The Belleville News-Democrat looks at how Sparta School District 140 is looking to hire more minority teachers.
Across the metro-east, there are five times as many black students (18.4 percent) as there are black teachers (3.4 percent), according to 2017 data, the most recent from the state.
The newspaper reports Sparta is looking to address the disparity through senior internships. Students leave the high school in Randolph County for an hour to do the work of a teacher’s aide at Sparta Lincoln School, less than half a mile away.
The newspaper says the goal of the program is to get kids interested in teaching right before they go to college, so they’ll think about studying education and coming home to work as teachers.
Quoted in the story is Ed Hightower, Edwardsville District 7’s first black superintendent in 1996.
“It’s the same thing when you have a problem in a school district, and you know that there is, say, that African-American counselor who can, for whatever reason, identity with the issues you’re having,” Hightower said. “You’re going to feel more comfortable going and talking with that individual about the issues that you’re facing.
“It gives you the confidence to open up and say, ‘I’ve got a problem. I need help,’” he added. “That is why it is so critical.”
