Message from the Office of Cultural Diversity
Where Are the Minority Teachers?
Everywhere I go, I continue to hear the questions, How come we have so few minority teachers? Why don’t we have more minority teachers? Why don’t we have more minority administrators? That is an excellent and legitimate question to ask. Many African American students and other minority students may go their K-12 educational years without having a minority teacher and/or minority administrator. Springfield Public Schools has graduated many minority students in the last 20 years that could have chosen education as a career and helped increase the number of educators today in the Springfield district. When I visited an elementary school a few weeks ago, I was introduced to an African-American kindergarten student. His first words to me were, “someone who looks like me.” This young man has 12 more years of education in our district. The challenge that lies ahead in the next 10 years is finding new minority students and adults that will fill the void, so that future minority students will have a greater percentage of minority teachers and administrators. The job is challenging, rewarding, and well worth it. Check with the local universities to see what you would have to do in order to be a certified teacher. Missouri State University, Drury, and Evangel have programs that will provide certification for teaching and/or administration. Remember that “The Road to Success Begins With You.”
Dr. Nate Quinn
Coordinator of Office of Cultural Diversity
Springfield Public Schools and the Office of Cultural Diversity would like to thank all the volunteers that attended and helped supervise the NAACP Minority Youth Empowerment Conference. Your support is very much needed and appreciated.