INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana's efforts to draw good teachers to classrooms as school districts face financial problems and pressure to perform could boil down to appealing to values, a state education official says.
Attorney Shanida Sharp-Byrnes, the new diversity coordinator for the Indiana Department of Education, says good educators are change agents and can be the key to closing the achievement gap that plagues poor and minority students. But with $300 million cut from education funding statewide, she'll have to appeal to those teachers on a level that isn't financial.
"Teachers can make the difference in a child's life," Sharp-Byrnes told CNHI. "Good teachers are inspired to do that."
A study by the Washington-based Center on Education Policy analyzed the number of students passing ISTEP exams from 2002 through 2008. It showed that 71 percent of white students passed the eighth-grade math test in 2002, while 80 percent passed in 2008. Black students went from 32 percent passing in 2002 to 49 percent passing in 2008. Latino students jumped from 51 percent passing in 2002 to 61 percent in 2008.
Efforts to close the gap include "cultural competency" campaigns to encourage teachers to examine hidden biases in their interactions with students.
State figures show 95 percent of public school teachers in Indiana are white. But more than 22 percent of students are black or Latino.
"We need to recruit more people of color to go into the teaching profession," said Sharp-Byrnes. "We need them as strong role models."
The federal No Child Left Behind law requires the state to ensure that poor and minority students have the same access to highly qualified teachers that their more affluent white peers do.
Indiana University law professor Leonard Fromm said the changes won't come overnight.
"She's not just helping someone cross the river," Fromm said of Sharp-Byrnes. "She has to build the road to get the bridge that crosses the river. Nobody should expect quick results."
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