Finally, there were two teachers, both groupers, who were exited from their schools. In particular, one participant at an exam school explained that he was dismissed because of his colleague’s inferiority complexes. With undergraduate and graduate degrees from two of the country’s most prestigious institutions, and a teacher of a core subject in STEM, the participant described how a fellow colleague suggested he was “too polished, too well rounded, and couldn’t understand why I was teaching.”
The results discussed above seem to lend themselves to a few recommendations for recruiting and retaining black male teachers in Boston Public Schools.
Target black male high school students to enter the teaching profession.
Policy makers and district officials looking to increase the flow of the pipeline of black male teachers should consider opportunities for black boys and young men, in BPS, to experience teaching. Such opportunities might include targeting and training a select group of black male high school juniors and seniors to enter the teaching pipeline.
Addressing retention can increase the number of black male teachers in BPS.
District officials should pay close attention to retention if they desire an increase in the number of black male teachers. Half of the groupers, who were teaching in some of the district’s most underperforming schools, left. Resources and leadership of the high-poverty schools serving large minority student populations must be improved.