percentage is marginally smaller than the national average of 1.9%.

Using White female teachers as the reference group,² the Project compared Black male and female and White male teachers. When compared with White female teachers in the same school, Black male teachers were more likely to describe their principal as being good at managing the operations of the school and a strong instructional leader, as well as allowing other teachers to influence administrative policy. Also, when compared with all other subgroups, Black male teachers suggested that they would hesitate to ask advice from most teachers at this school even if they needed help, and that other teachers in their schools did not offer advice to one another if it was not explicitly requested. Moreover, Black male teachers reported experiencing little professional support around their practice. Each of these findings was statistically significant.

An analysis of this nonrepresentative national sample of teachers suggested that Black men are “pedagogically isolated” in the schools where they teach. Black male teachers were less likely to ask for support even when they needed help with their practice; in addition, they described their colleagues as less likely to offer them support unless the Black male teachers explicitly asked for it. As professionals, teachers improve their practice through an iterative process in which they constantly receive feedback from professionals in the organization (Hill & Grossman, 2013). Because Black male teachers perceived the schools where they worked as pedagogically isolated spaces, it is less clear how, if at all, Black men could have improved their practice.

After analyzing the data from the Black male teachers, questions about the potential influences of these educators’ perceived pedagogical isolation linger. Was this isolation based on Black men presenting a “cool pose” (Majors & Billson, 1992) or an ultramasculinized posture to deflect the perceived racist environment in which they taught? Might it be that other teachers in the building contributed to developing fear or Black Misandristic (Smith, Yosso, & Solorzano, 2007) sentiments toward Black male teachers? Could the actual numbers (Hilton, 2007; Kanter, 1977) of Black male teachers in a particular school have influenced the degree to which these teachers experienced isolation?

Research Questions

In exploring the possible influences that these questions raise, this article seeks to add to the emerging literature on Black male teachers. Specifically, this article attempts to answer the following three research questions:

Research Question 1: What is the relationship between Black male teachers’ background characteristics and their school organizational contexts?

Research Question 2: How do Black male teachers make sense of their experiences as teachers in one urban district across different school contexts?

Research Question 3: How do these school contexts and experiences affect Black male teachers’ plans to stay in their schools or in teaching?

Method

Research Strategy

In this section, I describe the characteristics of the 86 Black male teachers who responded to the BMTES. Below, I present the sample mean as well as compare item responses from the Loners (12%) and Groupers (38%) groups. The term Loner is derived from the psychology literature (Svoboda, 2007) and applied to the organizational studies literature to characterize a person in an organization who does not share the same gender and/or racial/ethnic identification as another person with a similar job title. I coined the term Grouper to characterize individuals who share the same race and gender identification with individuals of similar job titles. In this study, Grouper refers to a Black male teacher in a school with four or more Black male teachers on the faculty.

In analyzing the survey responses, I considered it important to find a natural break to determine empirically the varying ways Black male teachers experienced the organization. Based on this nonrepresentative sample, I observed clear differences between respondents who were the only Black men on their faculty and respondents who were in schools with four or more Black male teachers. Consequently, my analytic strategy centered on the variation between Loner and Grouper responses.

I used descriptive statistics (Winkler & Dyckman, 2010) to analyze data from the BMTES. Descriptive statistics serve as a useful methodological tool to describe patterns in a dataset. Specifically, it was important to capture how the Black male teacher respondents reported their school-based experiences and their reasons for wanting to stay in or leave their schools. Moreover, my analysis of the BMTES provided an impression, in the aggregate, of Black male teachers’ background characteristics and their school organizational contexts; the varying experiences Black male teachers have as a result in working in different organizational contexts; and how those experiences influence their decisions to stay in or leave the profession.

Setting and Sample

Setting: Boston Public Schools (BPS)

Geographically situated in the northeast, BPS is the country’s oldest and largest urban public school system. BPS is also an ideal setting for studying Black male teachers’ school-based experiences. The school district remains under a 1970 federal desegregation court order that prohibited racial discriminatory teacher hiring practices (see Morgan v. Hennigan, 379 F. Supp. 410 [D.C. Mass., June 21, 1974]). Commonly referred to as the Garrity Decision, Judge Arthur Garrity mandated that the district be comprised of 25% Black teachers to mirror the student population.

Students’ racial composition has shifted greatly since the federal court ruling. Today, public data have suggested that the student population is approximately 41% Latino, 36% Black, 13% White, and 9% Asian. The district’s teaching force, however, has not kept pace with its student diversity. According to publicly available data, teachers self-identified as 62% White, 23% Black, 10% Hispanic, and 5% Asian.

In 2012, then-superintendent Carol Johnson outlined a plan to bolster the district’s ongoing mission to recruit, hire, retain, and support a diverse workforce that competently meets the cultural and linguistic needs of the district’s student population (Handy, 2012). One way BPS decided to study the recruitment and retention patterns of teachers of color was through the 2012 BMTES. Of all BPS teachers, 23% are Black and 5.8% are Black men. In actual numbers, of the 4,556 teachers in BPS, 266 are Black males. The district characterizes teachers as Black if they self-report as African American or of African descent from the Caribbean (e.g., Haiti) or from Cape Verde, an archipelago off Africa’s northwestern coast.

Designed under the auspices of the Office of the Achievement Gap, Johnson emailed the BMTES to all full-time Black male teachers of record in the district (n = 266). In the email, she described BPS’s continued efforts to increase the number of teachers of color and added that the BMTES will assist the district in understanding how Black male teachers “experienced recruitment and retention support in the district . . . we believe that this data will be valuable to the district as we improve our efforts to recruit and maintain a diverse workforce.” Johnson sent the email on Tuesday, June 26, 2012—3 days before the end of the school year. The timing may be one reason for the survey’s low 32% response rate. In total, 86 of the 266 Black male teachers in BPS responded to the survey; approximately 67 completed most items.

As discussed above, the questions on the BMTES were informed by findings from the Tripod Project (Ferguson, 2010). In addition to asking respondents demographic questions such as whether they received certification through traditional or alternative certification programs or how many years they have been a teacher of record, respondents also reported on their school-based experiences. Responding to a Likert-type scale (strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree, strongly agree), Black male teachers also reported whether they believed teachers of color have opportunities to influence school policy, whether being Black causes people in their schools to fear them, and what influences their school-based working conditions for staying in or leaving their schools. In an attempt to highlight whether respondents had positive, negative, or neutral feelings about each measure, I collapsed “strongly agree” and “agree” into one measure and “strongly disagree” and “disagree” into one measure.

Sample

At the time of data collection, approximately 6% of district teachers were Black men. The district categorizes schools by four distinct grade spans: K-5 (elementary), K-8 (elementary/middle), 6-8 (middle), and 9-12 (high school). On average, Black male teachers in BPS were more likely to teach in secondary schools (see Table A1). In 2012 to 2013, 61% of all Black male teachers taught in the 9-12-grade span, 17% in the 6-8 grade span, 16% were in the K-8 grade span, and 6% in the K-5 grade span.

When compared with White principals, Black principals were more likely to lead schools with larger numbers of Black male teachers (see Table A2). The same percentage (43%) of Black and White principals led schools with one Black male teacher. The overall percentage of Latino school leaders increased marginally when there were more Black men on the faculty: from 9% with no Black male teachers to 13% with three or more Black men on the faculty. There was some variation between the relationship of Asian school leaders and Black male teachers in that 3% and 7%, respectively, led schools without a Black man and one Black man on the faculty. No Asian principals led schools with three or more Black men on the faculty. Finally, of the approximately 118 BPS schools, there were slightly more Grouper schools (43) than Loner schools (28).

BPS schools without Black male teachers were more likely to be elementary schools (see Table A3). Similarly, Loners were highly concentrated in elementary schools, whereas Groupers (schools with three or more Black male teachers) were more likely to be high schools.

At this point, this article builds on the empirical research of ethnic-matching in urban schools, where policy implications point to increasing the teaching force’s racial/ethnic diversity by, first, measuring Black male teachers’ school-based experiences. The BMTES is one of the first surveys designed with the express purpose of reporting the relationship between Black male teachers’ background characteristics and their school organizational contexts, as well as how school-based conditions shape their experiences.

It is important to note that while 86 Black male teachers responded to the survey, approximately 62 answered every question. However, each Loner and Grouper responded to all survey items. Given the relatively low number of the entire sample as well as Loners and Groupers, mean testing here provides only an impression of the overall patterns that characterize Black male teachers. For each survey item, I provide the overall sample mean as well as the mean for Loners and Groupers. The absolute size of Loner (n = 8) and Grouper (n = 33) teachers provides an impression of potential patterns in the district. An increase in response rate could change some findings.

Findings

Teacher Characteristics

After disaggregating the responses of Black male teachers in schools with one Black male teacher compared with those in schools with four or more Black male teachers, I found observable differences in teacher characteristics. Again, while results should be interpreted with caution, the Black male teachers in this sample who were the only Black men on their faculty had distinct background characteristics than those in schools with many more Black male teachers. For example, Loners were more likely to be certified in alternative certification programs (see Table A4). Also, Loners on average had not attended any district schools as a student (see Table A5). In addition, Loners had a significantly higher pass rate on the MTEL (Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure) when compared with Groupers (see Table A6). Teachers can take the MTEL, which is offered monthly, as many times as necessary until they pass. However, after assuming a full-time position as a teacher of record, teachers must pass MTEL to keep their jobs. Groupers were more likely to teach in a failing or a recently reconstituted school (see Table A7). Finally, Loners were more likely to be clustered between 5 and 15 years of teaching than Groupers who were on average equally distributed across the novice-veteran continuum (see Table A8).

Relationship With the Organization

Given the current federal court order to increase the number of Black teachers, it would be reasonable to conclude there may well be some lingering resistance and potential hostility toward Black teachers in the district. While respondents reported working in a racially challenging school context, these experiences varied based on the number of Black men in the building. Groupers were more likely to be in schools where they improved instruction by analyzing their practice (see Table A9). This might be because more Groupers are in turnaround schools where the district mandates teachers to take into account students’ standardized test score data when planning. Compared with Groupers, Loners believed that teachers of color had fewer opportunities to influence school policy (see Table A10).

Moreover, Loners, when compared with Groupers, also suggested that their White colleagues were more able to influence school policies than they were (see Table A11). Such differences may account for racial preferences by school administrators when selecting teacher leaders. Finally, Loners were more likely to perceive that persons in the organization were afraid of them because of their race (see Table A12). Given that these respondents were the only Black men on the faculty, it may well be the case that their colleagues did not know how to interact with them. This might have engendered in Loners a perceived sense of fear. In the end, the differences between how these two groups related to the organization require a more nuanced understanding of the experience of Loners and Groupers in schools.

Intentions to Stay/Leave

Finally, an increased number of Black male teachers on the faculty was associated with respondents reporting a greater desire to remain at their current school. Even with the economic downturn at the time the survey was administered (2012) and the reduction in available teaching positions, Groupers suggested they would remain in their schools when compared with Loners (Table A13). Specifically, Loners noted that challenges with colleagues influenced their decisions to leave. If, as Ingersoll and May (2011) suggested, Black male teachers were more likely to leave their schools at a higher rate than other subgroups, it may be the case that Black men teaching in gender- and racially isolated spaces may account for a greater proportion of those “leavers.”

It is important to note that Black male teachers’ reports were based on their intentions to stay or leave rather than their actual decisions. Consequently, the data collected did not provide any indication whether teachers followed through on their reports. Research, however, has suggested that teachers do indeed follow through on their reports to stay in or leave their schools (Marinell & Coca, 2013).

Discussion

Findings from this study suggested that the background characteristics, school-based experiences, and intentions to stay in or leave one’s school varied, based on whether one is the only Black male teacher on the faculty or is one of many more Black male teachers on the faculty. Loners were more likely to receive their teacher training through an alternative certification program and pass the teacher certification exam on the first attempt than Groupers. Moreover, Loners were more likely to believe that White teachers influenced school policy than teachers of color, reported that being Black caused people to fear them in their schools, and said they were more likely to report wanting to leave their schools.

Groupers were less likely to report racial tension as an issue at their schools. This may be due, in part, to the actual number of Black male teachers present. Schools with larger numbers of Black men may feel more welcoming to Black male teachers than schools with only one Black male on the faculty. Such an environment for Groupers may begin to explain why these respondents were less likely than Loners to attribute conflict with other adults in the building as a result of being a Black male.

Finally, Loners were more likely to report wanting to leave their schools. The effect of racial and gender isolation coupled with strained relationships with the adults in the building appeared to influence Loners’ decisions to want to leave. Loners cited relationships with colleagues and administrators as their two primary reasons for wanting to leave. This study design did not include a follow-up survey to see whether participants did, in fact, leave. However, the finding that Loners were more likely than Groupers to want to leave suggested that the challenges surrounding being the only Black male teacher may contribute to turnover.

Recommendations

Based on the aforementioned findings, urban school districts should consider the following recommendations in their efforts to increase, support, and retain Black male teachers, specifically, and teachers of color, generally:

Urban school districts should develop teacher surveys, or add items to existing surveys, that ask educators to report their school-based experiences related to race, gender, and sexuality. The BMTES was the first such survey administered by an urban school district. Administrators and policymakers may find it challenging to make evidence-based decisions around recruiting and retaining teachers of color without district-wide data on the experiences of teachers of color.

Urban school districts should develop “differentiated professional development” in their ongoing efforts to support Black male teachers and teachers of color (Bristol, 2015a). Given some of the challenges Black male teachers reported with their colleagues, in particular Loners, district administrators should create supports to attend to the unique socioemotional challenges these teachers describe. In schools, we differentiate learning for students based on their social location—we do not, however, differentiate learning for adults.

Senior district administrators should organize racial/gender awareness training for school-based administrators. Some of the school organizational challenges Black male teachers reported with their colleagues and administrators could be addressed if principals developed tools and strategies for creating more equitable workplaces. While building administrators may receive ongoing support around being an instructional leader, it is less clear how district administrators are equipping principals to respond to the varying racial and gender challenges that arise in the organization.

Footnotes

Appendix

Table A13.

If the Economic Climate Was Better and You Could Find Employment at Another School or in a Different Profession, Would You Leave Your School?

Black maleteachers	Yes%	No%
Sample mean (n = 62)	40	60
Loners (n = 8)	62	38
Groupers (n = 33)	27	73

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

Author Biography

Travis J. Bristol, PhD is an assistant professor of Education at the Boston University School of Education. His research agenda is centered on three interrelated strands: (1) district and school-based practices that support teachers of color; (2) national, state, and local education policies that enable and constrain the workplace experiences and retention for teachers of color; (3) the intersection of race and gender in schools. His research has appeared in Education Policy Analysis Archives, Gender and Education, and Phi Delta Kappan.

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