Working Well: Recruiting and Retaining Black Educators.

In partnership with the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE)

Posted November 11, 2024, by Mindi Wisman

Today we’re featuring our latest installment in our Working Well series: a new podcast and resource brief highlighting the need to recruit and retain more Black educators to American schools.

Research shows that students are more successful when they see diversity in the classroom. Students of color especially benefit from seeing adults who look like them in positions of authority; in fact, their academic performance significantly improves when they have a teacher who reflects their own racial or cultural identity. But, in the 2020–21 school year, just over 6% of U.S. teachers were Black and that number has been declining for years.

The bottom line? We need more Black educators.

In the brief we profile three programs that are inspiring more Black students and potential career-changers to consider a career in K–12 public education: Call Me MiSTER, Teachers Like Me, and the Black Educators Initiative.

In the accompanying podcast, Youth Catalytics’ Melanie Goodman speaks with Dr. Rashad Anderson from Call Me MiSTER, Dr. Trinity Davis from Teachers Like Me, and Keilani Goggins from the Black Educators Initiative. They discuss what personally drew them to education, their strategies for recruitment, and how they disrupt inequities in part by promoting staff well-being and empowerment.

Listen, learn, and let us know what you think!

In Case You Missed It: the previous podcasts in this series can be found here.

Also see the Working Well Resource Directory and other educator well-being content we created for administrators, teachers, and other staff.