Released June 6, 2023 — Launched in 2019, the National Center for Teacher Residencies’ (NCTR) Black Educators Initiative (BEI) is NCTR’s response to an urgent and pressing challenge: Black students who have just one Black teacher in elementary school are more likely to graduate from high school and consider going to college (Gershenson, et al., 2022), yet just 6% of public school teachers are Black (Taie & Lewis, 2022). As the nation’s students become more diverse, teacher residencies are the best way to prepare the next generation of teachers of color. Teacher residencies are one of the leading models for preparing teachers of color, with 33% of teacher residents in NCTR programs for 2020-2021 identifying as Black (NCTR Annual Report, 2021). NCTR launched BEI after receiving a five-year, $20-million grant from Ballmer Group to recruit, prepare, and retain 750 new Black teachers through NCTR’s national Network of teacher residency programs. This funding allows NCTR to invest in teacher residency programs in NCTR’s Network that are redesigning their teacher preparation practices, with support from NCTR, to serve the needs of Black educators.
Read the press release.