ABSTRACT

As we look at recommendations for increasing the actual numbers of minority youth choosing careers in teaching, we must identify solutions for all aspects of the problems facing students of color as they move through schooling and compete for careers. After all, professional careers are going to continue to be available only on a competitive basis. The skills needed for eventual success must be acquired early in their educational lives, along with the motivation to face the often inhospitable confines of college and graduate study. Clearly, we need to increase the levels of achievement for African American, Latino, and Native American students beginning in the early grades and continuing through college (Vegas, et al., 1998). We also need, however, to seek ways to make the teaching profession attractive to students of color so that all groups are eventually more represented in future classrooms. This chapter provides us with recommendations and insights from the interviews with urban teachers on how to address all aspects of the situation affecting the future supply of teachers of color for US schools. The recommendations follow a developmental flow beginning with attempts to enhance educational success and arouse interest in teaching as a career through the improvement of school education and the image of teaching.