In 2015, New York City launched “NYC Men Teach,” an initiative aiming to “put an additional 1,000 men of color on course to become NYC public school teachers over the next three years.” The initiative comes in response to a growing body of evidence suggesting that it is important for students of color to have access to educators of color.

In a City that employs over 70,000 teachers, an extra 1,000 might seem like a drop in the bucket. But, as seen in a previous Spotlight post, men make up a relatively small proportion of the City’s teacher workforce (around 23% in 2015-2016), and men of color represent an even smaller share: Between 2003-2004 and 2015-2016, non-White males consistently accounted for about 9.5% of the City’s teachers.[1]

In 2004-2005, 38.6% of NYC’s male teachers were not White—and this percentage has remained relatively unchanged. In 2015-2016, the most recent year for which we have data, there were about 6,800 male teachers of color in NYC, out of a total workforce of more than 74,000.  In the face of these numbers, an additional 1,000 hires would represent meaningful change: a 14.6% increase in the number of male teachers of color in the system.

Looking at Black, Latino, and Asian men more closely, we see that:

• The number of Black male teachers in the system has actually fallen from almost 3,600 in 2003-2004 to around 2,750 in 2015-2016. Their share of the City’s entire teacher workforce dropped 1 percentage point, from 4.7% to 3.7%.
• The number of Latino male teachers has remained almost constant, hovering at around 2,400. They make up around 3% of the City’s total teacher workforce.
• The number of Asian male teachers has also remained steady, at around 1.5% of the total teacher workforce (just under 1,200 in 2015-2016).

For comparison, in 2015-2016, 13.2% of the City’s students were Black males, 19.7% Latino males, 7.4% Asian males, and 10.5% White males.[3]

Recent reports indicate that the NYC DOE increased the number of male teachers of color hired in the 2016-2017 school year. In future years, we will continue to track the demographics of NYC’s teachers, to help assess the effectiveness of NYC Men Teach and other efforts to hire a more diverse teacher workforce.

Big Questions:

NYC Men Teach provides a unique opportunity to learn about efforts to diversify teaching. For example:

• What strategies are effective for recruiting male teachers of color?
• Are certain school characteristics (for example, school safety; relationships among teachers; or leadership) associated with attracting or retaining male teachers of color?
• Nationally, male teachers of color are more likely to leave their school or the profession than other teachers. What are teacher turnover rates for male teachers of color in NYC? Are these rates different for teachers recruited through NYC Men Teach?

What else should we be asking about NYC’s teacher workforce? Are you exploring any of these topics? Let us know via email.

This post was developed using data provided to the Research Alliance for New York City Schools by the NYC Department of Education. Analyses conducted by Lisa Merrill and David Kang.