But one day I started noticing exceptions. My fifth period history and civics teacher, Mr. Allen, was one of them. When chaos erupted at the end of the lunch hour, he simply opened his door and let his students into his classroom. They filed in respectfully, unlike in other classes. By the time the tardy bell rang, we’d all taken our seats and opened our history books, quietly awaiting further instructions.
Mr. Allen is one of too few black teachers in a school system where about 90 percent of students are black, and I think that shared background helped explain our behavior. Many other teachers cannot control their classes, let alone get their students interested in the work. Mr. Allen can do both.
In my school, as in many schools — especially in reform-oriented school districts — a lot of the good, black teachers have been replaced by younger white teachers. Before Hurricane Katrina in 2005, nearly 75 percent of the city’s public school teachers were black. That began to change after Katrina, when charter schools began to grow in number. The percentage of minority teachers across New Orleans public schools dropped from 60 percent to 54 percent between 2010 and 2013, according to data compiled by Tulane University’s Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives. This troubles me. Particularly upsetting to me was the departure of the music teacher, a veteran black educator who helped run the New Tech school choir and put together trips for students.