This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletter at ckbe.at/newsletters.
When I started teaching in 1999, I was grateful to have a colleague across the hall who was also new to the profession. We swapped stories, shared strategies, and lamented our shared challenges in planning lessons and connecting with students’ families.
Eventually, however, our experiences at the same elementary school in Florida diverged. While my colleague was asked to lead a team for a specific grade level, I was assigned to lead the school’s Black History Month program. After school, she handled academic development while I supervised detention. On weekends, she led a student program while I coached the basketball team.
My colleague was a white woman. I am a black man.
My first leadership roles reflected important staffing needs at the school and matched my skills. And while these roles were mostly fun, they did not prepare me for the next steps in my leadership journey. Through dogged perseverance, informal mentorship from fellow leaders of color, and a fair amount of luck, I became a school principal and later a district school superintendent. But the system was not designed to support my success.
That’s because male educators of color are often “pushed” into disciplinary roles, and men and women of color report being tapped to lead equity initiatives and other roles that don’t necessarily leverage their educational expertise. Principals and superintendents’ roles are increasingly focused on educational leadership. That means many educators of color who advance to leadership positions early in their careers find they lack the kind of experience hiring managers look for when filling leadership positions in schools and districts.
Many of the non-instructional responsibilities assigned to educators of color come with additional time commitments, additional stress, and little or no compensation. It’s a perfect recipe for burnout. Is it any wonder that the turnover rate for educators of color is higher than the national average? If we don’t get this under control, we will continue to lose talented educators of color from our schools, further hampering recruitment efforts.
Today, only one in five teachers and principals and only about 10 percent of school superintendents are people of color. Given what we know about how teachers and leaders of color benefit students and the role that principals of color play in recruiting and retaining more diverse teachers, closing gaps in leadership representation is one of the most pressing challenges facing our education system.
When I left the superintendency in 2021, I knew my work wasn’t done. I co-founded the nonprofit Men of Color in Educational Leadership to address the many ways in which race, gender, and implicit bias influence—and too often hinder—educational leadership opportunities. Although our mission is men-centered, much of our work also addresses the intersecting needs and experiences of women of color in educational leadership.
In 2022, we conducted a series of focus groups with more than 300 principals, assistant principals, and school superintendents of color. These men and women worked in urban, suburban, and rural communities. We wanted to know how they survived and thrived in their careers. Participants also identified policies and practices that prevent educators of color from advancing into leadership positions.
We’ve transformed what we’ve learned into a framework and free online toolkit we call Resilient, Representative Leadership. Immigrant educators can draw on these resources as they plan their leadership path or navigate a career roadblock or unexpected development.
We also know that encouraging strong leaders of color without creating systems that support their continued development is just another recipe for burnout. Over the past few months, we’ve had opportunities to share our learnings with school officials across the country, including at conferences for district administrators and state education leaders.
In these polarized times, I am encouraged that our framework is resonating with education leaders across the political spectrum. Dozens of state and local leaders have reached out to me to share how they are implementing the strategies we identified, including:
Identity-conscious professional development
Our professional learning communities bring together educators of the same race and gender with the support of an experienced facilitator who shares their background. These groups provide safe, trusting spaces where leaders of color can be vulnerable and engage in self-reflection, learning, and planning around their leadership needs, strengths, and experiences. District officials have shared that combining traditional affinity spaces with professional learning has helped them develop and retain leaders of color.
1:1 matching of leaders of color with mentors of the same skin color and gender
Each of us, regardless of race, ethnicity, or gender, can take steps to support teachers of color on their leadership journeys. For example, we can be nonjudgmental listeners and network to help our colleagues expand their professional networks. Still, the school superintendents we connected with recognize the value of connecting leaders of color with role models who have walked a similar path. One school principal of color told us that when she was paired with a teacher who shared her background, the first time she had a mentor who truly understood the unique challenges she faced in her profession was when she was paired with a teacher who shared her background.
Identify weaknesses, set goals and track progress
We can’t change what we don’t know. After collecting data on the experiences of educators of color, our organization works with district leaders to address issues and track progress toward clear, measurable goals (e.g., recruiting, retaining, and promoting educators of color). As one official told us, this work benefits teachers and leaders of color while improving working conditions and opportunities for all educators in her district.
As a former principal, I encourage school officials to act boldly and uncompromisingly when teachers of color face inequity. This type of leadership could have made a huge difference for me from my early days as an elementary school teacher in Florida. Even in regions where typical DEI efforts fall short, we see leaders adopt evidence-based strategies to strengthen and diversify leadership because they deliver real results where it matters most—in schools, for all students.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site that reports on educational change in public schools.
Related:
5 ways to rediscover your passion for teaching
Key strategies for educators to boost morale
For more news on teacher wellbeing, visit eSN’s SEL & Well-Being hub.
