Articles
How to Become a Teacher in Lots of Steps
Training for the profession of teaching, even in 1971, was not the easiest major to enter at Michigan State. When I transferred from Central Michigan as a junior, I was headed into secondary education, as I mentioned in my initial blog entry. After the first term, I decided to switch my major to elementary after […]
Read MoreWhy Some Of D.C.’s Leading Men Of Color Are Heading Back To Preschool
At Turner Elementary School in Southeast D.C., Torren Cooper is the only male of color who works directly in the classroom, even though the student body is 98 percent African American. Cooper is a literacy coach helping some of Turner’s youngest pupils with their reading and writing skills, including rhyming, alliteration, letter sounds and writing […]
Read MoreBoston University professor Travis Bristol studies hiring, retention of teachers of color
Travis Bristol is an assistant professor in English education at the Boston University School of Education who researches district- and school-based practices that support teachers of color; national, state and local education policies that enable and constrain the workplace experiences and retention for teachers of color; the intersection of race and gender in schools. Bristol’s […]
Read MoreGo Teach, Young Man: Tweaking Risk and Reward to Recruit Male Teachers
How do we attract more top-performing male teachers to the profession, and what role does compensation play? EdWeek recently published an op-ed, Rethinking Teacher Compensation, by Laura Overdeck, Arthur Levine, and Christopher Daggett. The authors argue that states should reallocate compensation funding away from “backloaded” plans such as defined-benefit pensions, and toward earlier-career perks like […]
Read MoreHere’s what male teachers of color want their districts to know about them
A passion for teaching and learning is what drew Archie Moss to a career in education. But the Memphis principal recalls how he almost left the profession when he found himself increasingly tasked as a disciplinarian. One of the few black male teachers in his former school in Charlotte, N.C., Moss had just been tapped […]
Read MoreBlack men teachers inspiring hope
Stephen Flemming is one teacher in one classroom, but he may be doing as much to keep his low-income black students in school – black males in particular – as any formal program targeted toward “at-risk” students. Flemming teaches English language arts to 5th graders at John B. Kelly Elementary School in Germantown. All but […]
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