Press Release

The Educator Academy joins national initiative to recruit, develop and retain Black teachers for local schools 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Kansas City, July 15, 2021 —  The Educator Academy (The Educator Academy) has received a $168,000 grant from the National Center for Teacher Residencies (NCTR) to expand and improve its efforts to recruit and develop Black teachers for partner school districts and Charter Management Organizations. The award comes through NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative, a five-year, $20-million effort to recruit and train 750 new Black teachers through NCTR’s nationwide network of teacher residency programs.

The Educator Academy was one of eight residencies chosen to help launch NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative. This grant will allow The Educator Academy to enhance its recruitment of future Black educators. It will also provide scholarships towards a master’s degree, emergency funding, counseling and therapy services, teacher certification test prep, and certification testing fees for black educators in the Residency program. According to the 2018-2019 U.S. Department of Education Title II data, 5.2% of teachers who completed a teacher preparation program identify as Black. “With the support of these grant funds The Educator Academy will be able to remove many of the barriers that prevent individuals of color from entering the profession,” said Charles King, The Educator Academy founder and CEO.

Research shows that students of color do better in school and consider going to college at higher rates when they are taught by teachers with similar racial and demographic backgrounds. The majority of school children in the United States are students of color, yet less than 20 percent of teachers are people of color, and only 7 percent of them are Black. NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative aims to improve student achievement by increasing access to Black teachers.

“Now more than ever, we need to focus on recruiting and retaining Black teachers,” said Anissa Listak, NCTR’s founder and CEO. “We are so proud to be able to work with The Educator Academy through NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative” she continued. Teacher residency programs have proven effective at recruiting and developing teachers of color. While the percentage of Black teachers nationally is around 7% This year, 45% of teachers training in The Educator Academy are Black.  During the 2019-20 program year, The Educator Academy provided $178,000 in direct financial support to its Black teachers.

Learn more about The Educator Academy’s Black Educator Initiative, and the full NCTR Black Educators Initiative via NCTR’s website. You can read about the progress of the Black Educators Initiative by reviewing the Black Educators Initiative Annual Report. 

 

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About NCTR

NCTR disrupts historical educational inequities by advancing the teacher residency movement to prepare effective, diverse, and culturally responsive educators. 

 

About the Black Educators Initiative

The Black Educators Initiative is a five-year, $20-million effort to train 750 Black teachers through NCTR’s nationwide network of teacher residency programs. NCTR launched the Black Educators Initiative in 2019 to help NCTR Network partner programs improve the recruitment, development, and retention of Black educators in their programs and partner schools. This year, NCTR awarded nearly $2.2 million in grants to seven programs. Funding for the initiative comes from The Ballmer Group.

 

Media Contacts

Andrea Bright Harrell

Operations Manager: People + Branding

816-363-9849 | andrea@educator-academy.org