Education
Do metro Atlanta schools need more black male teachers?
Chemistry teacher Ronald Saint-Preux passes out a periodic table with additional information on it that his students can use on their test at Dunwoody High School. . TAYLOR CARPENTER / TAYLOR.CARPENTER@AJC.COM
A good man is hard to find, they say, and metro school systems can vouch for that in recruiting teachers.
Educational research says one thing that can be a big help to youngsters in school, particularly male minority students, is a man in the classroom. Yet most teachers in metro Atlanta, like the rest of the country, are not men.
Locally, district leaders are also having trouble keeping minority teachers, but have been able to replace the ones they lose. In Gwinnett County, black male teachers consistently have made up between 2 and 3 percent of the district’s teaching staff going back to 2011. In DeKalb County over the same period, black male teachers have accounted for about 15 percent of the total. In Atlanta Public Schools, about 13 percent of the teaching staff is black male teachers. In Fulton County, they make up just over 5 percent. In Cobb County, about 3 percent of teachers are black males.
A few good men regard teaching as a privilege, yet the proportion of men who join or remain in the ranks of teachers remains small. Find out why in our story here, on myajc.com.
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