From the second you walk through the doors of the Westside Preparatory School, located in the heart of Chicago's inner city, you begin to see some of the unique rewards offered by the profession of teaching. Under the leadership of celebrated educator Marva Collins (left) and her son, Patrick Collins, the school's principal, the teachers at this extraordinary school motivate African- American children to excel in the face of tremendous social and economic obstacles. In one classroom after another, young students from disadvantaged families and troubled circumstances interact with their teachers with enthusiasm, intelligence and hope. These teachers know that they have been entrusted with the responsibility not only to teach the academic lessons of the day, but to touch these young lives and inspire them to dream.

As the teachers of the Westside Preparatory Academy will tell you, teaching can provide opportunities for personal satisfaction, self-expression and public service that are matched by few other professions. In public, private and parochial schools throughout the country, African- American teachers are helping to shape the minds and destinies of our next generations. By so doing, they are helping to define and improve our future.

In the next several years, a new generation of teachers will instruct, coach, mentor and inspire children and youth. They will also be at the forefront of local and national efforts to reform education throughout the United States. It is critical that African Americans comprise a substantial share of this new K-12 teaching corps.

According to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, more than two million new elementary, middle and high school teachers will be needed in the next 10 years. California alone will need 300,000 new teachers during the next decade. Yet African-American teachers comprise less than 40 percent of the urban teaching workforce and less than 30 percent of the national teaching workforce. Forty percent of the nation's public schools have no African Americans on their faculties. In addition, thousands of "baby boomer" African-American teachers who began working during the 1960's and 1970's are expected to retire in the next few years.

The impact of this shortage is felt intensely by African-American elementary, middle and high school students. African-American students account for roughly 75 percent of urban public school enrollment across the country, and the number of African-American students is increasing each year. African-American teachers can also assist African-American students in mediating cultural differences with white students, teachers and their school administrations.

The shortage of African-American teachers will also influence the development and reform of school district policies. Simply stated, lack of representation translates into lack of input in critical policy decisions that impact the lives of the African-American children who comprise the majority of students in most urban schools. A new generation of African-American teachers will be needed to play major roles in the ongoing process of education reform.

African-American teachers will also be needed to prepare African-American children and youth to compete in the global economy of the twenty-first century. Educators, policymakers and business leaders agree that education will be the key to survival and success in tomorrow's workforce. This is particularly true in fields such as science, math, engineering and technology

in which African Americans have historically been underrepresented. The drastic shortage of African-American science and technology teachers has doubtlessly contributed to the fact that African Americans and Hispanics represent less than six percent of the nation's fast-growing science and technology workforce.

The shortage of African-American teachers has created an enormous demand for African Americans to enter the teaching profession. According to a 1996 report by Recruiting New Teachers, Inc., 92 percent of all large, urban school districts have an immediate demand for African-American teachers. In response to this demand, a number of urban districts have established proactive outreach and recruitment campaigns aimed at bringing more African- American teachers onto their faculties. Dr. Claude Brown (above), associate superintendent of the St. Louis Public Schools, recently outlined his district's special outreach programs, which include job fairs, "career transition" programs that recruit professionals from various industries to become teachers and an innovative program that recruits and imports math and science teachers from South Africa. The St. Louis Public Schools will also launch a novel "Grow Your Own" program that provides a "Teacher's Academy" and provides college scholarships for high school students who will teach in the district after graduation from college. In addition, many communities are desperately seeking more African-American male teachers--a minority within the minority of African-American teachers. In Missouri, for instance, African-American males represent less than one percent of the state's nearly 30,000 elementary teachers. School districts throughout Missouri are actively recruiting African-American men in their campaign to hire new African-American teachers.

While the demand for African-American teachers is strong nationwide, there are some regions of the country where the need for them is particularly acute. One such region is the South, where teacher shortages exceed those of the rest of the country--especially in the area of mathematics education. In Georgia, where 8,000 new teachers will be needed annually, it has been projected by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education that only five percent of the state's teachers will be African American by the turn of the century. In North Carolina, the percentage of African-American teachers declined from more than 21 percent in the 1970s to less than 17 percent in the 1990s.

An interesting area of opportunity for new African-American teachers rests in the nation's suburbs. Historically, job prospects for African-American teachers in suburban districts have been relatively cold. In some instances, discrimination has been a factor, and the experience of many African-American teachers imply that "glass ceilings" were indeed in place. In other instances, districts simply did not actively recruit African Americans. There are signs, however, that doors are now opening for African-American teachers in suburban school districts. The growth of the African-American middle class during the last two decades has resulted in increased diversity in suburban neighborhoods and surburban schools. As Dr. Anthony Mazullo (left), newly-appointed superintendent of the Stamford, CT Public Schools and former superintendent of the Greenburgh Central School District in Greenburgh, NY, says, "There is a great advantage to having a diverse teaching staff and to having all of our students see people from different backgrounds in positions of authority. It becomes part of their education." While at Greenburgh, Dr. Mazullo oversaw proactive campaigns to recruit African-American teachers that included outreach to African-American professional organizations, fraternities and churches. Many suburban school districts are using similarly aggressive measures to show their seriousness about promoting diversity in their teaching staffs.

Compensation for teachers is also improving, as increasing demand is now competing for a diminishing supply. While few teachers will retire wealthy, the financial rewards of teaching are beginning to catch up to the personal, creative and public service rewards. Relatively low starting salaries (from less $20,000 in North Dakota to $30,200 in New York and $33,000 in Alaska) are often supplemented by strong benefit packages, signing bonuses, housing and relocation bonuses and other incentives. In Dallas, new teachers received a $1,500 signing bonus last year, while Baltimore's public school district gave new teachers $5,000 toward housing costs and an additional $1,200 in relocation expenses. As teachers gain experience, salaries typically rise to competitive professional levels. In the Hartford (CT), Jersey City (NJ) and Yonkers (NY) public school districts, for instance, tenured, senior-level teachers can make more than $70,000 a year, plus benefits. In addition, many districts offer financial incentives to senior teachers, as well. In Florida, for instance, teachers who become certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards are eligible to receive bonuses of more than $6,000.

America's next generation of teachers will carry the responsibility of educating our children and reforming our schools. The role that African-American educators must play in each of these endeavors is a critical one. College students considering entering the teaching profession must prepare themselves to meet these challenges. To maximize their marketability and, most importantly, their effectiveness in educating our children, new African-American teachers must commit themselves to "teaching excellence."

"Teaching excellence" means increasing one's knowledge of different teaching strategies--from traditional methods of instruction to new educational theories--so that one will be armed with a variety of teaching tools to meet the needs of diverse student populations. It means raising expectations about what children can accomplish and doing all that can be done to help them achieve their full potential. It means improving one's knowledge about new teaching tools such as computers, multimedia and the internet. In the next decade, teachers will need to know not only how to operate these technologies, but how to integrate them most effectively into their classrooms to help children learn. Finally, it means making a commitment to continuous and lifelong improvement in teaching and in fostering a love of learning in our children.

Teaching is a caring, creative act. It is a mission. As Marva Collins has written, "Being a teacher is to become a part of a kind of creation. A creation of knowing that miracles occur because you cared, loved and patiently kept polishing until the dark corners of a child's mind become brightened, and as you watch those formerly sad eyes become luminous, you then know why I teach."

Wayne D. Jones is a nationally-recognized education consultant specializing in strategic planning and resource development for educational organizations and non-profits. He’s based in Bronxville, N.Y.