A study of the procedures and their perceived effectiveness in the recruitment of African American teachers in city school divisions in Virginia

• Main Author: Hobbs, Betty E.
• Other Authors: Educational Administration
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: Virginia Tech 2014
• Subjects: teacher recruitment; LD5655.V856 1997.H633
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/39669; http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-10052007-143712/

The purpose of this study was to investigate the procedures and their perceived effectiveness in the recruitment of African American teachers in city school divisions in Virginia. The research questions investigated were: (1) What are the procedures used by human resource directors in city school divisions in Virginia to recruit African American teachers? (2) To what extent are these procedures helping to increase the number and percentage of African American teachers in city school divisions in Virginia? (3) What problems do human resource directors in city school divisions in Virginia encounter in recruiting African American teachers to their divisions? (4) What strategies do human resource directors in city school divisions in Virginia use to overcome these problems? This study, both quantitative and qualitative in nature, focused on human resource directors in each of the 39 city school divisions in Virginia. The primary method of data collection was a questionnaire which consisted of forty one items. To compliment the quantitative study, three human school divisions in Virginia were interviewed by phone. Chi Square Tests of Association were used to compare the use and perceived effectiveness of recruitment practices in city school divisions in Virginia. After data were gathered and analyzed, the researcher presented the data using tables. The results of this study showed that using other employees to recruit, networking through other educators, having recruitment fairs, and sending vacancy announcements to colleges were the procedures used most often by human resource directors to recruit African American teachers. Likewise, these procedures were the most effective in helping to increase the number and percentage of African American teachers. Human resource directors reported that the most common problems they encountered when recruiting were: (1) the decreasing number of African American teachers in relation to the rising number of African American students; (2) expanding career opportunities in other fields for African Americans; (3) the pool of African American teachers not adequate to meet the needs; and (4) greater economic rewards in other fields for African Americans. The directors also reported that the most common strategies used to overcome recruitment problems were: reflecting an ethnically diverse teaching force in recruitment information; developing a strong recruitment program; and participating in career fairs at predominately black colleges and universities. Five major themes emerged as the human resource directors who were interviewed described the strategies they use to recruit African American teachers. They were: (1) promoting teaching; (2) diversifying the teaching pool; (3) improving resource directors from the city the culture of teaching; (4) developing volunteer programs for college professors and middle school students to assist in schools; and (5) increasing salaries to that of other professions. === Ed. D.