Education program seeks to increase minority teachers
May 1st, 2006
By Todd Wetzel
You don’t need skills in higher mathematics to see that the need for minority teachers in the classroom is growing. Quite simply, the number leaving the profession is greater than the number entering it.
A large number of minority teachers trained in the 1970s have retired or are nearing retirement, but the number of minority students in education programs has dropped since the 1980s, said Lohelen Hambrick, director of the Minority Teacher Recruitment Program at the University of Louisville.
As the need for minority teachers grows each year, the MTRP, housed in the College of Education and Human Development, has taken on the challenge of finding them.
The program’s purpose is to help more minorities become teachers in elementary, middle and secondary schools throughout Kentucky by “providing them with the financial support and services they need to be successful in college and, subsequently, in the classroom,” Hambrick said.
And it seems to be working. Since Hambrick became director in 2001, minority enrollment in the College of Education and Human Development has gone from 109 participants to 211 participants.
Minority graduation rates have skyrocketed as well: 30 minority students earned a master’s education degree in 2004-2005, up from four in 2000-2001.
One boost to minority enrollment in the College of Education has been people who are seeking a second career. The college’s alternative certification program targets areas with a critical need for teachers, such as mathematics, science and special education, and allows people with bachelor’s degrees to teach in a classroom while working toward their education degrees, Hambrick said.
MTRP offers minority students career guidance, course advising, professional development seminars, tutoring and financial support, but the first step is recruiting the students to the university to become teachers.
“There are many reasons why it has been difficult to recruit minority students into education,” Hambrick said. “Some don’t want to work for the salary a teacher makes, and others don’t think they are equipped to help the many needs of today’s children, so many are turning to other degree programs. I want to help them see the value and importance of educating children.”
Hambrick works closely with Jefferson County Public Schools and the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative (OVEC), a group made up of 14 school districts in Kentucky surrounding JCPS, to recruit minority students. She meets individually with eighth graders, juniors and seniors and with groups of students with an interest in teaching. She also visits Future Educators of America clubs, attends high school recruitment programs and college fairs and hosts a “Camp Visit Day” each fall for high school students.
MTRP has partnered with education magnet schools Doss and Atherton high schools, and hosts a spring recruitment dinner for juniors, parents and counselors.
Most recently, the program created a summer camp for juniors and seniors in the Future Educators of America.
“The students come on campus and go through various activities and projects to learn what is involved with teaching and the kinds of contributions minority teachers have made in the classroom,” Hambrick said.
Hambrick isn’t the only one involved in recruiting.
Current minority education students indirectly serve as recruiters. Through participation in reading and tutoring programs in schools, they act as “as role models to help younger children see the importance of going to college and possibly even in becoming a teacher,” she said.
