A Bronx School Surpasses Averages on Hiring Men of Color
More than a third of public-school students nationwide are black or Latino, but those kids rarely see a man of color leading the classroom.
A school in the Bronx is working to change those odds, at least for its 286 students.
At South Bronx Community Charter High School, 10 out of 18 people in a youth development program — a teacher preparation initiative for those who come from non-teaching backgrounds — are black or Latino men. And just over half of its 21 teachers in the classroom are men. Eight of the men who are teachers are black or Latino.
One of the rising teachers in the youth development program is Jason Pagan, 29, who just started teaching U.S. history. Pagan, a Brooklyn native of Puerto Rican ancestry, came to the school in January of this year after working as a Peace Corps youth development volunteer in Thailand.
Pagan said that he moved into teaching because he felt that the humanitarian work that he was doing wasn’t sustainable, and he wanted to move forward. He met Natalie Ferrell, one of the co-founders of South Bronx Community Charter High School and the Youth Development Director, through the Peace Corps.
Pagan said that as a male teacher of color, he’s able to talk to kids who need someone who understands their fear of not being accepted or wanted, even in their own country.
“They know that if we tell them to do something, that it’s for their own good,” Pagan said. “They believe us because they know we come from the same background.”
According to the U.S. Department of Education, less than two percent of teachers are black men and less than 15 percent of teachers are black or Latino, even though more than 35 percent of public school students identify that way. NYC Men Teach, a citywide organization that aims to recruit and train 1,000 male teachers of color by 2018, found that 8.3% of teachers in the city are black, Latino or Asian men.
Karen Patwa, associate director of capacity building at the South Bronx school, is constantly thinking about ways their staff could evolve. “We are really intentional about thinking about what the staff needs and what the school needs,” Patwa said.
The school allows staff in the youth-development program to serve as advisors and learning coaches for a group of students before they take over a full classroom of their own. For example, Pagan, who was an international studies major at State University of New York /Oneonta, leads a model United Nations class where students debate international issues.
“They threw me into the lion’s den,” Pagan said. “Other staff members go through at least two to three weeks of training, but because of timing constraints and the urgency of them needing someone to fit in the role, I didn’t go through formal training.”
Brandon Corley, academic director at South Bronx Community Charter High School, said that in some other schools, male teachers of color feel isolated and believe their careers are stagnating.
The former NYC Men Teach Program Manager said that many male teachers leave the field because they’re forced to do jobs they didn’t come to do. Black and Latino male staff, Corley said, are often looked at as just disciplinarians.
“If you’re going to assume any administrative position, they’re going to probably place you as a dean,” Corley said. “They want you to be the police, they’re not looking at you being the grade team leader. They’re not looking at you at being the content leader, they’re not thinking about your teacher pedagogy.”
Corley believes black and Latino male teachers need more opportunities to obtain more academic and administrative leadership positions.
“It’s important that we help schools identify what they are doing to develop those teachers as leaders and create leadership positions that don’t exist,” Corley said.
Pagan said that many students see father figures in their male advisors. “It helps when that person is a person of color because they know how it should be as a young man of color,” Pagan said. “I feel like there should be more.”
