CSUN Education School Strives to Lure, Keep Minorities

At a time when minority enrollment in public schools across the nation is on the rise, the percentage of minority members teaching in those classrooms is heading downward.

The imbalance is so bad that educators fear that many of today’s kindergartners will never have been taught by a black, Latino or Asian by the time they graduate from high school in the year 2000.

In an ambitious effort to turn the numbers around, the School of Education at California State University, Northridge has intensified its effort, first to attract minority students, then to keep the students on track toward a teaching career.

The CSUN program is unusual because, unlike several other California State University campuses, the sprawling San Fernando Valley campus has never had a large enrollment of minority students.

That percentage has risen in recent years, but minority attendance in CSUN’s School of Education remains relatively low. Only 3% of the 1,500 students pursuing teaching credentials are black, 8% are Latino, 4% are Asian, and the rest are white, according to enrollment figures.

“This campus is not in a densely populated minority area, so we have to make a special effort to attract minorities,� said Dolores Escobar, associate dean of CSUN’s education school.

Minority members make up about 30% of the nation’s school-age children and 33% of preschool-age children, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But they account for only 12.5% of the nation’s 2.5-million primary-school and secondary-school teaching force.

If education school enrollment patterns are not reversed by 1990, only 5% of the nation’s teachers will be from minority groups, analysts report. If the minority teaching corps remains that small, the average student can expect to encounter only two minority instructors out of the 40 teachers he will have during his schooling, according to education center researchers.

District 84% Minority

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, in which about two-thirds of CSUN graduates teach, the situation is not much better.

Members of minorities make up about 84% of the 592,000 students in the school system, according to enrollment records. But only 37% of the district’s 29,000 teachers are from minorities, school officials report.

Moreover, the number of minority teachers joining the district’s ranks is declining.

Last fall, only 11% of the district’s new teachers were black. Traditionally, blacks have made up about 20% of the teaching force. The percentage of Asian teachers slid from 7% to 6%. The only minority group to increase was Latinos, making up 14% of the latest crop of instructors. Overall, Latinos account for 10% of the district’s teachers.

“Every summer, when I look at the teacher applicants in our waiting room, I see less and less color,� said Mike Acosta, the district’s coordinator of teacher recruitment.

Educators blame the shrinking pool of minority teachers, in part, on a recent decline in the number of minority young people going to college. They blame that on a growing high-school dropout rate among minorities, rising college tuition and shrinking federal aid programs for students.

Besides, teaching is no longer one of the few professions open to minorities. In the wake of the civil rights movement, opportunities for minorities are expanding in business and industry.

Possibly Harmful Effect

If the trend continues unchecked, educators fear that minority and Anglo students alike may be harmed. They say a lack of minority teachers leaves poor black, Latino and Asian children with the impression that people of color never hold professional positions. It leaves Anglo students with that same impression.

“In order to establish healthy attitudes about the role of minority groups in our multicultural society, white children must come into contact with authority figures who happen to be black or Hispanic. The best place for this to happen is in a school setting,� said Henry E. Hankerson, a department chairman in the School of Education at Howard University in Washington.

To draw more minorities into teaching, CSUN officials have, among other things, started to go off campus to drum up interest in teaching among youngsters as young as 13 and 14.

“Even at this young age, it is important to get students to focus on a career and for them to take courses that meet college entrance requirements,� said Jackie Joseph, CSUN associate vice president in charge of recruitment and equal opportunity programs.

Joseph says she looks for future teachers by going to churches and fraternal organizations as well as junior and senior high schools in minority neighborhoods.

Once students enter the CSUN School of Education, they find support programs to help them along the way. Staff members are available to make sure that they take the right courses, graduate and pass a state-mandated competence test.

The CSUN programs do not end with graduation. To help young teachers make the transition into the classroom, the education school has established a mentor program, an emergency telephone hot line, and Saturday workshops where they can get advice and learn tricks of the trade, such as how to keep a classroom quiet while they work with individual students.

In an attempt to further improve the effort, the college in 1986 established the All-University Teaching Council. The committee makes policy recommendations to CSUN departments on preparation and recruitment of teachers.

And, for the past 15 years, the campus has been home to Operation Chicano Teacher, an innovative program to recruit and give academic support to Latino students interested in education careers. Run by the Chicano Studies Department, it has served about 400 students since 1973.

“The idea was that Chicano studies could identify potential bilingual teachers and then provide them with a homelike setting and a support network that would help them succeed,� said Marta Sanchez, director of the program since 1982.

But, even with such efforts, School of Education Dean Carolyn Ellner is not satisfied. “We can do better,� she said flatly.

The problems CSUN has had in attracting minorities into teaching are mirrored at the 18 other CSU campuses.

Systemwide, education school figures show that Latinos account for 7% of the enrollment, blacks 6%, Asians 4% and American Indians about 1%. Whites make up 81% of the enrollment, according to the CSU Division of Analytic Studies. About 70% of California public school teachers are CSU graduates, state records show.

The reasons minority students are turning their backs on teaching careers are varied.

Fewer members of minorities are going to college. Although overall minority enrollment at CSUN has increased in the last decade, nationally the figures have declined.

Black Enrollment Down

In 1976, for instance, blacks accounted for 9.3% of all college students. By 1983, the most recent year figures are available, black enrollment had dipped to 8.8%, according to a 1986 report by the American Council on Education.

At CSUN, minority enrollment substantially increased from 1976 to 1983 and held steady through 1986. In 1976, minorities accounted for 9.1% of CSUN’s 26,000 students. By 1983, minority enrollment had jumped to 25.4% of the 27,000 students. In 1986, minorities again accounted for 25.4% of the 29,000 CSUN enrollment.

Members of minorities who are going to college increasingly are choosing majors other than education. Like their white classmates, minority students have come to view teaching as a low-prestige career with poor pay and inferior working conditions.

“My dad’s a teacher, and he told me I shouldn’t go into teaching because of the low pay and the lack of opportunities,� said Maria Williams, a black CSUN sophomore majoring in engineering.

“Right now, I’m working in a program tutoring kids, but I’m not interested in education for the future,� said Reynaldo Husband, a black CSUN business administration senior. “I want to go into banking.�

Even for students who want to teach, careers in education are viewed with mixed feelings.

“As a minority who wants to work with minorities, I think that I could bring something special to kids,� said black CSUN freshman Michael Prudhomme, who hopes to become an athletic coach. “But I know that the money isn’t good. That’s why I’ve thought about changing my major a couple of times.�

Further eroding the pool of minority teachers are standardized competence tests, an outgrowth of the national education reform movement of the early 1980s. In at least 38 states, new teachers must pass a test of academic skills before they can take a classroom job. And, in most of states, minority candidates fail the tests at a higher rate than whites.

In California, teacher candidates must take the California Basic Educational Skills Test, known to many as CBEST. When it was first given in 1985, 81% of whites passed on the first try. Only 33% of blacks and 49% of Latinos passed.

In 1987, the CBEST results were much the same, with the exception of Latinos. Once again, 81% of the whites passed. Although almost 60% of the Latinos passed this time, only 34% of the blacks were successful.

“I know that CBEST hurts our chances of getting minority teachers,� said Los Angeles school district recruiter Acosta. “Last year, I had several black doctorate holders from Dillard University in Louisiana lined up to come here to teach. When they learned that they would have to pass the CBEST, they changed their minds and stayed in Louisiana.�

CSUN’s efforts to increase the number of minority teachers started in the early 1980s with its own faculty. The percentage of minorities on its faculty has doubled from 8% in 1980 to 16% in 1987.

“We have to have minority role models actively teaching on our staff,� associate dean Ellner said. “We would be hypocritical if we didn’t.�

Besides their regular teaching and research duties, minority faculty members are asked to serve as mentors to minority students in the education school.

“We want them to take a personal interest in the students, to really reach out,� Ellner said. “It’s the small things, like making sure a student has been invited to a reception, that can make the difference. It shows students that we are really concerned about them and their futures.�

And, in an outreach program, CSUN educators will take their message to Valley-area high school students.

Officials hope to identify 100 college-bound 11th-graders who show interest in teaching. The teen-agers, many of them from minorities, will attend summer workshops for two years at Pierce College, a two-year community college in Woodland Hills. Although the specifics of the program still are being developed, the idea is to prepare the students for the transition from high school into college.

Ellner hopes many of them will go on to Pierce or CSUN. Students starting at Pierce will be given extra guidance to make certain that they take courses that will enable them to transfer to CSUN. Students starting at CSUN will be counseled to ensure that they are on the right graduation track, she said.

Ellner hopes that, at the end of five years of college, including student teaching and work toward an advanced degree, most of them will move easily into teaching posts.

“All of these programs may take a little more work and thought on our part. But it’s important that we provide a climate to show that all students are welcome and can find a home in our profession.�

THE MINORITY TEACHERS GAP

Ethnic Breakdown of Teachers and Students in L.A. Unified School District, Fall 1987

Students Total Teachers New Teachers Latino 57% 10% 14% Black 18% 18% 11% Asian 6% 7% 6% White 17% 62% 67% Other * * *

* Pacific Island, Filipino and American Indian, all less than 2%

Source: L.A. Unified School District

Students Enrolled in Teaching Credential Programs in 1986

CSU CSUN Latino 7% 8% Black 6% 3% Asian 5% 4% White 81% 85% Am. Indian 1% --%

Sources: CSU Division of Analytic Studies and CSUN

Comparison of CSUN and CSUN School of Education Enrollment for 1986

Education CSUN School White 73% 85% Black 6% 3% Latino 5% 8% Asian 10% 4% Am. Indian 0.6% 1%

Source: CSUN