The Consortium is rolling out a video series featuring Black educators as a means of helping Black students learn more about teaching careers and other pathways K-12 public schools can offer them.
Titled “I Reach, I Teach,” the series is the third we’ve launched to provide avenues for students to explore careers and for teachers to support career exploration. Over the past two and a half years, we’ve also launched the Career Journeys library, featuring interviews with professionals who share insights about their career paths, and our Snack & Learn series, which profiles employers and industries and provides resources for post-secondary preparation.
Existing videos have enjoyed tremendous success, with Career Journeys alone surpassing more than 30,000 views in its first two years.
“Knowing how popular our videos are, we wanted to create a collection that might help address the problem schools have had attracting teachers of color,” said Consortium Program Director Debbie Pixton, who contributed interviews to the series. “It’s really important for students of color to realize the satisfaction careers in education offer and why they’re needed in the field. We hope the series will really resonate with them.”
Both Black and Latino teachers are sharply underrepresented in classrooms nationwide. Together, they make up only 16% of public school teachers, while Black and Latino students account for 41% of public school populations across the United States, according to an analysis from the Education Trust.
The underrepresentation has stark implications for students of color. Studies show these students perform better academically and are more likely to graduate and attend 4-year colleges when they’ve had teachers of the same race.
Multiple educators in our new series speak to the effect having—or not having—teachers of the same race had on them.
We anticipate a modest expansion of the series in the coming months, adding interviews with other educators of color.
