Dive Brief:

• Before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans stood out among urban areas for its 71% black teaching force, but in 2014, African-Americans made up less than half of all teachers in the city, according to The Hechinger Report.
• In the past, teachers in the city had an average of 15 years experience in the classroom, and now most have fewer than five. 
• The displaced teachers have had a hard time finding work elsewhere, and one study found the attrition rate was at least 16 points higher in New Orleans than in other cities impacted by hurricane damage that year. 

Dive Insight:

The trends in New Orleans towards a younger teaching force are reflective of a broader national trend which has seen veteran teachers pushed out of schools. But in a recent post for Education Post, Chicago teacher Marilyn Anderson Rhames wrote discrimination in hiring practices which bars black teachers from the classroom. And a study from earlier this year found similar patterns in Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools. But in a climate where districts are having a hard time recruiting enough qualified teachers to educate students coming in, districts can't afford to exclude any candidates on the basis of race. 

The issue is more than one of supply and demand: It's one of student achievement. Research has shown that black students achieve at higher levels if they encounter teachers who look like them in the course of their school careers. And as the nation's demographics shift and the next generation is increasingly of color, educators of color will become increasingly critical to the national achievement levels and global competitiveness.