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Re:Why are there so few black people in STEM? by emmelaich on Sunday June 14, 2020 @05:58PM (#23521727)
You need teachers who are passionate and regard it as a vocation rather than just another job. Pay and qualifications don't necessarily imply this.

Poor discipline in a school can demoralise a teacher.

You also need to get rid of teachers who are badly underperforming. This can be very difficult, which is also demoralising.

I've gleaned the above from having many family and extended family members in teaching.

Re:Why are there so few black people in STEM? by dx034 on Monday June 15, 2020 @03:36AM (#23524797)
Pay and qualification go a long way to achieve quality in teaching. To get excellent people to become teachers, you need to pay them at least similar amounts as they could get elsewhere and give them some guarantees that their job is safe. Changing back from being a teacher to the industry can be hard so the easiest way to get bright people to become excellent teachers is by educating them as teachers and promising them a secure job with good pay. That makes getting rid of bad teachers harder but that's subjective anyway. Sure, some teachers might be awful but most way to test this focus purely on academic outcomes which don't incentivize teachers to help poor students with little prospects.
Re:Why are there so few black people in STEM? by treeman79 on Monday June 15, 2020 @12:14AM (#23523730)
I had crappy teachers for the most part.

I knew what I wanted though. Every class had 1-2 students that were hungry to learn, rest were there because easy money or such. Eventually dropped out and had a successful start to a career. Far outpacing those that stayed in.

That was a awhile ago.

I know some school have way better curriculums these days.

Still, I refuse to hire jr develops unless I see that same hunger to get better.