HBCUs form $1.5M national black male teacher training initiative
Brief:
Five historically black universities have joined forces with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association to help increase the number of black male teachers throughout the South, with a three-year, $1.5 million teacher training initiative.
Funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, "Project Pipeline Repair" will work with Tuskegee University, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Southern University Baton Rouge, Alcorn State University and Claflin University to engage high school juniors and seniors in mentoring and scholarship access programming to encourage black males to pursue careers in secondary teaching.
Organizers say the program is necessary to broaden diversity in secondary teaching, in which only 2% of teachers are black males, and could help address achievement disparities among black male students.
Insight:
Collaborative development among peer institutions to solve a persistent issue for industry is an ideal way to address persistent challenges in research and student access. Coalitions like the American Talent Initiative showcase the possibilities of large institutions working together for a common goal. These types of shared resource and development partnerships could become essential for smaller liberal arts institutions, which are searching for ways to save money while expanding capacity and building interest among potential students.
In some districts, school leaders are recruiting from outside of education to help address teacher shortages. And while, on one side, this is an innovative solution to the problem, it is not without controversy. For one, attrition rates among teachers who are not specifically trained as educators is often higher, which has long been a criticism of programs like Teach for America.
Partnerships like these, designed specifically to spur interest in education as a career path among those who are least represented in the field, seem to be an ideal solution for everyone. For the K-12 sector, there's a new pipeline for talent, and one that will diversify the field. And the colleges will have the opportunity to solicit for more private and public funding and lure students with dual degree or articulation programs in key areas like public health, secondary education and STEM as a means to sustaining value in an increasingly competitive industry.