Background

"We are failing miserably to provide Britain's teenage boys with meaningful occupations, worthy role models or hope for the future." David Lammy, minister for skills, on the crisis we must resolve.

"I had not wept in an advice surgery until a few weeks ago, when a distraught mother and father came to see me after learning that their teenage daughter had been subjected to the most brutal assault I have ever heard about. A group of young men had subjected this girl to a violent sexual attack, first raping her, then pouring acid over her body.

Church leaders have highlighted the need for Black male teachers in urban schools, who can also act as role models for young pupils from African Caribbean communities, with the suggestion of cash incentive to close this skills gap.

BCLF (The Black Christian Leaders Forum) made the appeal for black men to consider joining the profession after a meeting on Monday with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), where they discussed the need for more
Black teachers.

Rigorous math has a positive impact on ultimate educational attainment and earnings, but black high school students enrol in advanced math classes at low rates.

Curriculum choice is determined by prior academic achievement and expectations for future schooling, both of which can be influenced by role models.

This article finds that increasing the percentage of math teachers who are black has a nontrivial, positive impact on the likelihood that a black geometry student will enrol in a subsequent rigorous math course.

Key black church leaders have called on Black men to turn to teaching as a career to provide more role models for young Black pupils.

The Black Christian Leaders Forum (BCLF) made the appeal following a meeting on Monday with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), where they discussed the need for more Black teachers, particularly men.

A major drive to get more black teachers into the classroom will be launched this week by MPs and campaigners who say the change will improve the performance of black boys.

The campaign, which will be led by the MP Diane Abbott and Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, has the support of government ministers but has already been attacked by parents who say children simply need good teachers, whatever their race.

Ministers are facing calls for a public inquiry into racism in schools after claims from black teachers that they face widespread discrimination and bullying.

A landmark report will call for a formal investigation - akin to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry into policing - to address concerns that black teachers are isolated, maligned and robbed of proper pay and status. The study, commissioned by Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, links the plight of black teachers to the continuing problem of underachievement among black pupils.

The persistent underachievement of pupils from some ethnic minority backgrounds
in our schools is unacceptable. Government want to ensure that all education
provision, in the widest sense, plans for and takes into account the needs of minority
ethnic pupils as part of all strategic planning and development.

The ‘Aiming High, Raising the Attainment of Minority Ethnic Pupils’ strategy (DfES
2003) gives greater impetus to ensure that the needs of minority ethnic pupils are
being met with effective and targeted mainstream provision.

The stereotypical white male middle-class board, ill serves most companies at a time when nearly all significant businesses face intense competition.

Market forces are encouraging Chairs to take a critical look at the profiles round the table. Both commercial and public organizations are under fierce pressure to deliver value. For commercial enterprises this is profit and profitability; in the public sector it is the efficient delivery of universal services.

A pilot scheme to help black and Asian teachers get into senior and management positions in schools has proved so successful, it is to be expanded.

Dozens of teachers from ethnic minority groups will be offered special training from the autumn under a partnership scheme between the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT).

This study of minority ethnic teachers’ professional experiences extends the findings of
one strand of the Teacher Status Project (Hargreaves et al., 2007a). The Teacher Status Project was a four-year study of public and individual teachers’ perceptions of the status of teachers and the teaching profession, conducted by the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education and funded (following a process of competitive tendering) by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).