Education leaders look for ways to get more men into teaching

He started as a music teacher 27 years ago and also taught history and political science in high school, “but this is more fun. I like the variety of all academic disciplines and teaching at the elementary level provides that,” he says. “To me, it’s the best job in the world.”

Of the 40 teachers at Roosevelt, Bartz is one of just five who are men. Roosevelt’s principal, Tom Conlon, says once in a while, parents will ask to have a child placed in a classroom with a male teacher, especially if they are a single parent. But, he adds, “A good teacher is a good teacher; kids will relate to good teaching.”

The teaching staff at Roosevelt mirrors that of the nation -- there are many more women than men teaching in K-12 schools.

According to the National Education Association (NEA), the number of male teachers in public schools is at its lowest level in 40 years. Less than a quarter of all teachers in U.S. public schools are men. When you get down to the elementary grades, it’s harder to find a man in the classroom -- just 9 percent of elementary school teachers are men.

And if male teachers are uncommon, African-American male teachers and male teachers of any minority group are even rarer. A scant 2.4 percent of the nation’s 3 million K-12 public school teachers are black males.

There are several reasons for this disparity. For one thing, it’s a self-perpetuating problem. If boys don’t have male teachers, they are less likely to consider entering the profession.

Men also are deterred from teaching because the job lacks social status, because of the fear of being accused of abuse, and, most important, because of the relatively low pay compared to other professions.

“States with the highest salaries tend to have the highest proportion of male teachers,” the NEA says. Michigan, which has the highest percentage of male teachers (37 percent), also has the highest teacher salaries. Mississippi has the lowest percentage of male teachers and is ranked 49th in teacher pay.

Elementary schools have the  fewest male teachers, according to the NEA because of “the prevailing philosophy within education that men go into teaching to ‘teach the subject,’ and women enter teaching to nurture and develop children.” As result, male teachers tend to gravitate toward secondary schools, leaving “a critical shortage of male teachers at the elementary level.”

Several organizations are working to address the shortage and diversify the teaching force. Many advocates believe it is important for boys to have male role models, particularly when so many children live in homes where the only adult is their mother or grandmother.

“We’d like our classrooms to represent our society,” says Bryan G. Nelson, founding director of MenTeach, a Minnesota-based clearinghouse created in 1979 for men in K-12 schools.

Nelson travels to high schools and asks teenage boys to think about a career in teaching. His group provides mentors, training, and stipends to prospective male teachers.

In Maryland, the Prince George’s County school district formed a partnership with Bowie State University to support male teachers.

The school district serves 135,000 students, 77 percent of whom are African American. But less than a quarter of its 8,600 teachers are men and more than 75 percent are white.

Bowie State’s School of Education established Men Equipped to Nurture (MEN), a specialized teacher education program aimed at helping male teachers in urban settings become fully certified. The program pays for up to 15 hours of education classes to help men prepare for the Praxis, the national teacher certification test, and covers the fees to take the exam, which range from $75 to $185.

Program participants are loaned a laptop computer and meet with a mentor once a month to discuss such issues as classroom management and financial planning. In exchange, they agree to teach for two years in Prince George’s County schools after they complete the program.

“This program is a great way to provide strong, positive male role models for boys as well as girls,” says Homer McCall II, assistant director of MEN.

So far, 52 male teachers ranging in age from 24 to 63 have signed up, McCall says. The majority of the candidates, who must be employees of the district, are in their late 20s or early 30s and are from a variety of backgrounds.

The program’s first-year funding comes from a combination of sources, including $347,000 from the federal government, $52,000 from the university, and $160,000 from the district. “We’re looking for funding for year two,” McCall says.

The Call Me MISTER program (Men Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models) was founded in 1999 as a partnership of Clemson University and several historically black colleges and universities in South Carolina.

The program seeks to recruit, train, certify, and secure employment for 200 black males as elementary teachers in South Carolina’s public schools.

Only 150 black male teachers work in all of South Carolina public elementary schools. That’s less than 1 percent of the state’s more than 20,000 elementary teachers, says field coordinator Winston Holton.

So far, 15 men have completed the program, received teaching degrees, and are teaching in South Carolina public schools.

About 140 teaching candidates are currently participating in the program. All of them are black, “but as a public program, we do not exclude anyone based on race,” Holton says.

Call Me MISTER is not just aimed at providing role models for black boys, he notes. “We never want to give the misperception that we are producing teachers for black male students. We are producing quality effective teachers who are going to meet the needs of all their students.”

“As a black male and a former elementary teacher here in South Carolina, I know the value of having a black male in the classroom that can counter the stereotypes that people hold of the black male population,” Holton says.

“All students need to see black males in authority roles -- roles of responsibility, academic roles showing that there are manifestations of black maleness other than athletics, entertainment, or, unfortunately, crime,” he says.