In the United States most school teachers are white women. Data released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in July 1997 show that, in 1993-94, almost three-quarters of all public and private school teachers were women (73% and 75% respectively). In kindergarten and general elementary school classrooms the predominance of women teachers was 91% in public schools and 93% in private schools. Most teachers also were white: 87%. Compared to 16% percent of students who were black, non-Hispanic, only 9% of their teachers also were black, non-Hispanic. About 12% of students were Hispanic; only 4% of teachers were Hispanic.(1)

Clearly there is a need to recruit men and minorities into teaching, if for no other reason than to provide children and youth with adult models who mirror their race and sex. But, in fact, there are myriad other reasons. The purpose of this special report is to examine reasons for recruiting men and minorities into teaching, to explore why more men and minorities do not enter teaching, and to review ways that Phi Delta Kappa might assist in addressing this situation.

PDK and the Recruitment of Men

The First Legislative Council, held in October 1997, passed a motion suggesting that consideration be given to developing greater awareness of the need for men in teaching at the elementary school level, noting that "a need exists for male influence among the elementary-age students particularly, because of the lack of male influence in the home." But the issue of recruiting men into teaching is not a new one for PDK. The men of Phi Delta Kappa -- for only men could become Kappans prior to 1974 -- wrestled early in the fraternity's existence with the problem of recruiting men into teaching.

The early Kappans(2) saw the PDK mission as one of building the profession of education, in J. David Houser's words from his 1924 history of the fraternity, "out of what had been a more or less casual occupation."

The need to recruit men for the purpose of raising the status of teaching to the level of a "true profession" is a predominant theme through much of the fraternity's first half-century. This theme was a product of the early 20th-century ethos that gave rise not only to PDK in 1906 but to a number of male-only organizations whose main purpose was to enlarge or to maintain the status power of men. The fledgling profession of teaching, the contemporary wisdom held, would be strengthened by the societal power status of male teachers, if only more men could be enticed to become teachers.

As recently as 1969, shortly after the establishment of the Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, PDK published a small monograph (a forerunner of the fastback) titled, Teaching: A Career for a Man. Written by William E. Goldmann, this publication was the result of a project by the Phi Delta Kappa Commission on Strengthening the Teaching Profession. Goldmann wrote, in part, that

the more men who choose teaching as a career and who work actively through their local, state, and national organizations to improve the status of their occupation, the more direct and beneficial will be the impact of their efforts in making teaching an even more worthy choice for a young man.(3)

Status and economics go hand in hand. Economic benefits also could gained by the recruitment of more men into the teaching profession. But, like the status argument, the economic-benefit argument is circular: More men will create a better (higher status, higher pay) profession; a better profession will attract more men to become teachers. Perhaps this is the reason why so much of the rhetoric surrounding the issue of recruiting men into teaching sounds the same from year to year.

For example, in 1921 Kappans suggested several approaches to recruiting men into teaching:

Active recruitment, including the publication of literature "setting forth opportunities in education," exhorting the "desirability of entering upon a life work containing opportunities of large social service," and calling attention "to the rapidly developing scientific character of educational work."

• Increasing financial returns for educational work, largely to focus on educating "the public to pay better salaries."
• Raising the standards of the profession by insisting "upon higher qualifications" and putting "educational work on a professional basis."
• Improving public appreciation of educational work through "efforts to influence constructively the attitude of the public toward the schools and toward those responsible for the work going forward in them."
• Improving the attitude toward the profession of those engaged in it, largely by helping "to develop the professional spirit" and by striving "for the general acceptance of a professional code."
• Increasing the permanence of tenure through the passage of tenure laws and advocacy for pension systems.
• Participating in the life of the community, meaning that those engaged in "educational work should take part to a greater extent and more effectively in the life and activities of their respective communities."

These approaches merit consideration in today's context -- a teaching profession on the threshold of a new century in which the classroom is still dominated by women. But they also merit expansion beyond the narrow focus on men, for men are not the only underrepresented group in today's classrooms.

PDK and the Recruitment of Minorities

The issue of recruiting minorities into teaching has a briefer history within Phi Delta Kappa. Not only did PDK begin as an all-male association, but membership early on was restricted to white men. The "white clause," as it was called, was set in place at the Sixth National Council, held in August 1915. (That meeting also formalized the all-male status of the organization.) Paul Cook's 1931 history mentions that the white clause also "was decisively supported" the following year.

World War I intervened, and the Eighth National Council was not held until 1920. At that council Cook recorded "the third successive affirmation of the 'white clause' in the constitution." There is no further mention of the white clause in Cook's history; however, the limitation on membership was not removed until World War II, in 1942.

There is little evidence that the fraternity was involved with race issues in teaching until the mid-1960s and certainly not before the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which began the desegregation of American schools. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 seems to have stirred the fraternity to greater action on the educational front. The May 1964 Kappan was a special issue devoted to the problems of school desegregation. And the September 1964 Kappan included "In the Battle for Desegregation: What Are the Flanking Skirmishes? What Is the Fundamental Struggle?"(4) In that article, the author, U.S. Commissioner of Education Francis Keppel, argued strongly against segregation in schools.

Keppel's exhortation was bolstered by an uncredited article on page 26 of that issue. "To Achieve Both Integration and Quality" touted the accomplishments of the Greenburgh, New York, school district, where the school board had adopted in 1951 "a policy of complete integration, abolished its de facto segregated neighborhood schools, and reorganized the school system on a grade level basis." However, a small piece on that same page reported:

A plan to improve interracial education by having white and Negro teachers in the Indianapolis schools swap classes for a semester or a year bogged down when only eight teachers volunteered for the exchange. Although the eight volunteers included four white teachers and four Negro teachers, no exchange was possible, because they taught different subjects and different grades.

About this time Phi Delta Kappa also created a Commission on Education and Human Rights and secured a grant from the U.S. Office of Education, which, in part, supported the publication of a number of small monographs (again, forerunners of the fastback series, which was not initiated until 1972) that dealt with desegregation issues. Among these monographs were: Planning and Preparing for Successful School Desegregation (1965), by Herber Wey; Inner-City Schools and the Beginning Teacher (1966), by Daniel U. Levine and Russell C. Doll; and, between 1966 and 1969, a series of monographs written by James H. Bash (sometimes with Thomas J. Morris or Roger L. Long) that included discussions of teaching, administration, inservice planning, faculty desegregation, and community resources related to desegregation of the schools.

James Bash continued the theme of his earlier writing in one of the first fastbacks, 32 Effective Teaching in the Desegregated School (1973), but it was not until 1989 that the fastback series tackled the issue of minority recruitment head-on with fastback 290 Recruiting Minorities into Teaching. This fastback, written by Rita G. Greer and William L. Husk, recounted the experiences of the Jefferson County Public Schools of Louisville, Kentucky, in responding to the need to recruit minority teachers in that system.

Why Recruit Men and Minorities?

The two primary reasons for recruiting men and minorities into teaching can be drawn from the preceding sections and from other writings: to raise the status of the profession and to provide role models.

Raise the Status of the Profession. Disproportionate social status -- historically, to be sure, but today as well -- means that men are accorded higher status, greater power, and better pay than women. Professions (or occupations) dominated by women are lower status and lower paid. Therefore, by recruiting men into classroom teaching, the profession of teaching itself might be raised in status; and teachers might be granted better pay. If this could be made to happen, then recruiting men in the future would be easier, because men would then be attracted by the higher status and higher pay.

The notion of raising the status of the profession through the recruitment of men extends to the recruitment of minorities in another way. Rita Greer and William Husk(5), writing in the late 1980s, noted that some demographers predicted a steady decline in minority teachers during the 1990s, perhaps to about 5% by the year 2000. (Black educators had declined to 8% of the teacher workforce by the start of the 1990s.)(6) One reason for that decline is that teaching is no longer seen as one of the few ways for black men and women to enter the professions, which was the case earlier in the century. Greer and Husk noted that 14.5% of the degrees awarded to black men in 1975-76 were in education, but that percentage had dropped to 10.5% in 1981-82. For black women the drop was even more precipitous, from 31.7% in 1975-76 to only 19% in 1981-82.

Howard Hill(7), examining the recruitment of black men and women into education in 1994, affirmed the greater range of jobs open to African Americans today. But he also suggested eight other reasons for the decline, including:

• Teaching perceived as low status by younger African Americans;
• Salaries in teaching less attractive than in other professions;
• Teaching as relatively dangerous because of the proliferation of school violence;
• State regulatory policies and entry-level testing that blocks a relatively large percentage of African Americans from choosing teaching as a career;
• Teaching and learning seen as negative among many black students;
• Lack of professional esteem and recognition for the teaching profession;
• A legacy of problems from school integration in the 1960s; and
• A perceived lack of support from parents and guardians regarding their children's education.

More minority teachers (not just African Americans), to follow the status-economic argument, are needed to raise the status of the profession, not least of all in the eyes of minority individuals themselves, who have come to see teaching in less positive terms than in the past.

Provide Role Models. Hill carried the argument for minority teachers a step further when he commented:

Few experiences are more disheartening than visiting schools where there are more African-American students (and other minorities) than white students, but the majority of their teachers, counselors, school support personnel -- and often the principals -- are white. It is even more disheartening that these schools usually are located in neighborhoods and communities where a majority of residents are African Americans or other minorities. African Americans, at one time, were highly visible in such schools. But where are the black educators now?(8)

The presence of successful males and minorities as role models might do much to overcome the negative messages sent by their absence.

Another dimension of this argument for role models cites changes in the family, in particular the increase in the number of single-parent families in which the only parent in the home is female. Social psychologists argue the need for more men in classrooms to provide positive male role models. It is not unreasonable, given this argument, to posit that the more successful the single-parent, female-headed family (replicated in the school by the successful female teaching corps), the less attractive -- less familiar to young people -- will be the so-called traditional family. However, there is a problem with this argument. While the percentage of families headed by a single parent has grown -- 24% in 1990 compared to 7.4% in 1950(9) -- the number of male-headed, single-parent families also has grown -- 341,000 in 1970 to 1.2 million in 1990 -- a whopping 238%.(10)

Does this set of demographics diminish the argument that more male role models are needed in schools? No. If anything, the demographics -- both those related to men and those related to minorities -- point to the conclusion reached by Howard Hill: "Our diverse nation needs equally diverse schools -- diverse students, diverse teachers, diverse administrators."(11)

Strategies for Recruiting Men and Minorities

Following are 28 suggestions for recruiting teachers, adapted from an article by L.R. Kilzer, published in the April 1957 issue of the Phi Delta Kappan. Readers might well ask how such a list from more than 40 years ago could possibly be relevant today. The answer is rather simple: The strategies work when they are applied with a will to succeed.

Kilzer's Kappan piece grew out of the previous month's announced initiative to recruit teachers, a then-new national program of the fraternity's Commission on the Selective Recruitment of Teachers. A preliminary blurb admonishes readers that these practices "deserve the attention of individuals and chapters anxious to join this effort."(12)

1. Award scholarships to prospective teachers.

2. Develop pride in being a teacher.

3. Sponsor F.T.A. (or F.E.A.) chapters both in high schools and in colleges and universities.

4. Sponsor student-teacher associations.

5. Strive to secure higher salaries for teachers.

6. Secure the assistance of high school teachers in the recruitment of promising young people.

7. Secure the assistance of parents in the recruitment of their children as teachers.

8. Secure the help of other organizations, such as the P.T.A. and service clubs.

9. Encourage substitute teachers to accept full-time positions.

10. Conduct career days for prospective teachers.

11. Encourage college graduates not qualified as teachers to take the necessary additional courses by correspondence, by extension, or in residence.

12. Use orientation trips to teachers colleges and colleges of education.

13. Conduct prospective teachers on tours of elementary and secondary schools.

14. Make use of guidance departments by giving interest and aptitude tests to prospective teachers.

15. Set up high standards for entrance and retention in the teaching profession.

16. Use local and statewide radio and television.

17. Ask the local newspaper to run editorials "encouraging capable folks to become teachers."

18. Induce former teachers to take refresher courses and to take positions as substitute teachers or part-time or full-time teachers.

19. Employ adults without specific training for teaching to become teacher aides to relieve the regular teacher of many nonprofessional duties.

20. Make annual studies of supply and demand of teachers, and distribute the findings widely.

21. Provide informative pamphlets and booklets to prospective teachers.

22. Offer elective courses in education for college students who have not decided on a career.

23. Offer a unit on teaching within the standard high school social studies course.

24. Offer an elective class on teaching during the senior year of high school.

25. Re-examine programs for preparation of teachers and certification requirements that may be too extensive or too rigid.

26. Ask liberal arts departments to urge some of their students to become teachers in order to raise the quality of their own future students.

27. Give public recognition to outstanding teachers.

28. Use films depicting the advantages and disadvantages of the teaching profession.

Readers doubtless will say, "But we've done all of these things and still the problem of recruitment persists!" Many readers in 1957 probably said the same thing, reflecting on similar lists from previous years. Indeed, many of these 28 suggestions are perennial. They can be successful -- and have been successful in certain settings. But, as yet, no one has discovered a cure-all for lagging recruitment of men and minorities in general. Are there other strategies?

Rita Greer and William Husk, in fastback 290 Recruiting Minorities into Teaching,(13) took a localized action approach. They advocated a collaborative effort with roles that can be summarized as follows:

Community. Provide a support network and offer financial assistance through community organizations, such as the Urban League, NAACP, and minority social fraternities and sororities. Create a core of "Friends of Education" to serve as "grassroots recruiters."

School District. Encourage teacher aides, substitute teachers, and noncertified personnel to obtain teacher certification. Create a staff position in the personnel department that is devoted to teacher recruitment. Develop cooperative programs with teacher associations and colleges and universities to guarantee employment to students who persist in the teacher education program.

University. Counsel minority candidates with regard to careers in teaching. Develop greater flexibility in course requirements to take into consideration family and job responsibility, particularly for nontraditional students, many of whom are minority students.

Teaching Profession. Local teacher organizations can "adopt" minority students who indicate an interest in teaching as a career and provide scholarship assistance. Day-to-day interaction with teachers should model education as a career, and teachers "are in an ideal position to identify, encourage, and recruit others to the teaching profession."

If such local collaborations could be widely replicated, undoubtedly the profession as a whole would benefit. Much in this collaborative, grassroots approach lends itself to borrowing from the list of 28 suggestions.

But what about a different tack? Gene Maeroff sails into the wind of controversy when he debunks notions of low salaries and low esteem as prime reasons that qualified individuals reject teaching as a career. Instead, Maeroff suggests that the disincentives have more to do with what he calls "matters of the body and matters of the mind."(14) Says Maeroff,

On the one hand, public schools can be demeaning and even physically dangerous places to work. On the other hand, schools can be mentally stifling places, where the mind seems to stagnate. Together, adverse circumstances in both spheres create and sustain a culture for those who work in schools that makes teaching less than attractive. Addressing these matters would go a long way toward enabling public schools to attract and retain more of the highly able people. . . .(15)

Maeroff advocates greater collegiality and "intellectual wherewithal" to make teaching more learner-centered. He urges empowering teachers to "rise above the norm," because "a teacher who is knowledgeable achieves greater status." By addressing these matters, Maeroff believes, "schools are apt to be places in which able young people want to work."(16)

Summary

The challenge to recruit men and minorities into teaching is great. And because the challenge is multidimensional, the way that challenge is answered also must be multidimensional.

Local, grassroots programs to recruit the best and brightest among men and minorities are necessary, and PDK chapters throughout the world can lend a hand in the activities suggested in this report. Those grassroots programs also can be reported and summarized, as PDK often has done in fastbacks and other publications, so that such programs can be replicated. (See, for example, fastback 436, Recruiting Minority Teachers: The UTOP Program, published in 1998.)

A national effort also is needed that is more than a weaving together of grassroots efforts. Such a national effort is not something that Phi Delta Kappa International can undertake alone. But PDK can support such an undertaking, as it currently does, through its advocacy on behalf of the public schools. This also is a way that chapters can participate in the effort -- localizing the advocacy initiative, for example, by sponsoring a local forum of the need for the public schools.

A guide for conducting a local forum on the need for the public schools is available from Phi Delta Kappa International, P.O. Box 789, Bloomington, IN 47402-0789, or by calling 1-800-766-1156 or (812) 339-1156.

The vast majority of American children will continue to be educated in public schools. The future of those children -- indeed, of democracy itself -- depends on keeping the public schools strong and supporting their improvement. The public schools need balanced representation in the teaching corps, and that means that the recruitment of men and minorities must be given higher priority and greater, sustained effort than ever before.

1Henke, Robin R., et al. America's Teachers: Profile of a Profession 1993-94. NCES 97-460. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, July 1997.

2The amalgamation of Pi Kappa Mu, Phi Delta Kappa, and Nu Rho Beta in a single fraternity, Phi Delta Kappa, occurred in 1910; the oldest of the original fraternities, Pi Kappa Mu, was founded in 1906.

3Goldmann, William E. Teaching: A Career for a Man. Bloomington, Ind.: Phi Delta Kappa, 1969, p. 4.

4Keppel, Francis. "In the Battle for Desegregation: What Are the Flanking Skirmishes? What Is the Fundamental Struggle?" Phi Delta Kappan, 46:1 (September 1964): 3-5.

5Greer, Rita G., and Husk, William L. Recruiting Minorities into Teaching. Fastback 290. Bloomington, Ind.: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1989.

6National Center for Educational Statistics. Racial Makeup of the Teaching Force. (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 1992.

7Hill, Howard. "Enhancing the Presence of African-American Teachers." In D. Walling, ed., Teachers as Leaders: Perspectives on the Professional Development of Teachers. Bloomington, Ind.: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1994.

8Ibid., p. 66.

9Outtz, Janice H. The Demographics of American Families. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Educational Leadership, Center for Demographic Policy, 1993.

10Ibid.

11Hill, op cit., p. 75.

12Kilzer, L.R. "Some Devices Used to Recruit Teachers." Phi Delta Kappan, 38:7 (April 1957): 275-76.

13Greer and Husk, op cit., pp. 29-31.

14Maeroff, Gene. "On Matters of Body and Mind: Overcoming Disincentives to a Teaching Career." In D. Walling, ed., Teachers as Leaders: Perspectives on the Professional Development of Teachers. Bloomington, Ind.: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, 1994.

15Ibid., p. 47.

16Ibid., p. 55.