n American male teacher shortages, and recommended solutions.
Supply and Demand of Minority Teachers
The American Council of Education (ACE) reported that there is an absence of role models for the minority students and that this will result in educational deficits for the youth of the nation. This effect would be enough to pose a threat to the future prosperity of America and its ability to compete with other industrialized nations. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education also stated that a national intervention policy is needed to reverse the trend of minority teachers disappearing from classrooms (Otuya, 2000).
The National Center for Education Statistics reported that in 1989 the number of public school teachers increased 2.3 million from 1988, representing a 1.9 percent increase. At that time it was felt by researchers that there was no shortage of teachers. It was also projected that the salary would increase as would the status of the profession and this would provide enough of a lure for numbers of teachers needed. However, the National Education Association (NEA) reported an alternate view which stated that at that time 32,000 teaching vacancies existed in 100 of the largest school districts and 79 faced a shortage of teachers for the year following (Otuya, 2000).
The Carnegie Task Force on Teaching as a Profession then estimated that by 1992 there would be a need for 1.3 million new teachers. The NCES predicted that the number of new teacher graduates to meet this demand would drop from 87 percent to 65 percent. In addition, minorities accounted for 10.3 percent of the teachers. Proportions of minority teachers decreased to a 6.9 percent level during this period while black children students increased to a 16.2 percent level. It was estimated that the nation would require 200,000 teachers to meet NES 1992 projections, suggesting that the supply would not meet the demand. Since tha...