Disparities in Teachers’ Access to Schools’ Collective Social Assets Based on Role, Race, and Poverty

Abstract

A schools’ collective social assets (i.e., school culture, administrative support, and satisfied colleagues) are especially important for beginning teachers at higher risk of attrition, including special educators, teachers of color, teachers in high-poverty schools, and teachers in schools serving predominantly students of color. These teachers often report experiencing less social support than general educators, White teachers, teachers in low-poverty schools, and teachers serving predominantly White students, respectively; we labeled this inequitable access to schools’ collective social assets intersectional professional vulnerability. Using data from the Schools and Staffing Survey and structural equation modeling, we examined how beginning teachers’ race/ethnicity and their students’ race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and disability status related to perceptions of their U.S. schools’ collective social assets and how those perceptions shaped intent to continue teaching. We found significant differences in access to collective social assets based on their race/ethnicity, role as special versus general educators, and students served within their school.