The problem of diversity is becoming more difficult here as more and more teachers from outside of the neighborhood and the city take local teaching jobs. The Orleans Parish School Board fired all of its teachers following the storm, and the new charter and state-run schools that replaced the old ones relied heavily upon programs such as Teach For America, who mostly import teachers from other parts of the country. Although there’s no data yet breaking down the shifting percentages of local versus native teachers, Doug Harris, the director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans, said “the teacher workforce is certainly more heavily white and less African American than it used to be.” Harris’ research alliance plans to release the first detailed report on changing teacher demographics in the city next fall. The fact that the city’s public schools now accept students from all over the city only makes this problem worse since it breaks the connection between schools and their neighborhoods.
Truly understanding the environment that students come from – rather than just knowing the statistics that describe their lives – can benefit teachers and students. I firmly believe that having more local teachers and more teachers who understand the city’s social and political problems can provide students with the training they need to be successful as students and as adults. If we replace tactics such as hiring teachers from outside of the city or state with methods that focus on hiring qualified local teachers, we can greatly improve the quality of education.
This essay is part of a collaboration between The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University, and high school students at Bard’s Early College in New Orleans.