By Kathleen Moore, Times Union, Albany, N.Y.
Sep. 21—ALBANY — An Albany school leader is recruiting young men in an effort to single-handedly ensure more children have at least one Black teacher in their lives.
About 15% of students in the United States are Black. Only 6% of their teachers are Black — and far fewer are men. As of 2021, 77% of K-12 teachers are women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
School leaders have often focused on better recruiting to draw the few Black teachers to their school.
But there’s just not enough of them, said S. Neal Currie Jr.
So he started recruiting people to become teachers. Last year, he started Teach Brother Teach with grants from the Charles L Touhey Foundation and Business for Good to support prospective Black teachers. This year, eight men have joined Teach Brother Teach to become teachers.
He’s talked up teaching to people who work in schools but not as teachers. He’s also encouraged college students who weren’t sure of what career they wanted to consider teaching.
“I think the profession has a lot of work to do in terms of the image,” he said. “You often hear about the horror stories and not how rewarding the career can be.”
It also pays relatively well and there is a clear career ladder for those who want to move up, he said.
Men don’t often plan to become teachers, he added.
“We want to encourage more men to consider education as a career,” he said. “A lot of the gentleman I meet that end up in education, they kind of end up in there by accident. They’re not often encouraged to go into the field.”
Instead, they are sometimes encouraged to go into coaching sports or after-school programs, he said.
But students need them in the classroom, he said.
“There’s lots of research that has come out that demonstrates Black students perform better when they have Black teachers,” he said. “We know there’s a benefit to all students to have a diverse teaching force.”
But particularly for young Black men from low-income households, having a Black teacher can increase their chance of graduating high school by 39%, he said.
“It increases the college aspirations by 19% if they have one Black teacher over the course of their education,” he added. “When you see people who have achieved success in education who look like you, it makes more likely you’ll do the same.”
And Black students may feel more welcome in school if there’s a Black teacher.
“It increases a greater sense of belonging,” Currie said. “They feel more comfortable.”
Currie is the founder and former executive director of the Albany Community Charter School. He grew up in suburban Connecticut, where he never had a Black teacher. He noted that’s not surprising with so few Black teachers in the country.
“With those statistics, it’s not likely that most students will have the benefit of a Black teacher,” he said.
He is not simply talking Black men into teaching. His group, Teach Brother Teach, supports them for years.
“The first thing we want to do is create a cohort — kind of a professional brotherhood, if you will, where they have people they can relate to,” he said.
That counters what he said some Black men feel when they enter education.
“Oftentimes there will be feelings of isolation,” he said.
The group provides tuition assistance, a $5,000 stipend, an experienced teacher or administrator as a mentor, and monthly workshops.
In return, the prospective teachers commit to working in a Capital District charter or public school for three years.
Currie wants to eventually expand Teach Brother Teach to other cities.
“I’ve gotten inquiries from people in other parts of the state who would like to participate,” he said. “I would love to be able to expand — go to Rochester and Buffalo and have cohorts.”
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