Problems Regarding the Survival of Future Black Teachers in Education

Teacher education programs in predominantly black and predominantly white public colleges and universities are experiencing a decline in the number and academic ability of education majors; and black education graduates in particular are having great difficulty in attaining the raised score levels on standardized tests required for teacher certification. This situation has led to an alarming decline in the number of prospective black teachers. At the same time, according to the recent Carnegie report on secondary education, the percentage of white families with school-age children has decreased, while the percentage of black and Hispanic families with school-age children has increased.' This demographic imbalance presents the problem of a diminishing number of black teachers to educate an increasing enrollment of black students. Since the teacher education programs of black colleges historically have produced the majority of black teachers, they also have been affected by the impact of the same problem and the complex factors that have created it.