Springfield educators address teacher shortage, lack of diversity

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS/WRSP) — Educators in Springfield are coming together to address the teacher shortage in the community and diversity among staff.

The Illinois Education Association also addressed the teacher shortage issue earlier this week based on a report they conducted from Feb. 11-21.

According to the Illinois State Board of Education, 87.8% of teachers in District 186 are white and 7.1% are Black.

However, Black students make up a majority of the district at 40.7% and white students at 40.2%.

District 186 teacher and sports coach Roy Gully said it’s important to have diverse staff working in schools to represent the student body.

He believes recruiting teaching students right out of college is one of the most important things to change diversity in schools.

“To be a student in a school district and you don’t really see someone that looks like you represented as a teacher is definitely concerning,“ Gully said. “It’s going to take the efforts of people personally to get out there to go to recruiting fairs, go to colleges, and see if they can find a diverse teacher from multiple backgrounds.”

Gully added that addressing diversity within schools is a multi-level project and can’t be done alone.

“I think the solution needs to be a community-based solution," Gully said. "We need to respect the job and that’s not always the case."

District 186 has a program in place called "Grow Your Own" to address diversity within schools.

But Gully said because of the pandemic, the committee did not meet in the last few months. He’s hoping the group can meet in April to begin the recruitment process at the end of May.

He said Grow Your Own has been successful at recruiting diverse teachers, but they face challenges keeping those teachers in Springfield.

You can find more information regarding the racial and ethnic diversity breakdown for District 186 here.