Cynthia Fitz-Wilson is a teacher resident at the Dallas Teacher Residency. She is pictured with her mentor teacher, Chaslyn Reynolds. This picture was taken at Ben Milam Elementary School.
NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative is a response to an urgent and pressing challenge:
As the nation’s students become more diverse, teacher residencies are the best effective strategy to prepare the next generation of teachers and diversify the teaching workforce.
Roxy Nance is a teacher resident at the Chicago Public Schools Teacher Residency. This photo was taken at King Elementary School.
NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative contributes to increasing student access to well-prepared teachers who reflect the communities they serve throughout the United States.
Launched in September 2019, BEI was initially supported by a five-year, $20-million grant from Ballmer Group to recruit, prepare, and retain 750 new Black educators through our national network of teacher residency members. In its initial five-year run, BEI surpassed its goal, supporting more than 1,300 Black teacher residents toward becoming educators.
With a new philanthropic commitment of $40 million, BEI will continue its work in Phase 2 of the initiative by directing funds toward innovative programming focused on the recruitment, preparation, and eventual hiring and retention of 2,400 additional diverse educators. Phase 2 will continue BEI’s commitment to its core mission of supporting and empowering teacher residents from underrepresented and historically marginalized communities who are in reflection of the students in the schools the teacher residents will serve.
NCTR is excited to announce our Year 6 cohort of the Black Educators Initiative.
$5,900,000
In grant funds have been awarded to teacher residencies for the 2024-2025 academic year
29
4
BEI Investments At a Glance
- Scholarships, stipends, and other incentive funds to support teacher residents’ full participation in the yearlong residency experience
- Provide consulting and training support for mentor teachers of teacher residents
- Increased induction support, including job search assistance, alumni networks, and professional development for graduates
- Memberships to professional development and networking organizations
- Increased mentor stipends to attract experienced, effective teachers as mentors of teacher residents
- Mental health and social-emotional learning supports
Empowering Excellence: 2022-2023 BEI Annual Report
The 2022-2023 BEI Annual Report shares the work of Year 4 BEI grantees and how NCTR supports them. All BEI grantees apply similar strategies to support the preparation of Black teacher candidates, and over time, NCTR and its research partners have been able to identify the strategies that are yielding the most promising results.
This report shows the impact of Year 4’s BEI grantees toward empowering excellent and effective educators.
Doing Better for Black Educators
Black educators contribute significantly to the achievement of all students. However, there aren’t enough of them. One approach that appears to be solving this problem on a small scale is teacher residencies, which are community-based clinical preparation programs developed in partnership with school districts and anchored in their context. Teacher residencies are raising the bar for quality while reducing barriers to entry for teachers of color and other underrepresented groups.
Recruitment and Retention of Black Educators
The Center for Public Research and Leadership (CPRL) at Columbia University evaluated the early impact of NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative, solidifying the growth of BEI-supported teacher residency programs in Year 2. The CPRL-developed report, titled “Recruitment and Retention of Black Educators: Promising Strategies at Eight U.S. Teacher Residencies,” examines data from the programs, such as enrollment and demographics, as well as data from 16 focus groups of Black teacher residents receiving direct support from NCTR’s BEI and conducted 23 interviews with program staff and stakeholders at BEI programs to identify leading indicators of effectiveness.
The eight teacher residency programs that took part in the evaluation are located in the West, Midwest, Southeast and Northeast portions of the United States. Pseudonyms have been used in place of participant and residency names to protect the identity of the participants.
View Our Annual Reports
Read about the growth and impact of teacher residency programs supported by NCTR’s Black Educators Initiative in our annual reports.
Learn about NCTR’s Network
NCTR convenes Network members to collaborate, exchange best practices, and share data to improve their programs and influence teacher preparation.