Drawing on the Present

Survey Data

Black Teachers of Mathematics Perspectives Survey (BTOMPS) assesses the organizational conditions of teachers through survey items about racial microaggressions, thoughts about leaving the profession, and racial/cultural experiences, and roles in teaching. 

The research team recruited a sample of Black teachers of mathematics that is representative of the Black teaching population in the United States. We partnered with the Benjamin Banneker Association regional representatives to garner participation across all eligible US regions. Additionally, we recruited through district-level mathematics supervisors and organizations that focus on addressing the literature on Black teachers of mathematics with respect to teaching and learning, beliefs and awareness, and working conditions. 

The BTOMPS is comprised of items from the National Center for Education Statistics School and Staffing Survey (NCES SASS) to measure teachers’ perceptions of working conditions, as well as a microaggressions scale, initially developed by Harwood, Choi, Browne and Mendenhall (2015), that we modified for the purposes of our study. This 16-item measure used a six-point Likert-type frequency scale ranging from ‘never’ to ‘once a week or more.’ An example question is: I have experienced feelings of isolation at my school/district based on my race.

We surveyed 555 Black teachers of Mathematics nationwide (females, 53%). The participants’ age ranged between 18 and 65 years (M = 34.9, SD = 8.6). Majority of the teachers identified as African American (98.4%). Other teachers specified their ethnicity as Caribbean (1.1%), African, Afro-Latino, and bi-racial/multi-racial. The teachers taught mathematics between 0.5 and 45 years (M = 6.8, SD = 5.3). They taught regular scheduled classes (at least one class weekly) at elementary (22.3%), middle (45.7%), and high schools (32.1%). The participants taught at public traditional (59.2%), public charter 22.8%), public magnet (12.5%), and parochial/religious schools (2.4%). Most teachers (64.1%) took a traditional route to licensure for mathematics teacher certification.

Focus groups

One of the goals of this research study is to capture the experiences of Black contemporary mathematics teachers through focus groups. Focus group sessions were conducted with teachers in the DMV and Baltimore areas. This research is being conducted to explore their paths to teaching, their purposes in teaching mathematics, their racialized experiences as Black mathematics teachers, the reasons they persisted in teaching mathematics, and their perspectives on current issues of recruitment and retention.

To learn more about this phase of the study, visit our Resources section.