Panel Paper:
The Necessity of Minority Teachers: Analyzing the over Punishment of Black Students in Arkansas
*Names in bold indicate Presenter
The state of Arkansas consistently ranks in the top five with regards to poverty and incarceration rates; however, with regards to its education system, the state of Arkansas habitually ranks in the bottom five. Although Arkansas is home to successful corporations and institutions of higher education, its K-12 educational system has seen a growing gap in student achievement when considering student geographic location within the state, race, and family wealth.
Geographically, students in the Delta region of the state - largely populated by African-Americans - are often members of the state’s poorer households given that the Delta region is one of the poorest in the nation. Academically, schools located in the Arkansas Delta consistently perform more poorly academically than other districts within the state. Additionally, the state of Arkansas incarcerates an extremely high percentage of its African-American population compared to other racial groups within the state. Although African-Americans make up a mere 15% of the state’s population, they are 42% of Arkansas’ prison population. This, in contrast with white Arkansans who make up 75% of the state’s population yet are only 50% of the state’s prison population.
When further analyzing the literature and data available on the issue of struggling school districts and the school-to-prison pipeline within the state of Arkansas, studies and data have found that Black students in Arkansas are disproportionately disciplined at higher rates than their white classmates within most school districts. This factor coupled with national data showing that students of color are less likely to be suspended or expelled by teachers who share their racial background is reason to answer the call for more minority teachers.
When determining methods for improving education in Arkansas for low-income students of color with hopes of ending the school-to-prison pipeline, it is important to note that only 7.1% of Arkansas teachers are Black compared to the 20.4% of the student population that identifies as Black. Thus, this paper will focus on the national call for more minority teachers and their ability to lower suspension and expulsions rates followed by the statewide need and call for more minority teachers in Arkansas as a means to ending the school-to-prison pipeline within the state.
Keywords: Arkansas, education, minority teachers, school discipline, school-to-prison pipeline
