More diverse workforce is goal of new Henrico Schools' talent acquisition ambassador

For the second year in a row, the Henrico County Public Schools division is serving a student population whose largest group is Black students.

Over time, HCPS’s student population has become more diverse and less white. However, the teacher population has remained overwhelmingly white — 78% to 80% during the past five years.

While bleak, it’s not a problem unique to Henrico. Nationwide, about 80% of teachers are white, according to federal data, while more than half of students attending public schools are people of color.

One goal of HCPS’s 2018-2025 strategic plan is to recruit and retain a diverse group of staff members. In an effort to move in that direction, the school system created a new position: talent acquisition ambassador.

Kenya Jackson started in the new role in early November and works to assist the division in efforts to recruit and retain a diverse workforce.

“Having a diverse, strong quality, teacher workforce — it will only support our community and Henrico County as a whole,” Jackson told the Citizen. “Being an educator of color. . . and now raising two students of my own in Henrico County. . . I'm so very fortunate for all of the experiences of all of their teachers, but I can say that it has been particularly enriched by having diverse academic environments.”

All students benefit from having teachers of colors, research shows, while Black and brown children in particular benefit both academically and emotionally from having teachers who look like them.

“When students have that opportunity to connect with someone that looks like them, there's this authentic connection that they may feel that may inspire and boost their confidence to be vulnerable enough to take risks, and think critically, and just engage in a different way in the classroom,” Jackson said.

Black students who have Black teachers are more likely to be placed in gifted programs, and are less likely to receive suspension and expulsions, according to recent research.

Jackson started her career in HCPS in 2000 as a school counselor in middle schools, then for 15 years served as school counseling director. In 2017, she transitioned to the Human Resources department as a hiring specialist for middle schools. After four years in that role, she went to Hanover County for four years serving as the assistant director, and then director, of human resources.

“This is my 22nd year in education, and there are valid justifications that teachers of color do leave the profession,” said Jackson, whose husband, Michael, is principal of Hermitage High School.

And they do leave the profession at higher rates than their white counterparts — which is why part of Jackson’s job is to implement strategies that will retain teachers of color.

“As a Black educator, I know that being one of very few teachers of color. . . there is this added pressure of wanting to support students of color,” Jackson said. “But when you are very few, that becomes a bit of a weight. We have to recognize that our teachers of color, sometimes they're a different weight than some of our white colleagues and counterparts.”

One of Jackson’s major focuses early on in her role is to dive into the data to see where HCPS’s teachers of color are placed from a magisterial perspective, endorsement perspective, and from a school perspective.

As part of the recruitment effort, Jackson will be working to identify every teacher pipeline.

In recent years, many teachers of color haven't entered the teaching profession from a traditional teaching preparation program, according to Jackson. They enter the profession through an alternate means of licensure.

“Because they didn't have the same level of teacher training — they certainly have the relevance of the content knowledge — but they have not yet truly developed their craft,” Jackson said. “We have to make sure that we're supporting them differently. We have to differentiate those supports.”

Jackson’s position is being funded using HCPS’s share of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (or ESSER) grant as part of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, which was signed into law in March.

Of the school division’s $78.3 million share of ESSER III funds, $1 million was used to fund three years of Jackson’s position and two social worker positions.

The ESSER III draft plan originally did not allocate any money for diversity efforts. At a public hearing regarding the plan, several community members called for funds to be spent on efforts to hire a diverse workforce that mirrors the demographics of students. Following the public hearing, school division officials revised the plan to include the $1 million adjustment.

* * *

Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen's education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar.