Reading scores for fourth-grade students in Maryland lag behind the national average. Scores for Black and Hispanic students in the state are even worse.

Only 47% of Black fourth-graders in the state can read at a basic level, and that drops to 36% for Hispanics.

Low literacy skills also contribute to the growing U.S. wealth gap. And it’s a disadvantage for those seeking higher-paying jobs.

The gap is even more pronounced in communities of color, particularly Black households. Black families are twice as likely as whites to have no wealth.

These kinds of disparities are not new to Baltimore City. I see them every day. I work for The Literacy Lab’s Leading Men Fellowship, a program that aims to improve literacy skills in underserved communities and create pathways to careers in education for young men of color.

The work we’re doing in the classroom makes an impactful difference. Just look at the data.

Only 29% of the Maryland pre-K students tutored by The Literacy Lab were reading at grade level at the start of last school year. The number more than doubled to 72% by year’s end.

The Literacy Lab uses evidence-based strategies rooted in the Science of Reading framework to improve student reading skills. A majority of the gains are made by Black and Hispanic students, the demographic most at risk for poor literacy skills.

Improving literacy rates and uplifting families can be achieved by expanding access to culturally responsive literacy instruction, yielding long-term education and career success.

Students perform better academically when they have a teacher who looks like them, particularly Black youths. Black students who had just one Black teacher by third grade were 13% more likely to enroll in college.

Policymakers in Maryland have taken note of the grim reality of what’s to come if they don’t address our state’s reading crisis.

The State Board of Education now mandates all public schools in Maryland use early literacy instruction built around the Science of Reading. They are also establishing partnerships with colleges and universities to improve alignment of teacher preparation and professional development to the Science of Reading.

But more can be done, like placing greater emphasis on hiring teachers of color, particularly Black and Brown men.

The vast majority, 70%, of Maryland’s pre-K-12 teachers are White. Less than 19% of teachers in Maryland are Black, with even fewer Hispanic teachers. We can’t ignore the shortage of diverse teachers in our public schools any longer.

Black and Brown men in the classroom make a profound difference in the lives of students of color. We need to come up with real solutions to diversify our state’s teacher workforce.

Those solutions should include collaborations with community organizations, educators, policymakers, colleges and universities, and other institutions. The racial makeup of classrooms won’t change without a collaborative strategy.

Financial incentives for a career in education also need to be part of the solution. Increasing access to resources such as scholarships to defray, or cover entirely, the cost of a teaching degree is a great place to start.

We need to create more pathways to teaching. They’re a catalyst to changing the racial makeup of our state’s classroom teachers.

Black and Hispanic men also need to step up to help diversify the teacher workforce. But no one can force them to answer the call for more male teachers of color. It’s a personal decision only they can make.

Having a diverse teacher workforce is key to improving the low literacy skills that keep feeding the growing U.S. wealth gap and eliminating barriers to higher-paying jobs. Increasing household wealth in communities of color will remain a fictional story without it.

Evan Singleton (esingleton@theliteracylab.org) is the program manager for The Literacy Lab’s Leading Men Fellowship in Baltimore. Before, he served as the dean of students and athletic director at Baltimore Collegiate School for Boys.