Design professional development targeted at Black male teachers.
To increase black male teacher retention, district officials should concentrate on improving these teachers’ experiences, and the schools in which they teach. The district’s current initiative, the Male Educators of Color Executive Coaching Seminar Series (link is external), which was informed by the Boston Teacher Residency Male Educator of Color Networking Group (link is external), could be expanded and improved, with specific attention to providing socio-emotional support to male teachers of color, and a space to reflect on their practice.
Implement racial and gender awareness training for new and current administrators.
District officials should include racial and gender awareness training for new administrators, as well as on-going training for current administrators. These sessions could be designed and run by male teachers of color in the Male Educators of Color Executive Coaching Seminar Series.
Identify and intervene in schools with low numbers of Black male teachers.
At the very least, to deal with loners’ isolation, the district should identify schools with one black male teacher and strongly encourage administrators to hire additional black men.
Enlarge the scope of the Office of Equity.
The Office of Equity should review all cases where black male teachers are excessed or dismissed.
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Travis Bristol is a former high school English teacher in New York City public schools and teacher educator with the Boston Teacher Residency Program. He is an alumni of the Stanford Teacher Education Program (link is external) (STEP) and current research and policy fellow at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE). (link is external)
This article was originally published Aug. 6, 2014 on the Shanker Blog. (link is external)