Seattle School district, if you want to improve teacher diversity, look no further than the instructional assistants from underrepresented communities that you have in Seattle school classrooms right now. Prior to working at the Experimental Education Unit here at the University of Washington, I worked for Seattle Public schools as an instructional assistant who was also given head teaching responsibilities. I wanted to share a few thoughts from my time with Seattle Public Schools, and more specifically South Shore K-8. I worked in the middle school at South Shore. I will say that k-5 had better Black and Brown representation at the head of the classroom than the middle school. Since I left south shore last year, I have been contemplating ways to increase the amount of Black and Brown head teachers in classrooms in Seattle. Here are some of my thoughts.
- There are a lot of Black instructional assistants in both the elementary and the middle school at South Shore, but there wasn’t any Black certified teachers in the middle school. Well, the first year that I was there we had two Black teachers in the middle school. Both left after my first year. The second year, we had one Black certified Special education teacher that came in towards the end of the school year.
- I noticed the amount of influence Black and Brown instructional assistants had at South Shore and in neighboring schools. Some I.A.’s were called to classrooms they weren’t even assigned to them in order to get the kids to focus and listen to the head teacher.
- Black instructional assistants at South Shore were treated more like fire fighters or security guards than like educators that came from the same communities the majority of the students in the school came from.
- When I started my masters program two years ago, I learned about teaching practicum, which refers to “experiences that teacher trainees have in the classroom before they take on the full range of responsibilities required for student teaching.” This made me think about all the Instructional assistants that have years of experience with the schools they are at. Based on what I have done over the last 5 quarters of school at UW, there is no one that can tell me that some instructional assistants don’t already have the practicum hours necessary to satisfy a teaching preparation programs practicum requirements. For that reason, any I.A. with multiple years on the job that is planning on attending school should be exempt from practicum requirements.
- Instead of spending money sending employees to University of Washington and Seattle University, why not offer an on-site program, complete with seminars and classes. University of Washington has a site out south, I want to say off MLK and Othello that I learned about yesterday, that would be a perfect place to have classes two to three times a week.
- Match the I.A.’s up with a coach from both UW/SU and SPS. Have the coaches do observations, giving instructional assistants opportunities to lead the class and coach them on how to improve.
- Offer West-B training for any aspiring teachers struggling to pass the three part exam necessary for entry into a teacher preparation program. Also offer vouchers.
- Find people who really want to teach. Some people enjoy being instructional assistants, and there is nothing wrong with that. Lets find the instructional assistants that want to teach, and make access to certification a reality.
Thoughts Processed 