Great resignation: Black teachers are fleeing Philly schools

Tracey, a high school teacher in the Philadelphia School District, remembers the hurtful comments she heard from parents when she started her career over a decade ago as a young Black teacher in what was then a predominantly white area of southwest Philly.

“I can recall white parents making comments saying, ‘Oh, this young Black teacher who doesn’t have children herself – how is she supposed to teach my child?” she said. “And I’m like, what does my race and the fact that I don’t have children have to do with me educating your child?”

Tracey’s frustrations mirror those of other Black teachers in Philadelphia.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the teaching profession faced what has been referred to as the Great Teacher Resignation. A national survey found that 64% of teachers were less satisfied with teaching after the pandemic compared with prior to the pandemic, and 74% would not recommend teaching as a career.

In Philadelphia, a great resignation of Black teachers started well before the pandemic and continues today. The decrease in numbers of Black teachers in the district continues despite research that demonstrates Black teachers’ positive impact on Black students’ experiences in school and academic outcomes, as well as their positive impact on all students.

We are a professor of urban education and a Ph.D. in sociology and education who research Black teacher attrition and other issues involving Black teachers and Black students.

In 2021, we were part of a small research team that interviewed 30 Black teachers who either currently or formerly worked in the School District of Philadelphia. Tracey and other names used in this article are pseudonyms to protect the anonymity of our interview participants. This study was done in partnership with Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit education research group focused on racial and social justice. Our findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Black Studies.

We wanted to understand, from the teachers’ perspectives, why so many Black teachers are leaving the district and what the district can do to support and retain them.

Black teachers have ‘grown weary’

In 2000, there were 4,059 Black teachers in the district. That number had dwindled to 2,866 by 2022.

It’s not an issue that is unique to Philadelphia. An education researcher at Penn State University found that between 2022 and 2023, the attrition rate for Black teachers across Pennsylvania was well over double that of white teachers.

“Black public school educators in Philadelphia have grown weary, for good reason,” wrote education scholar and author Camika Royal in her 2022 book “Not Paved for Us: Black Educators and Public School Reform in Philadelphia.”

Our interviews suggest a key reason for this weariness has to do with experiences of racism within the larger school district that affect Black teachers across the system, but manifest differently depending on their schools’ locations.

Segregated, underfunded schools

The Black teachers we interviewed who taught in neighborhoods with a majority of Black residents said they faced systemic racism through lack of resources, including books and classroom materials, for their students.

Philadelphia is one of the most racially divided cities in the U.S.. Among the nation’s 30 largest cities, it ranks second after Chicago in terms of residential segregation, according to researchers at Brown University. Schools reflect these neighborhood racial divides.

“I request things all the time and don’t get them,” said Nina, a middle school teacher in a majority Black neighborhood, “Well, there wasn’t enough books for all the kids. So, what I’m supposed to do? Now I have to go online, find my own resources and things like that.”

Racial microaggressions

Black teachers who taught in majority white sections of the city, meanwhile, spoke of their frustration with being the targets of chronic racial microaggressions.

Examples of these microaggressions included hearing white parents complain about a Black teacher being assigned to teach their child, and working with white colleagues whom they felt ignored or actively avoided speaking to or acknowledging them.

“I’m walking down the hall and I say ‘Hello,’” one mid-career teacher reflected. “If it’s just me and a white colleague and we’re passing each other in the hallway … then they don’t say anything to me. But the person behind me who was white, they’ll say something to them before (the other person) even say(s), ‘Good morning.’”

Racial microaggressions toward Black teachers is certainly not a new phenomenon. Nor is it limited to Philadelphia.

A recent nationwide survey also found that racial microaggressions are a major reason Black teachers across the U.S. are leaving teaching at high rates.

Support and validation

Despite the many systemic issues and experiences of racism that Black teachers reported to us, most of the participants in our study – 25 out of 30 – were current teachers in the district.

In other words, they had, so far, stayed in the profession.

These teachers reported they kept teaching because they were committed to students, particularly students of color.

“I stay because our (Black students), they need to see (Black teachers) in the classroom,” said Mila, a veteran teacher for whom teaching was her third career.

Many of the teachers also found support and motivation through affinity groups that provide them opportunities to meaningfully connect to other Black teachers. These groups are established by fellow teachers in the district but are organized independently of the district.

“What allowed me to stay was finding networks,” said Simon, another veteran teacher in the district. “And then the network kind of made me find my niche, find my voice, find who I was, validate me.”

Keeping Black teachers in the classroom

Education scholar Bettina Love argues that school districts and school officials should “stop trying to recruit Black teachers until you can retain the ones you have.”

Some meaningful efforts are underway. The Center for Black Educator Development, founded in Philadelphia, works to recruit and retain Black teachers both in Philadelphia and across the country. Other nationwide organizations, such as the Black Teacher Project based in Oakland, offer fellowship and space for supportive affinity groups.

School districts or administrators can offer Black teachers physical spaces, financial resources and dedicated time to meet with other Black teachers to discuss racism – including ways to resist it – along with self-care. This can help prevent an exodus of the Black teachers who have remained in the profession.

Lynnette Mawhinney is Professor of Urban Education and Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Academic Initiatives at Rutgers University – Newark and Leana Cabral is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology and Education at Columbia University