A new measure passed with overwhelming support in the Indiana legislature aims to encourage more minority students to pursue careers in school administration.
Rep. Donna Harris, D-East Chicago, authored House Bill 1179, which expands an already-existing scholarship fund to include a wider range of minority students.
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence signed the bill into law the following week.
Prior to Harris’ proposed changes, the policy offered stipends up to $5,000 paid directly to certain qualified minority students who were completing the student teaching assignments required for their teaching degrees. With Harris’ changes, qualified minority students who are completing graduate-level internships in school administration can also be eligible for the stipend.
“It is important we work to ensure minorities are becoming involved in the educational process,” Harris said in a statement. “The change to this scholarship would help guarantee we are supporting those interested in the administration and operation of a school as well as assisting those who aspire to become teachers.”
Justin Ohlemiller, executive director of Stand for Children Indiana, praised the passage of the amended stipend program as a positive step in the right direction.
“It is not only important to have teachers in front of the classroom who reflect the community they’re teaching in,” he said, “but it’s important to have diversity in the administrative ranks as well, leaders who are able to connect with and understand challenges of students in their communities …
“Those educators come with a perspective that is unique to their life experience.”
Ohlemiller said he finds the number of minority teachers and school leaders “alarming,” compared to the number of minority students enrolled.
According to data from the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE), the percentage of minority students in Indiana public schools outpaces the percentage of minority teachers. In the 2013–14 school year, 70.9 percent of Indiana public school students were white, 12.3 percent were Black and 10.1 percent were Hispanic. In the same year, 94.7 percent of Indiana public school teachers were white, 4.1 percent were Black and 1.2 percent were Hispanic.
Studies and stories on diversity among school administrators aren’t as readily available as resources about diversity among teachers, but numbers from IDOE show a similar disparity. Of 3,331 Indiana school administrators in 2015, 89 percent were white, 9 percent were Black and only 1 percent were Hispanic. Nationwide, 2015 numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said only 13.4 percent of education administrators were Black or African-American and 9.3 percent were Hispanic or Latino.
Current trends in U.S. population and the teaching profession show these gaps will likely continue to widen.
“This minority teacher shortage becomes more acute each year,” the National Education Association (NEA) has said. “Such a crisis could lead to a failure of all American students to learn the academic, personal and social skills they need in the multicultural workplace of the future.”
In response to the looming issue, the NEA has issued a formal policy resolution on minority educators.
“The National Education Association believes that multiracial teaching staffs are essential to the operation of schools. The Association deplores the current trend of diminishing numbers of ethnic minority educators,” the resolution says. “The Association urges local and state affiliates and appropriate governing bodies and agencies to work to increase the number of ethnic-minority teachers and administrators to a percentage at least equal to, but not limited to, the percentage of the ethnic minorities in the general population.”
Ohlemiller knows groups like Stand for Children Indiana have their work cut out for them.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us to really raise the teaching profession up,” Ohlemiller said. “(We need to) overhaul the profession itself and make sure teaching is seen as a career path with similar prestige or importance to being a lawyer or a doctor.”
