On December 8, 1953, in oral arguments for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Thurgood Marshall said that public education is “vital not to the life of the state alone, not to the country alone, but vital to the world in general.”1 Marshall explained how a racially segregated education system is inherently unequal, undermining the government’s responsibility to provide equal protection under the law and also undermining the role of public education in supporting a democratic society. Although the Supreme Court ruled in favor of ending state-sanctioned segregation in public schools, government and school leaders have yet to enact the transformation needed to fulfill the promise of Brown.
The organized “Massive Resistance”i1 to school desegregation began immediately following the Brown decision and created a legacy that has entrenched segregation and racial inequality in U.S. public schools despite Brown’s ban on de jure segregation.2 Many Black K-12 students remain restricted to underfunded, racially segregated public schools that fail to provide them with the educational resources needed for success.3 Those Black students who attend more integrated schools still bear the burden of being tracked out of the most academically rigorous courses and tracked into punitive discipline practices.4 Moreover, the backlash to the Supreme Court’s mandate to desegregate public schools “with all deliberate speed” created widespread dismissals and demotions of Black educators who had previously taught in the segregated public school system.5 This removal of Black educators remains an educational loss for generations of students.
There is extensive research documenting the positive benefits Black educators provide to all students by creating an educational context in which both Black and non-Black students can learn and thrive.6 Building on prior survey research that documents the positive educational outcomes associated with having a Black teacher, the Thurgood Marshall Institute’s (TMI) qualitative research specifically investigates the practices Black educators use to create such educational benefits. Race is socially constructed, so there is nothing particular about the color of a person’s skin that would make someone a better teacher.7 However, Black educators, many of whom regard their choice of profession as a social intervention to combat racial injustice, can provide insights into the mindsets and practices that create thriving learning environments for all students. In a review of the education research on the benefits of diverse classrooms, sociology of education scholars Dr. Amy Stuart Wells, Lauren Fox, and Diana Cordova-Cobo document how racially diverse learning environments expand white students’ ability to think critically and improve their skills in perspective-taking.8 TMI’s original data collection with Black educators for this research study reveals the strategies many employ to create, facilitate, and maintain learning within such diverse classrooms. Thus, investigating how Black educators create these learning environments is key to narrowing the opportunity gap many groups of students experience in school.
The opportunity gap refers to the myriad “ways in which race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, English proficiency, community wealth, familial situations, or other factors contribute to or perpetuate lower educational aspirations, achievement, and attainment for certain groups of students.”9 Black students are not the only ones who experience an opportunity gap in the K-12 public school system. Latinx students, students from low-income households, and students with disabilities all experience well-documented disparities in education.10 While each of these groups merits its own study, this research focuses specifically on the experiences of Black students (including Black students who live in low-income households or have identified disabilities) to highlight the institutional practices that can mitigate educational disparities for the most underserved students and advance the mission to create a public school system that educates all students. The research in this report expands on the theory of opportunity gap and earlier quantitative data studies on student educational outcomes by documenting how Black educators help close the opportunity gap for Black students and work to improve educational equity in public schools.
Although the population of K-12 public schools is increasingly composed of students of color, the teacher workforce does not reflect the racial diversity of the students.11 Black students are much less likely to experience a teacher of the same race and the benefits that come with same-race teachers. In 2018 and 2019, the proportion of white teachers (seventy-nine percent) was substantially larger than the proportion of white students (forty-seven percent) nationwide, while the proportion of Black teachers (seven percent) was less than half the proportion of Black students (fifteen percent).12 Given the fact that most K-12 public school students are non-white, the educational success and well-being of students of color are critical determinants of the success and well-being of the school system as a whole.
The Black educators interviewed for this report demonstrate that teachers can promote educational equity, support students dealing with trauma, and increase engagement and success among marginalized students. Moreover, their practices provide insight into strategies for promoting educational equity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. TMI’s analysis of the educational practices of the Black educators interviewed revealed distinctive approaches to teaching and learning. From the interviewees’ insights, TMI researchers developed a typology of the six keys of educational equity: (1) teaching resilience skills to help students navigate individual and institutionalized racism; (2) developing a trusting relationship with students as a prerequisite to teaching; (3) restructuring the curriculum to engage students’ identity and social context; (4) advocating at individual and institutional levels for racial equity within schools; (5) supporting vulnerable families within the school community; and (6) using a supportive, trauma-informed approach to student behavioral problems instead of punishment. These six keys to educational equity are consistent with a body of research that has documented how Black educators use their deep knowledge of students’ sociopolitical contexts to drive high expectations, build relationships through vulnerability, encouragement, communication, and recognition, and help students envision new paths for their future.13 While this report discusses the effectiveness of the keys in increasing the academic engagement and achievement of Black students, these powerful tools can benefit any student who faces challenges within the public school system, regardless of their racial background.
The disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed and exacerbated longstanding patterns and practices that were failing large segments of public school students. A commitment to educational equity is essential to creating the high-quality education system all students deserve. This includes having teachers and curricula that reflect the perspectives, values, and contributions of all groups within this vibrantly diverse nation. It also means ensuring all students have equal access to the academic, social, physical, and emotional resources needed to thrive. Once this is achieved, a student’s level of academic achievement should no longer correlate with their race, gender, socioeconomic background, native language, zip code, or other group identities that shape the educational opportunity gap.
To fulfill the promise of Brown, all groups must share the responsibility for ending segregation and achieving equitable access to quality education. The policy recommendations to achieve that goal must include a diverse set of voices and experiences. Black Educators as Essential Workers for Educational Equity presents the insights of exceptional Black educators as a lens to inform education policy, and identifies four policy recommendations that can be implemented on local, state, and federal levels to move the United States closer to Brown’s promise: (1) restructure school discipline practices to replace punishment models with more positive, supportive models that address the material, social, and emotional needs shaping student behavior; (2) acknowledge and reward educators with a demonstrated history of advancing educational equity; (3) extend opportunities and resources to current and future educators who prioritize educational equity; and (4) address workplace discrimination against Black educators. Incorporating these principles into every level of education planning can help improve education outcomes for all students, produce a more positive school climate for students and educators, and create the high-quality, inclusive public school system that a multi-racial democracy requires.
On March 13, 2020, Stacey,2 a sixth grade teacher in a suburban school district in the Northeast, received a letter from the superintendent informing her that, effective March 16, all schools would be closed for two weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, Stacey’s school district had enough resources to distribute tablets and internet hotspots to the students before closing its doors. Still, the transition from in-person to distance learning presented a significant challenge for Stacey and her students.
a sixth grade teacher
Although Stacey and her colleagues devised creative ways to check in, have group discussions, and keep students focused, teaching during a pandemic remained challenging. During TMI’s interview at the beginning of the pandemic, when school buildings closed and transitioned to online learning, Stacey reported, “Things are slipping through the cracks, and to improve, we must change our priorities to ensure that our most vulnerable students are not falling behind.” Stacey described the emotions that she and her educator friends experienced in the transition from classroom to remote teaching as a grieving process:
a sixth grade teacher
As the initial shuttering of schools to control the spread of COVID-19 generated individual and collective grief, educators like Stacey, as well as students and families, had to adapt and attempt to continue schooling under challenging circumstances. Despite their best efforts, there was a concern that many of the most vulnerable students (Black and Latinx students, low-income students, and students with disabilities) were likely to lose academic skills, thus widening the educational gap even further.14 These discussions of learning loss are often deficit-based, focusing on anticipated harms from what students are missing without acknowledging opportunities for new insights or lessons that could improve schooling outcomes for students. In contrast, some educators and scholars have urged the public to adopt a non-transactional perspective that focuses on new visions of education—even though the pandemic created a challenging set of conditions forcing these new visions.15 The COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption of traditional learning provided a unique opportunity to create the high-quality, equitable public education system all students deserve.
The pandemic spotlighted the racial and class disparities that have existed in the United States since its founding. It is the responsibility of the federal, state, and local governments, including school administrators, to address these disparities by placing the success and well-being of students at the forefront of the educational system. Central to this effort are the contributions of Black educators and the lessons all educators can learn from them in supporting students. Researchers who have studied Black educators’ work in using their knowledge of students’ sociopolitical contexts to build relationships with students and help them succeed assert that non-Black educators can create similar relationships with their students if given the proper training, scaffolding, and support.16 This research attempts to make clear the mindset and activities of highly effective Black educators whose distinctive approach to teaching fuels advancement toward educational equity.
Stacey shared some of the unique challenges Black educators experience as well as the unique contributions they make toward the goal of educational equity:
a sixth grade teacher
As demonstrated by the interviews for this report, the educational divide that has only worsened in recent years cannot be closed without including the voices of Black educators, who are essential to creating a safe, academically engaging, and mutually respectful environment for everyone.
This report documents the contributions of Black educators and the specific ways education policymakers can support and expand their efforts to promote educational equity. The educators from the study are experienced frontline workers in the nation’s classrooms who have worked diligently to educate students despite recent challenges such as the COVID-19 crisis and the persistent political attacks on accurate and inclusive teaching in public schools.
In order to improve the educational outcomes of students who are not well served by the current academic systems, it is crucial to understand how Black educators help mitigate the opportunity gap for their students. Unfortunately, Black students are not the only ones who experience an opportunity gap in the K-12 public school system: Latinx students, students from low-income households, and students with disabilities all experience well-documented disparities in schooling.
Moreover, Black students who share multiple of these identities experience even greater levels of disparities in education. While each of these group identities merits its own study, this research focuses specifically on the experiences of Black students (including Black students who live in low-income households or Black students with disabilities) as a means to highlight the institutional practices that can address educational disparities for the most underserved students and can provide insights to help create a public school system that effectively and equitably educates all students. Notably, having a Black teacher is associated with increased educational performance and attainment for Black and low-income students as well as improved cognitive performance for white students.17
For this report, TMI conducted a qualitative study in which researchers interviewed thirty Black educators who taught in K-12 public schools during the 2020-21 academic year about how they help improve educational outcomes for Black students and the policies and practices that could strengthen these efforts. The Black educators in the research study were recruited using a snowball sample of personal and professional networks. Educators were recruited to represent a diverse sample of school settings. All interviews were conducted virtually via Zoom and lasted approximately ninety minutes each. The educators were asked to discuss their pathways to education, their experiences teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their recommendations to promote educational equity in K-12 public education. Dr. Jennifer Cleland, a clinical and research psychologist working at the intersection of primary care and medical education, reports that, “Qualitative research is very important in educational research as it addresses the ‘how’ and ‘why’ research questions and enables deeper understanding of experiences, phenomena, and context. Qualitative research allows you to ask questions that cannot be easily put into numbers to understand human experience.”18 Although qualitative research usually has a smaller sample size than a survey, qualitative research methods are referred to as “data enhancers” in that they focus on small data segments to make it possible to see critical aspects of social reality more clearly.19 A more detailed discussion of this study’s research methods and participant sample can be found in the methodological appendix.
This report combines insights from the sample of Black educators with quantitative research studies on the positive educational outcomes associated with Black educators, as well as historic and contemporary qualitative research on Black educators’ distinctive practices, to highlight useful approaches to promoting educational equity. The recommendations presented at the end of this report distill learnings from the Black educators interviewed about the policies and practices that can improve educational equity in K-12 public schools. Such qualitative research is especially important for developing policy recommendations because it helps to center the knowledge and the complexity of the lived experiences of Black educators, who are often marginalized and overlooked in purportedly universal recommendations.20
The study highlights the improved educational outcomes that Black educators facilitate for their Black and non-Black students alike and documents their strategies to achieve these positive outcomes. TMI identified each unique strategy employed by Black educators to create higher levels of academic engagement and performance as a key to educational equity. The six keys to educational equity are: 1) teaching resilience; 2) developing a trusting relationship with students; 3) restructuring the curriculum to be more culturally responsive; 4) advocating for racial equity; 5) supporting vulnerable families; and 6) using a preventative approach to student behavior problems. Although the six keys to educational equity are derived from the sample of Black educators in this report, past research from education scholars confirms the extensive and successful use of the six keys among Black educators generally.21 Like other research that has studied the unique approach of Black educators, this report asserts that given the proper training and support, non-Black educators can also employ these strategies and create similar outcomes for their students.22 Based on the TMI study and supported by other recent key education studies, the report ends with recommendations for policies and practices to strengthen the educational equity infrastructure.
Teachers have a tremendous impact on student outcomes. Teachers’ expectations and behaviors are significant predictors of student success above and beyond the influence of students’ race, class, gender, and grades.23 Studies of “teacher effects” demonstrate that a teacher’s racial identity and individual teaching practices can create substantial differences in student achievement in math, reading, and science that persist for years.24 Research shows that students who have teachers with positive expectations for them perform better than those who do not.25 In addition to influencing students’ academic performance, teachers have been shown to have a sizeable impact on students’ behavior and school engagement.26 Past research documents how the qualities and behaviors of teachers shape students’ behavior in class, their sense of self-efficacy, and their level of happiness.27
Importantly, social characteristics like race, gender, and class play a role in shaping teacher expectations of their students and patterns of interacting with them.28 While most teachers enter the field with an explicit expectation that all students can learn, implicit bias research reveals how individuals socialized into U.S. society have internalized negative race and gender stereotypes that justify existing racial and gender hierarchies.29 Although these biases may operate at the subconscious level, they help shape how individuals interpret and respond to the behavior of others.30 Cultural messages of anti-Blackness are widespread within society and can generate implicit biases among white and Black individuals. However, parental and school socialization shape the extent to which adults adopt these implicit biases.31
The question of how race impacts teacher expectations and interactions with students has become even more critical as the disparity between the racial composition of public school K-12 teachers and the student population has grown. In the fall of 2021, approximately half of the 49.4 million students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. were students of color.32 Unfortunately, the teachers in U.S. public schools are far less racially diverse than their students.33 White students have an overrepresentation of same-race teachers compared to the student body, while Black, Latinx, and Asian American students have an underrepresentation of same-race teachers.34 In 2018 and 2019, the proportion of white teachers (seventy-nine percent) was substantially larger than the proportion of white students (forty-seven percent) nationwide, while the inverse was true for Black teachers (seven percent) and Black students (fifteen percent), Latinx teachers (nine percent) and Latinx students (twenty- seven percent), and Asian American Pacific Islander teachers (two percent) and Asian American Pacific Islander students (six percent).35 The only racial or ethnic group experiencing parity in its student and educator populations was Native Americans, representing one percent of the K-12 student population and teacher population in 2018 and 2019.36 Black and Latinx students are less likely than white students to experience a teacher of the same race and the benefits that come with same-race teachers.37
To effectively educate the diverse U.S. student population and prepare them to live in a multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy, education policymakers must ensure that all students encounter the conditions to learn, grow, and thrive. As the renowned scholars of race and education Dr. Pedro Noguera and Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings highlight, Black children need the same educational resources as all students; the question is why they are not getting them.38 This research and other studies on the impact of Black educators suggest that limiting access to Black educators is a part of the reason the current public school system underserves Black children.39
Black educators create an educational context in which Black and non-Black students alike can learn and thrive. Understanding how they help Black students achieve better educational outcomes is essential to building an educational infrastructure that advances equity by giving all students access to what they need to succeed. Researchers have extensively documented the positive effects on Black students taught by Black educators. Black students score higher on achievement tests when assigned to a Black teacher.40 Having a Black teacher is associated with an improved attitude toward math and improved reading and math performance for Black students.41 Teachers of the same race or ethnicity can also increase school engagement for Black and Latinx students and decrease the likelihood they will drop out of school before graduation.42 When considering truancy and skipped classes, researchers found that Black and Latinx students with same-race teachers were more likely to remain engaged in the upper levels of high school.43
While both male and female Black students have improved outcomes associated with having a Black educator, the effect is more pronounced for Black male students.44 Low-income Black students with access to at least one Black teacher in grades three through five are more likely to remain in school and aspire to college, and this effect is more robust for Black male students.45 In a study of fourth-grade reading achievement, having a Black teacher had the most significant impact on Black male students, while Black female students performed equally well with a Black or Latinx teacher.46
Black students are more likely to be subjected to punitive school discipline practices at every education level, including kindergarten and preschool.47 However, research has shown that Black kindergarten teachers were less likely to evaluate student behaviors as problematic and thus less likely to subject their students to punitive discipline.48
Research suggests that students of all races, including white students, benefit significantly from racially diverse educational settings through improved social-emotional learning during their formative years and enhanced cognitive and interpersonal skills during adolescence and beyond.49 Research that randomly assigned upper-elementary students to a Black or white teacher found significant improvements in a range of academic outcomes, such as better math and language test scores and lower chronic absenteeism, for both Black and non-Black students with Black teachers.50 A brief from the American Psychological Association articulated the harmful effects of racially segregated environments on white students, including how implicit biases disrupt cognitive functioning.51 More racially diverse environments expand white students’ ability to think critically and improve their skills in perspective-taking.52 Research shows that Black teachers increase white students’ exposure to and understanding of race and social justice issues.53
Thus, the benefits associated with having a Black educator are not limited to Black students. Dr. Ladson-Billings explained how critical it is for white students to have the opportunity to learn from Black educators:
Even without the valuable resource of a racially integrated student body, the presence of Black educators can disrupt racial stereotypes and invite students to think more critically about the dynamics of race in the United States. Karen, a high school teacher in the South interviewed for this study, explained how the presence of a Black teacher in the classroom disrupts expectations that both Black and white students may have about who is educated and who is capable of educating others:
a high school teacher
Black educators directly and indirectly challenge stereotypes about Black people in ways that strengthen white students’ critical thinking skills and cross-racial empathy. These are precisely the skills that help American students be more competitive in a global economy.55 In a 2014 Supreme Court amicus brief filed in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, almost half of the corporate leaders of Fortune 100 companies, including Apple, Johnson & Johnson, and Starbucks, asserted that cross-cultural skills and perspective-taking are a “business and economic imperative” to succeed in today’s economy.56
Public schools should prepare students from all backgrounds to be productive workers and engaged citizens in a multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy. To accomplish this goal, students need to learn about and benefit from the rich diversity of their communities and their nation. Unfortunately, seventy years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared that de jure racial segregation of public schools is unconstitutional, many public schools remain racially segregated—some school districts even more so than pre-Brown.57 As of 2021, New York was the state with the most segregated schools for Black students and the second-most segregated schools for Latinx students.58 Ironically, while the Brown decision did not end the practice of de facto racial segregation in public schools, the fallout from the decision dramatically decreased the presence of Black educators within public schools.59
This makes it even more important for Black educators to be represented across academic subject areas. For example, Anthony, a high school science teacher in the South, explained why Black educators must be represented in the core subjects to help students make stronger connections between Black identity and intellectual achievement:
a high school science teacher
Anthony and Karen’s comments confirm Dr. Ladson-Billings’ analysis of why white students need Black teachers. All students should be supported to develop the critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills crucial to their success and full participation in American democracy. The racially diverse learning environments created by Black educators enhance the learning of all students and facilitate the development of global citizens.
The United States has always been a racially and ethnically diverse nation. Still, there is a powerful and persistent history of struggling to fully include people of color in this democratic project.60 The number of people of color has grown dramatically since 2000, and this demographic shift has driven various social, economic, cultural, and political changes.61 Education is fundamental to the well-being and resilience of individuals and society as a whole. The COVID-19 pandemic created a pivotal moment to reflect and rebuild, but policymakers must commit to creating a more equitable education system as they look ahead. As Maureen McLaughlin, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education and Director of International Affairs of the Department of Education, stated:
Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education and Director of International Affairs of the Department of Education
The ongoing concern about the “educational loss” from the pandemic should provoke education advocates, policymakers, and administrators to institute practices that have demonstrated effectiveness in improving educational equity. Educators, parents, and students concerned with educational equity do not want to continue ineffective and unequal schooling practices that do not serve large segments of public school students well.63 Public education is a critical social institution that can help society, individually and collectively, become more resilient and learn from the past to create a future that reflects the principles of unity, equality, and democracy. The information from TMI’s interviews with Black educators demonstrates the vested interest society has in protecting and promoting high-quality public schools. The educational equity findings from this research can help protect Black children from harmful practices, forge unity among students by creating a shared understanding of the rich diversity of U.S. society, and affirm shared values of inclusivity and equality. The Black educators interviewed presented pedagogical approaches that have been shown to benefit Black and non-Black students alike. These educators model how to create an educational environment in which all students can learn and grow. They promote belonging and resilience for students who are often marginalized and underserved in current educational settings, and they accomplish these results despite personal costs and risks to their professional advancement. They are essential workers who continually put themselves on the front lines to offer critical resources necessary for educational equity. Education decision-makers and the broader public should honor their contributions by supporting and expanding their approach.
The practices of Black educators that have contributed to their success with Black students provide insights for all educators committed to equity. TMI’s research findings are consistent with scholarly analyses that have demonstrated Black educators’ role in disrupting the racialized harm produced within schools.64 Black educators do this by using evidence-backed strategies, such as repositioning Black students as children worthy of protection through caring relationships and advocating for alternative discipline policies.65 Similarly, research on segregated schools pre-Brown documents that Black educators understood their students holistically and had unique insights into their social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and academic needs.66
The Black educators TMI interviewed relied on the following strategies to promote educational equity and increase engagement and success among marginalized students: (1) teaching resilience skills to help Black students navigate individual and institutionalized racism; (2) developing a trusting relationship with students as a prerequisite to teaching; (3) restructuring the curriculum to engage students’ identity and social context; (4) advocating at individual and institutional levels for racial equity within schools; (5) supporting vulnerable families within the school community; and (6) using a supportive, trauma-informed approach to student behavior problems instead of punishment. These six keys of educational equity are consistent with education scholar Dr. H. Richard Milner’s research on Black educators, in which he identified six suppositions of successful teachers and teaching pedagogy.67 Education policymakers must embrace and build upon these strategies to promote educational equity.
Black educators can contribute to the improved educational outcomes of students traditionally underserved in public education by serving an instructional role as models of resilience. Although they did not always use the term, all but one of the Black educators TMI interviewed discussed an intention to teach resilience to Black students. Resilience refers to the ability to adapt and move forward despite experiencing setbacks and adversity.68 It has been linked to positive outcomes in school and the workplace.69 More recently, resilience has been repackaged and popularized in Dr. Angela Duckworth’s concept of grit.70 Resilience is the ability to easily recover from or adjust to misfortune or change, while grit refers to one’s ability to persevere in achieving long-term goals.71 Of course, grit will require resilience because long-term goals are not easily achieved, and individuals often experience setbacks along the way.
Amy Lyon, a nationally renowned K-12 educator, created a yearlong curriculum based on Dr. Duckworth’s concept of grit that includes a tool called a “grit pie.”72 The pie represents a student’s problem, and each slice represents a possible cause of the problem. Students consider whether their thoughts about the problem are permanent or temporary and whether they blame themselves or others.73 There are scores of other teacher resources for teaching grit and growth mindsets. However, research shows that “the educators who are best able to engender noncognitive abilities in their students often do so without really ‘teaching’ these capacities the way one might teach math or reading—indeed, they often do so without ever saying a word about them in the classroom.”74
Other scholars have highlighted the absurdity of school districts teaching underserved students “grit” to improve their educational outcomes.75 While the concept of grit, made popular by Dr. Duckworth’s research, is widely recognized, it has generated several scholarly critiques, including criticisms that the idea of grit blames the victim and is challenging to measure.76 In her book We Want to Do More Than Survive, Dr. Bettina L. Love explains how grit has been used to pathologize Black students and blame poor educational outcomes on their lack of grit—instead of on the racism embedded in educational policies and practices.77 Peter Gow, an educator for more than forty years, also accuses the grit narrative of threatening “to take us straight back to an era where poverty is about laziness and where failure, unless it’s the ‘failing up’ of a revered entrepreneur, carries the stain of moral bankruptcy.”78 In contrast, the conceptualization of resilience that TMI researchers observed in study respondents focused on the external resources that enable Black students to survive and more successfully challenge the systemic racism they experience within school. For example, Ryan, a long-term elementary school teacher in the Northeast of the United States, demonstrated how he promotes resilience in his students through sharing his own life experiences:
an long-term elementary school teacher
For Ryan, educating his students, particularly his young Black male students, through the lens of his experience as a Black man is an essential part of his job as a teacher. Rather than ignoring the institutional forces of race and gender that have shaped his life, Ryan uses his experience to inform and inspire his students.
From the time of legal racial segregation to the present day, Black educators have negotiated spaces for Black children to grow, learn, and succeed despite the institutionalized racism that confronts them. To be sure, skin color alone does not determine an individual’s ability to be a good teacher, but Black educators can use their unique and influential positions within the Black community and the educational system to either perpetuate or subvert institutional racism. Research shows that many Black educators work intentionally to create caring, safe environments that recognize and respond to the unique challenges Black students experience symbolically, interpersonally, and institutionally.79 Studies of Black educators teaching within the legally segregated school system of the Jim Crow era described the teachers as mission-driven to see their students succeed because they understood the negative consequences that awaited their students if they did not learn.80 The lessons these Black educators imparted in segregated schools included not just reading and math, but also “life lessons” on how to navigate a racialized society. Many of these educators were actively engaged in the Civil Rights Movement and were also preparing their students to participate successfully in an integrated society.81
The Black educators TMI interviewed demonstrated a similar willingness to teach their Black students life strategies to help them successfully navigate institutional racism. While these strategies do not nullify the impact of racism on the lives of their students, they are a layer of protection that can help minimize harm or help students develop resilience to more easily recover from the racism they experience inside and outside of school. Anthony, a high school administrator in the South, discussed how essential it is to have these life lesson conversations on resilience with his Black students:
a high school administrator
The lessons in resilience that Black educators like Anthony provide to their Black students are much more than the unsophisticated and impractical lessons in “grit” used by some school districts, which have the effect of ignoring and seemingly legitimizing systemic racial disparities.82 The Black educator respondents said they model and teach resilience to their Black students without suggesting that the students’ behavior created the problems they are experiencing in school. While Black teachers care about the success and resilience of all their students, they have a unique perspective to offer Black students, who are often most at risk and most in need of resilience lessons and less likely to have teachers who can offer those lessons. These teachers understand that school culture is hostile to many Black and low-income students, and they try to show students how to avoid or overcome the hurdles threatening their success. Research documents Black educators using a similar approach as Anthony to help Black students navigate situations within school and beyond, where racism is simultaneously invisible and hyper-visible.83
Most of the Black educators interviewed described their own resilience in the face of racial and class hierarchies and how they share skills with their students to help them be more successful and resilient when navigating racism at school. In their self-assigned roles as mentors and advocates, the Black educators in the study sample teach their Black students to remain engaged in school and persevere despite experiences of microaggressions and institutionalized racism.
The interviews revealed that a critical aspect of promoting Black students’ resilience is to help them identify their internal support within the school. The Black educators shared their observations of the racially hostile climate that some students experience at school and volunteered themselves as a refuge and a strategic partner in navigating systemic racism. Kevin, a Black male elementary school teacher, explained he often must have explicit side conversations with his Black male students to help them process and recover from the microaggressions they experience at school. Kevin discussed a situation where two Black male students were punished by their white female teacher. The two students reported to Kevin that their group partner, a young white female, was speaking to them rudely, and when they asked her why she was talking to them like that, she started crying. The white female teacher saw the girl crying and punished the Black male students without gathering any information from them. Kevin stated:
an elementary school teacher
Kevin’s response to the young Black male students reveals the importance of having an adult in the school who understands and can validate students’ experiences of microaggressions and help them respond appropriately. Education research documents the pervasiveness of microaggressions experienced by Black students and faculty within school settings.84 And yet, individuals like the students who spoke with Kevin run the risk of not being believed or having their experiences dismissed when sharing them with educators. This type of dismissive response to trauma can lead to secondary victimization and additional trauma.85 Research on Black mental health counselors and their clients demonstrates the negative impact of secondary trauma from microaggressions in the workplace and its association with professional burnout.86 Kevin, recognizing the critical role Black educators play in providing this much-needed resource to students, concluded his retelling of this story with, “Can you imagine the Black boys and Black girls who are not speaking up or don’t have the opportunity?”
The visible presence of Black educators can allow students to share about perceived unfair treatment without being further alienated from the school environment. Educators who have personal experiences with marginalization and are willing to share their experiences can be a valuable resource for students learning how to navigate discriminatory institutional contexts. Later in the interview, Kevin shared a voicemail from the mother of one of the young Black students with whom he had the hallway conversation, thanking him for supporting her child. The message stated:
an elementary school teacher shares a voicemail from a parent
Other educators interviewed for this report also described similar direct or indirect accounts of students experiencing racism within the classroom. These accounts include respondents from every region of the country, secondary and elementary schools, and urban, suburban, and rural school districts.
Black educators can promote the resilience of their students by not only offering an empathetic ear, but also by providing specific strategies to avoid or overcome obstacles created by systemic racism. Another elementary school teacher, Stacey, explained that she explicitly teaches strategies to help her young students succeed despite negative stereotypes they may face inside and outside of school. She stated:
an elementary school teacher
Stacey uses her similar background with her students to connect and build solidarity with them. She also uses it to support her message that they can be successful despite people’s expectations about them based on how they look and where they come from. Stacey promotes her students’ resilience and success by making explicit the often-implicit cultural norms of schools by introducing her “classroom rules” while affirming that she is their partner. She uses this messaging to reinforce to her students that she believes in their ability to succeed and that she can and will help them. Researchers have described this type of approach as “politicized mothering,” which refers to the authentic caring that Black female teachers have for their students as if they were their own children, combined with their political awareness of the role of systemic racism in shaping students’ lives and the importance of equipping students with all they will need to succeed in a racially hostile environment.87 Dr. Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, the creator of the concept of politicized mothering, recognized that this form of teacher caring is the product of a racialized and gendered political awareness of social change, beyond simply having a shared racial or cultural identity with students.88
Not all Black educators demonstrate this politicized care and supportive approach to Black students. Some scholars use the term “settler teacher syndrome” to describe the fact that Black educators can implement the same practices and ideologies of white educators and thus be as dangerous to Black students as some white educators.89 Because of this reality, Black educators can also benefit from systemic training on cultural responsiveness. Without such professional development training, educators of all backgrounds can reproduce many of the problematic behaviors that undermine Black students’ educational success.90
While Black identity does not necessarily eradicate racial bias, the Black educators TMI interviewed reported seeing themselves and their family members as similar to the Black students they teach, which may help to challenge many of the racial biases embedded in current schooling practices. These personalized symbolic connections can enable some Black educators to see their role as a protector and a facilitator of Black students’ success. As Courtney, a special education teacher in a suburban district in the South, stated:
a special education teacher
Despite the well-documented harms of “separate but equal,” research on Black educators under Jim Crow suggests that one positive aspect of segregated schools pre-Brown was the deepened connection and effectiveness between Black educators and their students.91 These scholars assert that because the Black educators lived in the same segregated communities as their students, they knew their students more holistically and could interact with their families outside of school to enlist support for their students’ academic success.92 Under Jim Crow separate-and-unequal segregation, the community and social institutions within Black neighborhoods remained stratified by socioeconomic class, and Black educators often shared the racial status but not necessarily the class status of their students. Yet, despite this class distinction, Black educators during that time were still able to develop a unique, holistic, and affirming view of their Black students.93 The backlash to the desegregation of schools may have significantly decreased the number of Black educators but has not robbed them of their distinctive positionality to the present day.
The U.S. housing market and the corresponding public schools remain racially segregated and are even more class segregated than in the pre-Civil Rights era.94 Although some middle-class Black educators may not live in the same neighborhoods as their students, most Black professionals continue to live in racially segregated communities, and many of those segregated Black communities are adjacent to poor Black areas.95 Monique, a state-level education administrator and former classroom teacher in the Midwest, discussed living in a racially segregated community that experiences police surveillance and violence. This “front line” perspective makes it easier for Black educators like her to engage students in discussions of events like the murder of George Floyd. Monique explained:
a state-level education administrator and former classroom teacher
Monique reveals how patterns of racial discrimination and residential segregation create potential connections that middle-class Black educators may share with lower-income Black students. This does not mean that socioeconomic status is irrelevant within the Black community, but it suggests that middle-class Black educators may not be as far removed from the experiences of their lower-income Black students as their non-Black peers. The shared experiences of systemic racism and prejudice, past and present, can serve as a motivator and resource for Black educators in promoting the resilience of their students. Their validation of Black students’ experiences and personal strategies for navigating racism enable these educators to serve as a protective buffer for students experiencing racism in school. Importantly, the Black educators interviewed taught their Black students these life strategies while simultaneously advocating to alter the racist practices that were harming their students.
Lisa Delpit’s book Other People’s Children explains the unique challenges associated with educating students that have identities and backgrounds different from that of their teacher.96 According to Delpit, many academic problems that educators attribute to children of color result from miscommunication between primarily white teachers and “other people’s children.” Thus, students of color struggle with the imbalance of power and institutional racism embedded within the education system. In contrast, many of the Black educators TMI interviewed talked about Black students as “our kids” and referenced their students’ similarities to themselves or family members. Perhaps the fact that they do not see Black students as “other people’s children” enables them to avoid the communication challenges and power struggles observed among many of their white peers.
Courtney, a special education teacher in the South, explained how her understanding of the sociopolitical contexts in which her students live and learn enables her to communicate respect and care in her interactions with her students. She also described the microaggressions that many Black children regularly experience from educators. According to Courtney, the difference between teachers who have a good relationship with students and teachers who do not depends significantly on the content and tone of teachers’ communications. She stated:
a special education teacher
Researchers have described this approach to teaching as a “praxis of politicized care,” in which educators use their deep knowledge of students’ sociopolitical context to drive high expectations, build relationships through vulnerability, encouragement, communication, and recognition, and help students envision new paths for their future.97
Much of the positive impact that Black educators can have on improving student outcomes results from their ability to build trust with students because teaching and learning are grounded in relationships. Supportive relationships with teachers help develop a more positive school climate and serve as a protective factor for students at risk of victimization at school.98 While all teachers may wish to develop trusting relationships with their students, the significance of race in shaping an individual’s experiences within and outside of schools implies that race (and other forms of social inequality) mediates how teachers and students interpret and respond to one another’s behaviors. Researchers note that Black female educators bring a unique approach to building trusting relationships with Black students that emphasizes the importance of sharing their personal experiences with and listening to students.99 The TMI study data demonstrate similar findings that trusting relationships do not automatically result from having a shared racial identity, but rather stem from a particular approach that the educators bring to interactions with students.
The success the Black educators in the study experience in building loving and trusting relationships with their Black students rests partly on their positive view of Blackness. Research shows the impact that pervasive anti-Black biases can have on limiting educational achievement for Black students.100 Combining data on implicit bias and educational opportunity revealed that counties with higher rates of anti-Black bias had more significant racial disparities in the placement of Black and white students in gifted and talented programs.101 For counties with low levels of anti-Black cultural bias, the racial inequality in gifted and talented enrollment was virtually non-existent.102
Rather than seeing their students’ racial identity as a barrier to their academic achievement, the Black educators TMI interviewed were confident in their Black students’ ability to succeed. This confidence in their Black students may stem from their perceptions of these students as similar to themselves and their family members. Although Black educators care about developing relationships with and promoting success among all their students, they recognize the unique ways in which Black students continue to be marginalized and underserved by the education system, and they strive to address those patterns. Teresa, a high school teacher in the Midwest, discussed her identification with her Black students and their problems:
a high school teacher
Teresa’s desire to give her Black students what she needed as a Black child in school was a common refrain of the Black educators in the sample. Having a shared, positive racial identity was a strong motivator for these individuals to enter the teaching profession and connect with many marginalized Black students. Tanya, an elementary school teacher in the South, shared how her reflections on the value of having a Black teacher and her cousins’ negative experiences in school led her to choose a career in education:
an elementary school teacher
Shared racial identity was not the only foundation upon which some of the Black educators in this study established a trusting relationship with their Black students. Even when these Black educators did not share similar backgrounds, such as economic status, with their students, they talked about the importance of treating underserved students with respect and providing education to empower them.
Melinda, an elementary school teacher in the South, highlighted how difficult it is to teach a student who feels disrespected by educators:
an elementary school teacher
Whether investing in learning the correct pronunciation of a student’s name or providing a student with the space to speak their truth without judgment or correction, these seemingly small acts of respect impact the teaching and learning experience in schools.
Kevin, an elementary school teacher in the Northeast, discussed how he approaches building a trusting relationship with students by respecting their boundaries and perceptions:
an elementary school teacher
Having a shared racial identity can help build trusting relationships of mutual respect, but it is not automatic. Not all Black educators have a positive perception of, or connection with, Black students. None of the Black educators in this study discussed a negative perception of Black students, but some did share stories of other Black educator colleagues who have negative opinions of Black students. As stated earlier, Black educators are not automatically immune from cultural messages of anti-Blackness, and they can also perpetuate implicit biases toward their Black students.103
Anthony, a high school administrator in the South, discussed the difficulties that some Black educators can have regarding Black students:
a high school administrator
As Anthony explained, race does not automatically translate into empathy, respect, and belief in the innate ability of Black students. However, the Black educators who excel in promoting resilience and success among their Black students embody these traits. One successful example of a formalized program that fosters trusting relationships and resilience is the Manhood Development Program, which the school district created in Oakland, California, as an elective class in the high schools and an after-school program at the middle schools.104 The Manhood Development Program sought to improve Black male students’ academic success and school experiences by teaching them about their cultural and community histories and allowing them to learn from Black male teachers. After implementing the program in Oakland, the graduation rate for Black male students in the school district increased by ten percent, the number of Black male students on the honor roll rose by twelve percent, the suspension rate for Black male students declined by twelve percent, and the number of Black male students in the juvenile justice system fell by forty percent.105 Research shows that the program’s success was based on the sociopolitical consciousness of the educators, which shaped their relationships with students.106
Fortunately, both Black and non-Black educators can learn to develop this consciousness and emulate intentional care that recognizes the role systemic racism has on students, and practice visible acts of care that promote academic engagement and success among Black students. Educators who adopt a positive perspective on Blackness, have respectful communication with their Black students, and express empathy are better able to earn Black students’ trust. As the respondents explained, such trust is a critical prerequisite for effective teaching.
Research shows that students can use curricular resources that directly engage their social context to challenge stereotypes and develop more empowering counternarratives of themselves, school, and society.107 Black educators are integral to developing and implementing culturally relevant teaching and reimagining curricula to be inclusive of Black people’s history. The omission of race and other forms of social inequality within the school curriculum can make it difficult for many students to develop a coherent understanding of their lives and a sense of belonging.108 This hurts Black students and other students of color, who deserve both culturally competent instruction and a culturally relevant curriculum. Policymakers must take this opportunity to invest in public schools and institute curricular changes that will engage and support all students, which cannot be accomplished without centering the voices of Black educators.
The Black educators TMI interviewed contribute to educational equity through their willingness and effectiveness in creating culturally relevant curricula, through both formal and informal ways. They expressed a desire to deliver a curriculum that reflects the lives and cultures of all their students, presents an honest and accurate account of the nation’s shared history, and promotes a thoughtful discussion of how students can learn from the past to create a more inclusive and just democracy in the future.
Dr. Milner has described educators as “curriculum engineers” who orchestrate and construct student learning opportunities.109 Educators shape students’ learning experiences through the explicit curriculum, implicit curriculum, and null curriculum. While the explicit curriculum describes what is taught to students as indicated in the syllabus or Common Core Standards, the implicit curriculum (also described as the hidden curriculum) refers to the informal and sometimes unintended cultural messages that are taught through teachers’ actions, language, and attitudes. In contrast, the null curriculum refers to what the educators choose not to teach and, as a result, denies students the opportunity to learn. Dr. Milner introduced the concept of “curriculum punishment” to draw attention to the harm all students experience when they are denied the opportunity to engage in transformative learning experiences around the topics of race and racism.110 He stated:
Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Professor of Education at Vanderbilt University
Unfortunately, many school districts have begun pulling away from earlier commitments to culturally relevant pedagogy or an accurate discussion of history. However, scholars like Dr. Ladson-Billings and Dr. Geneva Gay have produced significant research on the benefits of culturally relevant pedagogy, which entails: 1) high-quality and engaging lessons and curriculum that are relevant to the lives and realities of all students; 2) practices that allow students to maintain their cultural knowledge and identity; and 3) the development of students’ critical consciousness.112 The scholarship of Dr. Geneva Gay has focused on the specific strategies and practices (“culturally responsive teaching”) that teachers use to accomplish the goals of culturally relevant pedagogy.
The Black educators TMI interviewed demonstrate great skill in adapting the curriculum to be more inclusive of Black students’ identities and facilitating productive conversations on race within racially diverse classrooms. Karen, a high school teacher in the South, explained her confidence and skill in facilitating such discussions:
a high school teacher
Many Black educators in the sample articulated the value of having such conversations regardless of whether they are officially in the curriculum. Since much of the K-12 curriculum does not engage with the culture and history of people of color, Black educators often enhance the standardized curriculum with supplemental texts or focused discussions that expand students’ knowledge and understanding of the diverse communities in the United States.
This form of enhanced instruction has become more challenging in recent years due to remote learning at the height of the pandemic and the rise of anti-truth rhetoric. Kimberlé Crenshaw, one of the founding legal scholars of Critical Race Theory (CRT), calls CRT’s effort to analyze how the law contributes to racial inequality a deeply “patriotic” effort.113 Despite CRT’s foundation in law schools, anti-truth campaigns falsely depicting CRT have fueled nearly 900 school districts to take local actions against this theory.114 Today’s anti-CRT movement is the most recent version of a dangerous and anti-democratic campaign to distort the accurate teaching of U.S. history and the role that the law plays in sustaining race and racism in the United States.115 The realization of a truly functioning multi-racial democracy requires honest and accurate discussions about this country’s history, which is exactly what the ongoing war on truth aims to disrupt.116 These educational gag orders3 impact at least thirty-five percent of all K-12 public school students in the United States.117 Sadly, the very districts where students’ families and communities are experiencing rapid racial and ethnic change are less able to benefit from the historical and analytic tools to help them learn about and engage with this change: School districts experiencing the most rapid increases in proportions of people of color are more than three times as likely to be affected by localized organizing around educational gag orders.118
Monique, a state-level education administrator and former classroom teacher in the Midwest, said she believes the current anti-truth organizing in this country stemmed from public schools’ failure to teach a complete and accurate American history in previous generations. However, Monique suggested that Black educators remain committed to teaching the truth:
a state-level education administrator and former classroom teacher
While any attempt to include marginalized identities in the explicit educational curriculum has been framed as a zero-sum game by the anti-truth movement, such work is necessary to improve schools and society. As Crenshaw asserts, “We believe in the promises of equality, and we know we can’t get there if we can’t confront and talk honestly about inequality.”119
Students of color are not the only ones who benefit from Black educators’ willingness to engage in discussions of race and racism. Stacey, an elementary school teacher in the Northeast, explained why all students must be able to have these conversations in the classroom. She discussed a white student who was interested in learning more about race and police brutality but could not have those conversations at home with his parents:
an elementary classroom teacher
Karen, a high school teacher in a suburban district in the South, explained the value of having a Black teacher for both Black and non-Black students. Her experience highlights the importance of Black educators in articulating a counter-narrative to the curriculum’s marginalization of Black people and the issues they encounter, responding to Black students’ desire to delve deeper into understanding their lives, and providing white and other non-Black students with an opportunity to expand their understanding of and ability to interact with Black people as scholars and not just “cool” entertainers. Karen explained:
a high school teacher
Kelly, an elementary classroom teacher in the Northeast, described the technical assistance that many Black educators already provide to white teachers who want to do culturally responsive teaching but do not know how. In a national study of teachers, most teachers agreed that race is an important topic to discuss in the classroom (eighty-six percent), but most also reported that they do not feel qualified to have such discussions (fifty-five percent).120 Kelly’s Italian-American colleague wanted to participate in a “living museum” for Black History Month in which her students would learn about an influential Black person in history, dress up as that person, and educate fellow students on the significance of this historical figure by speaking as that person. But because this was during remote instruction due to the pandemic, the teacher was concerned about how the parents of her Black students and other students of color might react. Kelly explained her response:
an elementary school teacher
While Black educators may be skilled at supporting their students and peers through conversations on race and willing to do so, the dynamics of remote learning during the pandemic made this more difficult. Some educators were unwilling to have such discussions remotely because they had less control over the classroom dynamics in a virtual setting and could not ensure that students responded with appropriate attention and respect. Some teachers could not require students to have their cameras on, and even when the cameras were on, they would not know if students were private messaging or texting one another in response to what another student had shared in a class discussion. For this reason, during remote learning, many of the Black educators in the sample limited the extent of the personal sharing that is a regular part of their classroom.
In addition to the difficulty of ensuring that students listen and respond to each other with respect, several Black educators mentioned limiting discussions of race out of concern about white parents’ unwillingness to value such conversations. Naomi, an elementary school teacher in the South, described how difficult it was for her to have any discussions about race or culture during remote learning:
an elementary school teacher
Although some parent advocates have been vocal in pushing an anti-truth agenda, most U.S. parents express a desire for their children to accurately understand American history. According to a USA Today poll, more than sixty percent of parents want their children to learn about slavery and racism in school.121 While most Americans want this type of education, extremists have distorted and polarized discussions of CRT and culturally relevant pedagogy to advance their political interests. The wave of anti-truth bans sweeping the country is intricately connected to the wave of voter suppression bills disseminated nationwide, and it is promoted by the same funders that advanced the “Big Lie” that continues to polarize the nation and attempts to reverse the racial progress made in earlier decades.122 The Big Lie is the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, which was a leading factor in the failed political insurrection of January 6, 2021.123 Historians have compared the contemporary effort to ban the teaching of the truth about race in America to the censorship promoted during McCarthyism—a political practice of silencing opposition through public shaming tactics regardless of the truth of the claims.124
As Chelsea, a high school teacher in the Northeast, explained, this “whitewashing” of the curriculum reflects a devaluing of education:
a high school teacher
This organized effort to censor the curriculum signals a significant departure from education policy and best practices research over the past two decades. Seventeen states have mandates to ban educational materials discussing racism, bias, and the contributions of people of color.125 Unfortunately, in several states, the ban on CRT has come to mean a prohibition against teaching anything about the history or perspectives of people of color.126 Such whitewashing of the curriculum will likely lead to the further alienation and disengagement of students of color and other marginalized identities within schools.127
Anti-truth bans harm all students by restricting their right to learn. They prevent educators from supporting students in grappling with difficult historical facts and complex current events in a way that makes possible collective improvements in a shared future. Education gag orders block opportunities for both students of color and white students to discuss how they might collaborate to ensure that all people are included, valued, and treated with dignity and respect. Students of all races have identified the problematic nature of these anti-truth bans and how they deprive students of the right to learn an accurate and comprehensive perspective on their country.128
Because these bans on teaching the truth harm educational outcomes, many organizations have spoken out against anti-truth legislation. The Learn From History Coalition and others strongly support teaching accurate and inclusive history.129 The National Education Association (NEA) created a model resolution to help school boards assert “a commitment to affirming inclusion of all students,” an insistence on the right of students to learn, and a firm stance inviting professional development to better support students.130 Such efforts align well with the goals of the Black educators in this study to support all students in their right to learn and to advance the collective ability to discuss race, inequality, and diversity in the United States as a foundation for a multi-racial, multi-ethnic democracy.
The Black educators TMI interviewed teach Black students how to successfully navigate a racist educational structure, while actively working to change it. The research documents many examples of Black educators advocating on behalf of Black students experiencing unjust treatment in school. As Stephanie, a special education teacher in the Northeast, explained, many Black educators consider it part of their job to protect children from the harm done to them while enrolled in the current public education system. She stated:
a special education teacher
Based on TMI’s analysis of the interviews, Black educators’ protective role includes advocating against and challenging the unjust practices at school that harm students. Black educators interviewed described advocacy such as calling for marginalized students to receive less punitive disciplinary treatment or to have access to enrichment resources. Other advocacy efforts in which Black educators engage involve raising critical questions about the racial disparities in school practices. Courtney, a special education teacher in a suburban district in the South, shared how seeing current students endure similar challenges to what she had experienced during her schooling led her to be an educator and a passionate advocate for the students in her school:
a special education teacher
During the interviews, Black educators in both elementary and secondary schools discussed advocating for their students. Although the Black teachers from all regions of the country described themselves as advocates, those in suburban districts particularly emphasized the importance of this role and provided the overwhelming majority of reports of advocacy on behalf of Black students and Black families. This may suggest that the advocacy of Black educators becomes even more critical in educational settings where Black students are a visible minority: Although U.S. suburbs are becoming more racially diverse, Black people continue to be overrepresented in urban cities and underrepresented within suburban communities.131
The dynamics of being a Black student in a predominantly white suburban school may be different than the experience of being one of many Black students in an urban public school. While almost half of all Black public school students attend urban schools, they are almost equally underrepresented in suburban and rural schools.132 However, patterns of racial and economic segregation result in a system that privileges suburban school districts compared to rural and urban public schools.133 Compared to those in suburban public schools, Black students in rural school districts are more likely to live in racially segregated communities, and all students are more likely to attend schools with higher rates of poverty.134 But Black students in suburban school districts may have a greater need for advocacy from their Black educators: Almost half of all discussions of racial inequalities in school punishment in the research sample emerged from teachers in suburban school districts, with the rest coming in relatively equal proportions from educators in rural school districts and urban school districts.
Teresa, a high school teacher in a suburban school district in the Midwest, described the intense isolation and alienation that Black students (and Black educators) can experience in a predominantly white suburban context:
a high school teacher
Teresa said she continues to advocate for her students of color, even if it does not change their outcomes. She also alluded to some of the professional dangers Black educators can experience because of their advocacy for educational equity. Challenging systemic racial disparities can be risky for Black educators and the Black students for whom they are advocating, given that both are typically a numerical minority in a suburban context.
However, the potential negative consequences of advocating for Black students are not limited to predominantly white suburban school districts. A special education teacher in the Northeast, Stephanie, explained how her advocacy for Black students led her to leave a previous job in an urban school district:
a special education teacher
The advocacy Black educators choose to perform on behalf of Black students is often at great expense to themselves. This is another layer of the protective resilience that Black educators provide for Black students. In addition to being an empathetic listener and helpful mentor to Black students navigating racial disparities within schools, these educators also expend significant energy challenging those racist practices that are harming their students. And yet the Black educators in the study described an additional level of support they provide to their students that extends beyond the school: partnering with Black families to advocate for educational equity.
Kelly, an elementary school teacher in the Northeast, discussed her participation in a parent-teacher group focused on creating educational equity within the school. Kelly led a sub-group tasked with ensuring that schools within the district fulfilled their state-mandated responsibility to teach about slavery. She explained:
an elementary school teacher
The advocacy of Black educators like Kelly challenges systemic racism within public schools. Whether questioning school tracking, student discipline, or the lack of racial diversity within the curriculum, Black educators’ advocacy promotes educational equity. This advocacy is an additional buffer of protection that these educators provide to their Black students.
Another way that the Black educators interviewed promote the success of Black students is by embracing and supporting their families as well. Educational research suggests that family engagement is associated with student success, especially for low-income students.135 Over the past several decades, studies have found that parent involvement in schools improves student achievement, teachers’ ratings of student competence, grades, standardized test scores, and high school graduation rates.136 However, Black and low-income families are often criticized for their lack of family engagement, which is too often framed as a contributor to students’ lack of success in school.137 There is a long history within U.S. public schooling of encouraging students of color and immigrant students to reject identifying with their families’ cultural backgrounds to “become American” and achieve academic success and mobility.138 However, rather than seeing students’ families and communities as obstacles to their success, many of the Black educators in the sample see them as valuable partners. Their engagement with marginalized families is more than lip service; it involves altering school and classroom practices to be more inclusive.
Elizabeth, a special education teacher in an urban school district in the South, described how her school transformed its parent-teacher conferences to engage and celebrate their students’ families:
a special education teacher
Most of the respondents discussed the importance of supporting students’ families as a part of student success. This supportive relationship with students’ families became even more critical during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Black educators discussed how the pandemic increased teacher interactions with families and shifted conversations from previous collaborations.
Jared, an elementary school teacher in the Northeast, shared how his collaborative work with families went from planning to get a playground built to ensuring student attendance in remote schooling and meeting the urgent needs that families were facing. In his interview during the pandemic, he stated:
an elementary school teacher
Ryan, an elementary school teacher in the Northeast, discussed the struggle to balance his desire to engage and support students’ families during the pandemic and the requirements of his own life:
an elementary school teacher
Black educators in this sample expressed empathy for the struggles of their students’ families, and many of them felt like they were facing similar challenges. Tanya, an elementary school teacher in an urban district in the South, explained how she and her students’ families dealt with the double trauma of the pandemic and George Floyd’s murder, along with the tough family choices and mental stress resulting from the events of 2020. Tanya explained in her interview during the pandemic:
an elementary school teacher
Despite their personal and family challenges, the Black educators in this sample made themselves even more available to families during the pandemic. They increased their communication with students’ families and made sure that their messages were supportive and respectful. Drawing upon the same skills they used to develop relationships with their students, these educators understood how critical the tone of their communication was to students’ families.
Teresa, a high school teacher in the Midwest, explained how intentional she was about emphasizing positive comments in her communications with families because she was aware that they were under tremendous stress, and many other teachers were calling with complaints about their children:
a high school teacher
Teresa’s understanding of the challenges that families were experiencing enabled her to shape her communications with families in a more supportive manner. Rather than blaming parents for their children’s absence from school, she offered social-emotional support to the families and students.
Stephanie, a special education teacher in the Northeast, also highlighted how important the tone of teacher communications can be for family engagement. She stated:
a special education teacher
Stephanie shows that engaging families with respect and empathy is likely to produce cooperative interactions and help build trusting relationships. Similarly, other Black educators interviewed use their emotional intelligence and knowledge of students’ social context to build relationships with marginalized students and their families. As discussed below in the final key to educational equity, this approach can also help educators address school disciplinary challenges.
All students flourish in nurturing environments that support them on their paths to growth and fulfillment. Schools should be equipped with the resources and knowledge to support students’ positive social-emotional development, especially by teaching students how to properly manage their emotions and respond to conflict in healthy and productive ways. Black educators in the study described an approach to student engagement and discipline that affirmed students’ sense of belonging and supported their holistic well-being.
Similarly, researchers studying the role of Black educators in segregated schools before the Brown decision have highlighted the unique meaning and practice of discipline among Black educators.139 Unfortunately, the backlash to the Supreme Court’s mandate to desegregate public schools “with all deliberate speed” led to massive dismissals and demotions of Black educators who taught in the segregated public school system.140 This removal of Black educators from public schools undermined the goal of school desegregation articulated in the Brown decision, and it continues to negatively impact the educational opportunities of students today. The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) continues to advocate for the inclusion of Black educators as a critical component of school desegregation.141 For schools under a court-imposed desegregation order, the law requires racial integration of faculty and staff.142 However, the limited pipelines for Black educators, the lack of mentorship and support, and the institutional racism embedded in public schools can create a hostile work environment for many Black educators.143 Thus, many Black and non-Black students alike are denied the opportunity to learn from a Black teacher.
Discipline in segregated schools before the Brown decision was developmentally supportive, but the mass removal of Black educators resulting from the backlash to the integration of Black and white schools led to the punitive and exclusionary discipline practices used today.144 School leadership fired or demoted many Black teachers and administrators in the South’s newly integrated schools following the Brown decision.145 The Black educators in pre-Brown segregated schools had high expectations for their students, a strong racial identity, and close connections with students’ families and community institutions. Within this context, these Black educators explicitly communicated to students about what behaviors were needed to promote individual (and collective) success, and they drew on their connections to other aspects of students’ home and community life to reinforce such messages.146 Education scholars describe this distinctive approach to teaching, in which Black educators have very high expectations for students within a caring and supportive relationship (known as “warm demander”), as being associated with educational equity.147 Researchers have studied the warm demander approach as a component of culturally responsive teaching and have found that it supports a culture of achievement for students of color.148
The lack of racial diversity in the current educator workforce and lack of appropriate professional development training for racial equity create punishment problems for contemporary Black students and other students of color. Black and Latinx students receive more favorable teacher ratings when assigned to a same-race teacher as compared to a white teacher.149 Researchers also found that students whose teacher’s race/ethnicity match their own have more favorable behavior ratings and are therefore less likely to be assigned punitive discipline.150 The importance of race in shaping a teacher’s evaluation of a student’s behavior is not limited to K-12, but occurs as early as preschool.151 A 2021 report of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found that although Black preschool children accounted for seventeen percent of preschool enrollment, they represented thirty-one percent of children who received one or more out-of-school suspensions and twenty-five percent of those expelled.152 In a study of more than 300 preschoolers and their teachers, having a teacher of the same race as the child decreased the likelihood of evaluating the child’s behavior as “disruptive” and using exclusionary discipline practices.153
Jared, a high school teacher in the South, described how the disciplinary actions taken against students decreased significantly when a new administrator (a Black principal) reframed the punishment problem as a school problem rather than a student problem:
a high school teacher
In a 2014 study published in the American Educational Research Journal, school psychologist Dr. Russell Skiba and his research colleagues concluded that school-level variables, including principal perspectives on punishment and the percentage of the student population who were Black, were among the strongest predictors of racial disparities in school punishment practices.154 The researchers recommended that schools and districts look toward school- and classroom-based interventions to reduce racial disparities in punishment.155 Schools low on structure and support had the most significant racial punishment gaps.156
National data on school-based arrests and referrals to law enforcement reveal that Black and Latinx students are disproportionately targeted for harsh punishment.157 Moreover, national data show that Black girls are the fastest-growing demographic affected by school punishment, arrests, and referrals to the juvenile justice system.158 The strip search of four Black and Latinx middle school students is a telling example of the ways in which school biases fuel the school-to-prison pipeline. In a middle school in Binghamton, New York, school officials misinterpreted the playful laughter of four Black and Latina girls in the hallway during lunch as suspicious and subjected them to a strip search.159 LDF filed a lawsuit on behalf of the girls’ parents, calling on the school district to rectify the situation, including by issuing an apology for the gross mistreatment of the young girls.160
The perception of Black people, particularly Black men, as dangerous is a generalized racial bias that exists more broadly than in schools and law enforcement. In a sociological study investigating how people evaluate the dangerousness of a particular neighborhood, the data revealed that the visible presence of young Black men in pictures of a neighborhood increased participants’ rating of the community as dangerous.161 Even after controlling for crime rates and other neighborhood characteristics, increasing the percentage of young Black men in pictures of a neighborhood increased white participants’ perceptions of neighborhood crime. Moreover, laboratory studies of racial attitudes revealed that Black boys are seen as older, less innocent, and less likely to prompt an association with childhood than their same-age white peers.162 Such racialized, gendered stereotypes are likely to influence white educators’ interpretation of and response to Black students’ behavior.
The Black educators TMI interviewed discussed observing several unjust practices that lead to Black students being overly punished. Kevin, Stephanie, and Teresa each highlighted specific practices of their white peers that contribute to this racialized punishment.
Kevin, an elementary school teacher in a suburban school district in the Northeast, described how upsetting it is to watch white educators unjustly punish Black students:
an elementary school teacher
Although Kevin’s colleague is likely not intentionally interacting negatively with these Black male students, the teacher’s willingness to assume the students have an attitude problem rather than assuming normal adolescent behavior demonstrates how racial differences can create inequalities in student punishment among even well-meaning teachers. Black students and students with disabilities are the two groups most likely to receive school suspensions, and Black male students with disabilities are the most targeted for school suspensions.163 By investigating school disciplinary practices through a lens of race, gender, and disability status, past studies have demonstrated that almost thirty-four percent of Black boys with a disability were suspended in high school.164 That is double the rate of white boys with a disability.165
Stephanie, a special education teacher in the Northeast, explained how the overrepresentation of Black students, particularly Black males, in special education is another form of collateral damage of the punitive approach to Black students:
a special education teacher
Stephanie’s comments highlight how racially disparate punishment practices in the earlier grades can produce racial differences in special education placement in later grades. Researchers have also found that repeated suspensions in the early grades increased the number of suspensions students obtained in high school.166
Teresa, a high school teacher in the South, explained that the overrepresentation of Black students in disciplinary actions does not reflect their participation in serious school violations like drugs and fighting:
a high school teacher
Schools across the country often enforce dress codes and grooming policies that prohibit natural hairstyles like afros, braids, Bantu knots, and locs.167 These hairstyles are expressions of Black identity and culture, with historical ties to Black pride, religion, and history.168 They are also protective: When schools ban natural styles, students often turn to damaging chemical or heat straighteners.169 Race-based hair discrimination takes students out of the classroom, denying them educational opportunities and at times preventing them from participating in school events like prom or graduation.170
Photo: A father braids his daughters hair. (Photo via Shutterstock)
In 2020, LDF brought and won a suit on behalf of DeAndre Arnold, a senior whose Texas high school suspended him over the length of his locs.171 Arnold was placed in in-school suspension and told he would not be allowed to attend his graduation ceremony or participate in extracurricular activities until he cut his hair. Arnold and his cousin, who was suspended for the same reason, endured significant trauma and wide-ranging negative consequences for wearing their hair in a way that honored their cultural identities and heritage.172
LDF client
LDF and coalition partners are working to enact the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act, which would protect expressions of Black identity and culture by prohibiting race-based hair discrimination in the workplace and in K-12 public and charter schools.174 So far, twenty-three states and more than twenty-eight municipalities have enacted the CROWN Act or similar legislation to prohibit hair discrimination based on texture or style.175 In 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the CROWN Act, but it was blocked in the Senate.176
Hair discrimination refers to the overregulation and insults Black people experience for the appearance of their hair in a more natural style.177 Black women face the highest instances of hair discrimination and are more likely to be sent home from the workplace because of their hair.178 However, this form of discrimination is not restricted to the workplace, but occurs in schools as well. Hair discrimination is another culturally biased school practice that erodes trust between students and the education system that is supposed to care for them.179 For example, Black students at Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, a high-performance school in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, have faced multiple detentions and suspensions for wearing their hair in braids, which the school administration states is a violation of the school dress code.180 Such racially discriminatory policies punish expressions of students’ culture and racial identity and contribute to schools’ ineffective and racially disparate punishment systems.
David, a special education teacher in the South, said a lack of cultural competency among the teaching workforce leads to racial disparities in school punishment:
a special education teacher
The Black educators interviewed emphasized the importance of developing a relationship with Black students to avoid behavior problems and addressing the root causes of students’ needs rather than enacting punitive discipline. These educators recognize that many of their Black students are dealing with trauma and therefore require a trauma-informed approach, not punitive discipline, to address their needs.
As Kelly, a suburban elementary school teacher in the Northeast, explained:
an elementary school teacher
In addition to the racial disparities observed in the physical health and economic impacts of the pandemic, there were racial disparities in mental health outcomes as well. Many study participants discussed how Black students and their families experienced a double trauma as they navigated the health and economic disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic while also contending with the racialized violence reflected in the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. While all Americans grappled with the trauma of the pandemic, the violent and insidious structural racism that Black families and educators endured was put under the national and international spotlight at the same time the pandemic was disproportionately disrupting their lives and communities. The Black educators interviewed in this study played a critical role in supporting vulnerable students and their families while they were themselves experiencing this double trauma. As school leaders attempt to help students cope with the lingering mental health effects of the past few years, they must acknowledge that structural racism itself can be a source of generative trauma and must be addressed in mental health supports for students of color.181
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) such as abuse or neglect, natural disasters, and racialized trauma from discrimination and injustice can all be sources of student trauma.182 The racial trauma Black students experience is not limited to the tragically frequent public killings of Black people at the hands of the police, but also include daily acts of racial injustice experienced and witnessed at school and in their neighborhoods. In a study of depression among Black adolescents, researchers found that the persistence and severity of depression is related to Black students’ experiences of everyday racial animosity, and over three-quarters of the Black students reported experiencing racial discrimination on at least one day during the two-week study period.183 A study of racial discrimination and harassment on the internet found that twenty-nine percent of Black high school students reported experiencing racial discrimination online and seventy-one percent reported witnessing their same-race peers experience it online.184 Neighborhood violence and other environmental hazards that disproportionately impact Black students because of residential segregation are another source of trauma that can impact their mental health and academic performance.185 Research has shown that exposure to neighborhood violence can reduce students’ performance on math and reading examinations.186
Regardless of the form, schools can play an important role in supporting students through such trauma.187 The Black educators interviewed for this study advocated for a non-punitive, more supportive approach to responding to student behavior problems.
Brittany, a high school teacher in the rural South, discussed her students’ experiences of trauma and how she offers them the emotional support they need rather than punishment:
a high school teacher
The trauma-informed, supportive services strategy of the Black educators in this sample is congruent with the best practices articulated in the research literature. The Black educator respondents use and advocate for a preventative approach to addressing student behaviors. This approach prioritizes building and maintaining relationships to foster a positive school climate.188 Relationship-building includes connecting with students and their families, emphasizing shared community values that educators and students must adhere to, and addressing students’ psychosocial needs rather than focusing on their behavior.189
Although Black educators are an invaluable asset for educational equity, they represent a persistently small proportion of K-12 public school teachers nationwide.190 Several factors raise the likelihood that a Black educator will leave their position or education in general. While education policymakers and administrators must do everything possible to prevent the loss of more Black teachers, the responsibility of addressing the policies and practices that sustain educational inequities should not fall solely on Black educators.
A teacher observes students working. This educator was not interviewed for this study. (Photo via Shutterstock)
In interviews with TMI, Black educators reported that they shouldered a disproportionate burden of the work to promote educational equity, without any additional remuneration. However, ensuring that all public students receive a high-quality education requires that everyone within the school system, regardless of race, shares the responsibility to advance these goals of equity and inclusion and listens to Black educators who have already been doing this work.
Black educators have consistently been at the forefront of efforts to address longstanding systemic gaps in educational access, opportunities, achievement, and outcomes, which became even more clearly visible and entrenched during the COVID-19 pandemic.191 It is particularly urgent for policymakers to acknowledge Black educators’ perspectives and expertise to address these gaps in the wake of the pandemic. Derrick Bell’s scholarship highlighted the importance of centering the voices of the individuals most impacted by racism in creating policy solutions.192 By listening to the context-specific challenges, responses, and perspectives of people experiencing social inequalities, leaders can design more effective policies.193 In the education field, there is a history of conducting qualitative research with people of color and other marginalized groups to uncover power dynamics and racial injustices within schools as a means to construct better education policy.194 This research study continues this scholarly tradition by centering the experiences, insights, and strategies of a sample of Black educators to document how the K-12 public school system can be redesigned so that all students have the needed resources to learn and thrive. Their insights provide a starting point for developing policy recommendations to create the necessary conditions for effective and equitable teaching and learning.
To advance educational equity, education policymakers and school administrators must restructure school punishment policies and practices to center the holistic needs of students and provide more mental health support to both students and staff. Given that the COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on people of color and low-income communities, students from these communities were even more likely to be severely impacted by trauma.195 In a 2020 survey, seventy- four percent of Black students and eighty-seven percent of Latinx students reported worrying about the financial impact of the pandemic on their families, compared to fifty-three percent of white students.196 The symptoms of the stress and trauma students have experienced over the past few years may be misinterpreted as behavior issues. Racially biased punishment policies, compounded by the biases of teachers and school administrators and the presence of police in schools, can lead to the arrest or removal of Black and Latinx children from the classroom for routine, age-appropriate misbehavior or in response to issues that would be more appropriately addressed by a counselor or even a simple conversation. Researchers warn against adopting punishment reform policies that profess cultural neutrality, fail to acknowledge institutional oppression, and do not provide the robust social, emotional, and behavioral supports that students need.197 The approaches of the Black educators interviewed account for all these components, which likely explains their success with students who are typically underserved by the current educational system.
The Black educator respondents described countless examples of school leaders inappropriately framing the material, social, and emotional needs of Black students as discipline problems. Black educators often witness racially biased punishment systems at work in their schools. The earlier quotes from Kevin, Stephanie, and Jared are just a few of the stories the Black educators shared in their interviews about the myriad ways in which the explicit and implicit biases of school staff impact students’ experiences of school discipline. In the interviews, Black male educators and Black educators in suburban districts were much more likely to discuss the racialized nature of school punishment. They presented a clear and compelling call to create school-based systems that address the root causes of behavior issues and provide supportive services to meet the needs of students and families.
David, a high school special education teacher in the South, explained the critical role that providing material resources plays in addressing punishment and promoting equity in schools:
a high school special education teacher
David described how students who have less support at home need more support at school. Because of structural inequalities, all families are not equally resourced to provide their children with the resources to thrive. If the education system is going to be “the great equalizer” that makes social and economic mobility possible, school staff must know their students well enough to know what kind of supports they need and be equipped to provide those supports.
Charleigh, another high school special education teacher in the South, encouraged educators to respond to student “behavior problems” with curiosity that would lead to better knowing and supporting the student:
a high school special education teacher
The Black educators in this study asserted that mental health is an essential part of students’ capacity to learn. Research supports what these Black educators already know: Students experiencing mental stress from being displaced by natural disasters performed worse in all academic subjects and at all grade levels, although younger students who transitioned to a higher-performing school as a result of the displacement did perform better academically.198 Students with more extreme forms of mental distress warranting a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis performed three times lower academically than those without PTSD symptoms.199 In addition to decreased academic performance and ability to concentrate, children can experience a range of psychological and physical symptoms of distress in their post-disaster recovery period, including increased fear, guilt, physical complaints, hypervigilance, withdrawal, anger, denial, aggression, delinquency, and, in the most extreme cases, increases in suicide attempts.200
Kelly, an elementary school teacher in the Northeast, said that expanding mental health resources for students would alleviate much of the school behavioral problems:
an elementary school teacher
Trauma impacts children and adolescents through the event trauma (negative stressors associated with the event itself) and process trauma (the ongoing disorder and disruption of daily life resulting from the event).201 Three months after Hurricane Andrew, fifty-four percent of third-to fifth-grade students showed moderate to severe PTSD.202 Disasters can cause serious psychological harm to students resulting from the loss of home and possessions, grief from the death of loved ones, seeing parents/caregivers under stress, neglect or abuse associated with increased parental stress, as well as disruptions in social networks and local economies.203 Research shows that increases in the severity of exposure are associated with increases in the event’s negative impact on mental health.204
To adequately address the persistent impacts of pandemic-induced trauma and other forms of trauma that many students experience, public schools must provide an adequate number of professional counselors in each school. The Black educators interviewed consistently affirmed that the behaviors identified for discipline in many instances are the result of students attempting to cope with trauma. What these students need are trained counselors and trauma-informed services, not cops.
Ninety percent of students attend public schools where the number of counselors, social workers, nurses, and psychologists does not meet recommended professional standards.205 Three million students attend schools with police but no school nurse, and fourteen million students attend schools that have police but do not have a counselor, nurse, psychologist, or social worker.206 At the same time, Black students are more likely than any other racial or ethnic group to attend a school with school-based law enforcement, and they are disproportionately referred to law enforcement and arrested at school.207
As Jared, a high school teacher in the Midwest, explained, there is pressure to make Black teachers, especially Black male educators, the “overseers” of Black children:
a high school teacher
Research shows that Black male teachers are often expected to manage the “misbehavior” of Black students.208 As Jared stated, it can be infuriating for Black educators, regardless of their interests or training, to be placed in the position of implementing school punishment. One of the interview respondents shared his resignation letter explaining that he could no longer participate in a school with a punishment system that “criminalizes Black and Brown children.” Indeed, in a study focused on Black male educators and discipline, the educators rejected the idea that their success at redirecting Black students was magic or because they were Black men.209 Instead, these educators described how their attention to students’ social and emotional development accounted for their success.210
Rather than joining the school administration in a formal punishment capacity, the Black educators TMI interviewed were firm advocates for restructuring discipline policies to provide mental health support. Most Black students do not have access to the mental health resources they need under normal conditions, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic. The Black educators in this study provided concrete suggestions about preventing discipline problems at school by improving mental health resources for students. Charleigh and Sandra emphasized the need to increase the number of professionally trained counselors in schools.
As Charleigh, a special education teacher in the South, explained, school counselors are understaffed and do not have sufficient time to provide students with the type of instruction and support that could help them better cope with the challenges they face at school and at home:
a special education teacher
Sandra, a high school counselor in the South, underscored how important it is to provide mental health support within the context of the school rather than referring students to outside resources. She stated:
a high school counselor
Providing qualified mental health support within schools helps improve students’ behavior and academic performance and can build stronger relationships between the students and the school.211 As many of the Black educators interviewed emphasized, strong positive relationships are the key to student success. Moreover, these relationships increase the school’s awareness of the challenges students are experiencing outside of school and position the school to be a more effective resource for students and their families.
A growing body of research shows that school-based approaches can be instrumental in helping students recover from trauma.212 Teachers and schools are a part of the “natural circle of support” for school-age children and their families.213 In a study of students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, students were more likely to seek needed help from schools than from social service agencies.214 Students who had supportive relationships with teachers also experienced greater psychological well-being after a traumatic event than those students who did not have such support.215 Fifty-one percent of the displaced students in the study talked with teachers about problems they were having with adjusting to their new lives.216 Students who received positive support from teachers showed greater health and satisfaction, less physical discomfort, higher self-esteem, fewer risks, better problem-solving skills, and greater family involvement.217 However, students who asked for help from teachers but did not find the teachers supportive experienced worse outcomes than students who did not ask for help.218 Positive teacher-student relationships can also result in academic achievement and fewer disciplinary problems.219
Unfortunately, students were less engaged with teachers and received less social-emotional support during distance learning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Less than twenty-five percent of schools surveyed in 2020 reported meeting students’ mental health needs at the same level as before distance learning.220 The rate was even worse for urban schools, with less than five percent reporting similar levels of mental health support for students.221 Years after schools resumed in-person learning, many students continue to experience the mental health impacts of the pandemic’s disruption. Now, more than ever, schools need to deepen and expand the mental health supports they provide.
Black teachers are a tremendous asset in improving educational outcomes, creating a more positive school climate, and preparing the next generation to create a more just and inclusive society. Thus, school administrators and policymakers should extend appreciation and respect for the contributions of Black educators and other educators currently working to advance educational equity, including through fair compensation. Black educators are not immune to the economic precariousness experienced by the Black middle class. Given this context, broader efforts to strengthen the pathway of economic mobility and financial security for Black households will also strengthen Black educators’ ability to sustain their work to advance educational equity. Low teacher salaries are a barrier to attracting and retaining teachers, particularly for Black educators. In fifteen out of the sixty-nine largest metro areas in the United States, the rental costs of a one-bedroom apartment are more than thirty percent of the salary of a new teacher with a bachelor’s degree.222 In nine of those unaffordable metro areas, the costs of renting a one-bedroom home would be more than thirty percent of the salary of a new teacher with a master’s degree.223 Even within the grossly underpaid profession of teaching, Black educators earn less: An economic analysis of teacher salaries showed that, all else being equal, Black teachers’ hourly wages were nearly one percent lower than those of their white peers.224
Melinda, an educator in an urban school district in the South, reported that teachers in her district tend not to live in the communities where their students live, partly because housing subsidies are primarily available in the suburbs rather than urban communities:
an educator
Unfortunately, few Black educators feel valued for the work they do. In a study of teacher retention among Black female educators, primary reasons for leaving the profession included feeling underappreciated, having to defend their credentials and dismiss microaggressions, and being passed over for advancements.225 Educators interviewed in TMI’s sample also identified a lack of autonomy and support for educators as professionals, especially those serving Black and Latinx students.
Sandra, a high school teacher in the South, reported feeling patronized and not taken seriously by colleagues, parents, and others:
a high school teacher
School administrators must acknowledge and validate the dedicated work of Black educators like Sandra in promoting the resilience and academic achievement of Black students, despite the challenges they face inside and outside of school. Several of the educators interviewed, like Destiny and Julie, discussed the value of a “thank you” for the numerous ways Black educators support students and advance educational equity.
Destiny, a high school teacher in the Northeast, and Julie, a special education teacher in an urban high school in the South, similarly said:
a high school teacher
a special education teacher
In addition to verbal appreciation, other Black educator respondents discussed the importance of affirming the value of their work with financial compensation. Teaching is a relatively low-paying profession for college graduates. In a 2021 nationwide poll of teachers, more than half of the respondents (fifty-seven percent) reported that a raise in salary would make a difference in whether they would leave the profession within the next two years.226 The relatively low pay for teaching is a significant reason why Black youth are not attracted to the profession and why many Black educators leave.227 The figure below demonstrates the large pay disparity between K-12 teachers and other college graduates.228 While the weekly wage gap between teachers and other college graduates had been slowly narrowing, from $289 in 1979 to $238 in 1996, the gap was slightly more than double ($582) by 2018.
The Black educators interviewed recommended making teacher pay comparable with other post-college professions. Ryan and Kelly, both elementary school teachers in the Northeast, highlighted the importance of financial compensation in retaining educators, especially Black educators who are in short supply. Ryan and Kelly each stated:
an elementary school teacher
an elementary school teacher
Aside from raising salaries, policymakers should consider other possible strategies and programs to ease Black educators’ financial burden and thereby value and support the continuation of their work, such as reducing student loan debt and expanding homeownership opportunities. According to 2021 data from the Federal Reserve, the average Black and Latinx households earn about half as much as the average white household and possess fifteen to twenty percent as much net wealth.230 Unfortunately, this wealth gap has widened notably over the past few decades and is magnified by student loan debt.231 A college degree does not eliminate the income gap between white and Black workers, and it can in fact contribute to the increased fragility of the Black middle class because of student loan debt.232 Black college graduates owe an average of $25,000 more in student loan debt than their white peers.233 White college graduates have over seven times more wealth than their Black counterparts.234 These racial disparities in wealth and student loan debt make homeownership less achievable for Black educators. Currently, most white Americans (seventy-four percent) are homeowners, and less than half of Black families (forty-five percent) nationwide are homeowners.235 Federal, state, and local policies and programs to lessen the financial burden many Black educators experience will make it possible for more individuals like them to enter the profession and build lifetime careers as educators.
While the Black educator respondents willingly take on additional responsibilities to support Black students as well as to recruit and mentor other Black educators, they do not receive financial compensation or professional recognition for these additional responsibilities. As Black educators currently perform critical roles in advancing educational equity and training others to do the same, school districts must recognize and appropriately compensate the educators who do this important work. This will help to ensure the longevity and expansion of all educators who demonstrate a commitment to educational equity.
Although many current Black educators are doing yeoman’s work in promoting educational equity, they cannot accomplish this alone. Their numbers are too small to significantly change the inequitable academic policies and practices most Black students experience. School districts need to recruit, hire, and maintain a critical mass of educators who are skilled at creating trust with Black students, responding to behaviors with support, and ensuring that all students’ histories, social contexts, and perspectives are effectively integrated into the curriculum. Therefore, schools must proactively recruit, support, and promote Black educators and other educators explicitly skilled in these educational equity practices. School administrators should provide opportunities and resources to educators who show an interest in, past commitment to, and preparation for engagement in deepening and extending educational equity within public schools.
Every Black educator interviewed for this study discussed the importance of expanding the number of Black educators in all types of school districts and all levels of leadership. While Black educators are rare within the field, Black male educators are even rarer: Seventeen percent of all public school educators are Black, Latinx, Asian, or Native American, and only two percent are Black men.236 Several male and female educators in the TMI sample discussed the importance of recruiting Black people in general and Black men in particular.
As Jared, one of the few Black male elementary school classroom teachers, stated:
an elementary school teacher
As Jared explained, young Black men are provided with role models and encouraged to emulate the success of Black men in sports (and entertainment), but not in education. One Black educator hypothesized that there is such a small representation of Black people and Black men in education because educators “gave them hell” when they were students. Restructuring schools to be more supportive of Black students may help increase the future pipeline of Black educators. In the meantime, the education sector must actively recruit Black people who may not have thought of themselves as teachers.
Although Black men are a minority within a minority in education, Black male educators are more likely than Black female educators to be in educational leadership positions. Black female educators continue to face substantial obstacles to gaining access to leadership roles.237 This reflects a larger pattern referred to as the “glass escalator,” where men in female-dominated occupations such as education are pushed into leadership positions.238
The ability to expand the presence of Black educators is dependent on school administrators developing alternative routes to entering the teaching profession and increasing mentoring programs for Black educators.239 Alternative routes to teaching programs are more likely to attract older teacher candidates and a more racially diverse body of teachers.240 Most of the Black educators in this sample became teachers as a second career, often by participating in state and local programs designed to increase the number of Black educators.
All students deserve high-quality teachers, but research indicates that racial biases within the teacher certification exams pose an additional barrier to expanding the number of Black educators.241 Virtually all states require teachers to undergo licensure testing before securing employment in K-12 public schools. Yet, research shows that these licensure exams are less valid measures of achievement among Black teachers.242 In a study of the North Carolina Praxis exams required for teaching certification, researchers found that, holding all other teacher qualifications equal, the Praxis exams do not successfully distinguish between ineffective and effective teachers.243 In North Carolina, aspiring educators are required to take two Praxis exams: the Praxis Core generally used for admission to teacher preparation programs, which tests prospective educators in the areas of math, reading, and writing; and the Praxis Subject Assessments, which are used for licensure, certification, or endorsement in specific grade levels and/or subject areas.244 Regardless of the race of the teacher, the Praxis tests are not good screens for teaching effectiveness in reading, but they do function as a reasonable screen for effectiveness in math.245 With everything else being equal, teachers who passed the Praxis exams do not have students who perform better in reading than those who did not pass the exams.246 In addition to the Praxis exams being ineffective in distinguishing good teaching in reading, they also have documented patterns of racial disparity. While performance on the multiple-choice version of the Praxis test reasonably signals quality teaching for white teachers, it does not do the same for Black teachers. However, the essay-response version of the Praxis exam provides a better gauge for performance among Black teachers.247 Thus, the researchers concluded that North Carolina’s Praxis exams cannot accurately determine a teacher’s quality without also considering the teacher’s race and gender.248
Researchers argue that, given the significant benefits Black students gain from being matched with a Black teacher, the uniform application of licensure standards will likely reinforce racial disparities among public school students.249 Furthermore, the Black educators TMI interviewed identified the high costs associated with such exams as an additional barrier that limits Black people’s ability to enter the teaching profession. The fact that these exams are culturally biased, and thus many potential Black educators must take these expensive tests multiple times, undermines the ability of public schools to provide high-quality educators for all students.
Stephanie, a special education teacher in the Northeast, shared the ways in which race and gender barriers shape who can be an educator:
a special education teacher
As Stephanie explained, to achieve educational equity in public schools, society must allow people who are not in the dominant group to “take up space.” That is true for both students and educators.
The expansion of Black educators in public schools is dependent not only on recruitment, but also on retention. School administrators play a critical role in influencing the retention of teachers, especially Black teachers. Research shows that administrative support is even more impactful in teacher retention for minority educators, new teachers, and educators teaching in schools with high percentages of low-income students or schools located in rural areas.250 Most of the educators TMI interviewed discussed the importance of administrative support, in either positive or negative terms, in their decisions about remaining in a particular school or within the field of education.
Beth, a special education teacher in the South, advocated for creating more administrative mentoring programs:
a special education teacher
Charleigh, a high school special education teacher in the South, discussed how the chaos and demands of teaching during the onset of the pandemic were made more tolerable by a supportive administration that was willing to listen to teachers and incorporate their needs and limits into recommended school practices. She stated:
a high school special education teacher
Monique, a state-level education administrator and former classroom teacher in the Midwest, described the differences in the level of administrative support for teachers coming through her alternate route program and Teach For America (TFA). She asserted that TFA has even less teaching support and scaffolding from administrators, which leads to higher turnover. She stated:
a state-level education administrator and former classroom teacher
Thus, a core component of expanding the racial diversity of the education workforce must be engaging school administrators to create a culture of support for Black teachers. These mentoring programs could provide the needed support for Black educators and also facilitate the expansion of Black educators in school administration roles.
The perspectives of Black educators must be incorporated at all levels of education policymaking, including state legislatures, school boards, and federal agencies. Charleigh, a special education teacher in the South, discussed how Black educators have a unique perspective that must be integrated into the education policymaking process:
a special education teacher
Monique, one of the few Black educators in an administrative position, highlighted the importance of expanding the presence of Black educators by transforming the broader cultural context of schools:
a state-level education administrator and former classroom teacher
As Monique pointed out, both Black students and Black educators would benefit from professional development for all teachers in anti-racism and culturally relevant pedagogy. Several Black educator respondents recommended schools provide such professional development to their colleagues. Given the importance of teacher effects on students’ short- and long-term outcomes, educational equity interventions are essential strategies to improve teacher expectations and help them build trust with Black students. Research on the impact of racism on teacher attitudes and expectations of Black students reveals that while teacher self-evaluations do not explain racial gaps in students’ performance, measures of teachers’ implicit biases do.251 Thus, educators need opportunities to investigate and transform internalized biases that block educational equity.
In her interview during the pandemic, Destiny, a high school teacher in the Northeast, described the need to train more teachers to be skilled in culturally relevant pedagogy:
a high school teacher
As Destiny explained, culturally responsive teaching can be more engaging and meaningful to students who may feel alienated from the current education curriculum. It is essential that schools do not limit professional development opportunities to teachers, but also engage counselors and administrators. All staff who interact with students play a critical role in creating the school culture and systems of educational equity. However, these professional development opportunities should include and amplify the insights from Black educators as a foundation for change.252 Therefore, professional development to advance educational equity should not solely focus on the content of the curriculum, but also on how educators engage with students.
Kelly, an elementary school teacher in the Northeast, encouraged educators to be willing to examine their biases so that they can better serve all students:
an elementary school teacher
The interview respondents discussed how Black educators need mental health support, particularly in light of the upheaval of recent years. Many Black educators endure daily stressors such as hostile work environments and racial isolation, the additional burdens and responsibilities of protecting Black students and advancing educational equity, and greater financial insecurity at home. Furthermore, several interview respondents reported experiencing fatigue from providing consistent social-emotional support to students and families who are dealing with trauma, the rates and severity of which have increased due to students’ experiences with violence and the pandemic. These educators’ experiences demonstrate how vital it is for schools to provide mental health support for teachers as well as students.
Courtney, a special education teacher in the South, highlighted the lack of support for Black educators:
a special education teacher
While all educators should have access to mental health services so they can continue to provide social and emotional support to their students, Courtney emphasized the unique needs of Black educators.
Every Black educator interviewed discussed a specific commitment to supporting the most vulnerable students. Not only are they providing such support to vulnerable students and their families, but the educators themselves also observe and experience similar racial disparities. This shared experience of racism and identification with Black students may make it more difficult for Black educators to establish protective boundaries.
Naomi, an elementary school teacher in the South, discussed the need for professional resources to affirm the importance of self-care, especially for Black educators who consider themselves to be part of the same community as their students:
an elementary school teacher
Although Black educators experience high levels of mental stress, they may feel less comfortable acknowledging and seeking out mental health support because of racial stigma. Tanya, an elementary school teacher in the South, explained:
an elementary school teacher
The interview respondents are closely connected to the trauma and strain that Black students and families endure, and they also provide a substantial amount of school-based support. Their experiences highlight the importance of both engaging teachers in planning interventions for students and providing teachers with the needed support to fulfill their role as social-emotional helpers for students.253 School administrators should offer teachers supports such as professional development on trauma-informed care, resources on social-emotional learning, and teacher support groups to exchange ideas and encourage one another. By providing resources to recruit and promote Black educators and professional development for all educators in creating a safe and affirming learning environment, public schools will be better positioned to create an educational context in which all students can thrive.
Advancing educational equity in public schools requires school boards to adopt employment policies and practices that proactively address workplace discrimination and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This includes addressing funding inequities that limit teacher salaries and resources in communities that are already under-resourced.
Historically, Black educators have been especially vulnerable to adverse employment actions during periods of upheaval. In the Jim Crow South, state and local governments responded to the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling by firing and demoting mass numbers of Black educators.254 These Black educators were replaced with white educators, and the profession has never restored the diversity that existed in the education system before the desegregation ruling.255 Due to backlash to the Brown decision, 38,000 Black educators in the South lost their jobs, and as of 2000, “only fourteen percent of teachers were persons of color.”256 A similar loss of Black teachers happened after Hurricane Katrina—revealing the trauma and displacement associated with disasters as well as the ways in which such disasters can exacerbate pre-existing racial inequalities within the education system.257 More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic was another such disaster on an even larger scale. Instead of accepting the pandemic as yet another blow to Black educators and Black students, local school boards should seize the opportunity to strengthen support for both students and educators by developing equitable workplace practices.258
If schools lack anti-discrimination protections, students will be deprived of the diverse perspectives and numerous benefits of Black educators. In the interviews, Black educators shared their fear of retaliation when they engage in activities that promote educational equity within their schools. For example, those who challenge “educational gag orders” are punished for teaching the truth.
Stacey, an elementary school teacher in the Northeast, described a hostile work environment within her predominantly white suburban school when she expresses a pro-Black identity:
an elementary school teacher
Stacey’s reflection evinces a hostile work environment that the school district needs to address.
In addition to describing questioning looks or disparaging comments from white colleagues, the interview respondents identified being overlooked for promotions. Kelly and Teresa both highlighted how qualified Black educators are not hired or promoted in line with their interests and abilities.
Kelly, an elementary school teacher in the Northeast, said:
an elementary school teacher
When asked how school districts should amplify the impact of Black educators, Teresa, a high school teacher in the Midwest, responded:
a high school teacher
Racial discrimination in employment is not unique to schools, but it is especially crucial to protect all educators involved in these critical educational equity practices from budget cuts, downsizing, role-strain/burnout, and the career compromises that these activities might involve. Hostile work environments and discriminatory employment practices cause “racial battle fatigue,” a concept used to describe the toll of racial discrimination experienced by teachers of color who work within a predominantly white profession. Such discrimination has a detrimental impact on the well-being and retention of Black educators.259
In his book Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities, educator and scholar Dr. Andre Perry reviews the public policies and practices that devalue Black people, institutions, and communities. He explains how policymakers promoted education reforms in New Orleans, Louisiana, as a way to improve the education of Black students, but the reforms instead devalued student learning, denied services to students with disabilities of all races, and displaced Black educators.260 Dr. Perry writes:
author, educator, and scholar
As school administrators and policymakers aim to “build back better” in the wake of the pandemic, it is essential that they prioritize the voices of Black educators in devising reforms to advance educational equity at every level, from the classroom to the federal government.262 The Brookings Institution report Beyond Reopening Schools argues that “strong and inclusive public education systems are essential to the short- and long-term recovery of society. . . .”263
This TMI report highlights the voices and perspectives of a small sampling of Black educators in an attempt to produce community-centered solutions that school leaders should incorporate into all levels of education policymaking. As research has shown, Black educators benefit schools and the nation as a whole by improving educational outcomes, producing a more positive school climate, and preparing the next generation to create a more just and inclusive society. Education decision-makers and the broader public must pay attention to the voices, needs, and experiences of Black educators during this pivotal moment in history. The response can either extinguish or preserve one of the country’s greatest educational assets.
To understand the role of Black educators in promoting educational equity, TMI recruited and interviewed thirty Black educators. The research team was composed of the report’s Principal Investigator (PI) and author Dr. Kesha Moore, with support from the following TMI research staff: Jackie O’Neil, Fadilat Olasupo, Chase Leito, Anan Hafez, and Tziporah Tiller. The research staff completed Human Subjects Research training required to certify competency in general research and ethics for working with human subjects and were additionally trained and supervised by the PI.
Black educators represent a small but significant portion of all public school staff. This study intentionally recruited a nationally representative sample of Black educators (contact the author for a full description of the interview sample). The research interviews focused on Black educators discussing why they chose education, the challenges they faced in the transition to distance learning at the start of the pandemic, and their recommendations to promote educational equity. Research participants were recruited through a snowball sample and were initially referred to TMI by LDF education litigators and policy staff. The PI asked for referrals to Black educators who currently teach in U.S. public schools and have taught in public schools for at least three years. The research participants were asked to identify additional educators in a different school district who might want to participate. The researchers sought to recruit a diverse sample according to geographic location, years of employment in education, primary vs. secondary schools, classroom vs. education, and gender. Interview respondents did not receive any compensation for their participation in the research study.
Once the research team received a potential participant’s name, they sent an email introducing the research team and the research project. The email provided a brief description of the project’s purpose and the length and format of the requested in-depth interview. The introductory email also stated that participation in the research was entirely voluntary, and respondents’ identities would be altered to allow respondents to remain anonymous. The initial email invited potential participants to schedule a twenty-minute videoconference to discuss the project in more detail and ask any questions.
During the informational meeting, a research team member explained the study’s goals and structure to the potential participant and answered their questions. The research team member used the screen-share function to view and discuss the informed consent form, which explained what the participant could expect from the study. If the individual was interested in being a research participant, the research team member then scheduled an appointment for the interview.
After the informational meeting, the research team emailed the participants the agreed-upon interview date and a PDF attachment of the informed consent form. The email explained the purpose of the informed consent document and asked each participant to sign, date, and return the form in advance of the scheduled interview.
The interviews were conducted during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic school years. At the beginning of the interview, the interviewer read the informed consent form and asked the participant if they had any questions. The interviewer made sure to get verbal consent and written permission from the participant and answer any questions raised by the participant before beginning to ask the research questions.
Given the COVID-19 pandemic, all research interviews were conducted virtually via a secure Zoom teleconference. Both the interviewer and the respondent had video cameras to better approximate face-to-face interviews and allow for the reading of body language and social cues in facilitating the conversation. The interview was recorded (with the respondent’s permission) to ensure an accurate
record of the respondent’s words. The interviews were semi-structured, and interviewers asked questions that followed the flow of the conversation. During the interviews, all respondents were asked the following questions:
The research team transcribed the video recordings of the interviews and used only the written transcripts for analysis. They analyzed interview transcripts using a line-by-line open coding system. The research team used Dedoose qualitative analysis software to code the transcripts and explore the codes’ patterns. The team periodically met to discuss collapsing similar codes and expanding large codes into sub-codes as the number of codes grew. Once the emergent codes were established, the research team created an analytic memo to describe the coding scheme and the relationship among the codes. The PI identified important themes of analysis based on the emergent coding system. The team gathered all relevant coded data and wrote analytic memos that summarized the patterns, highlighted substantial differences, and raised additional inquiry questions. The analytic memos captured an iterative cycle of data inquiry and analysis throughout the study. This report reflects the major analytical themes that emerged from this process. Qualitative research often starts with open-ended questions and aims to generate “mid-range” theories.264 Consistent with most qualitative research, the analytic approach of this study was inductive, beginning with concepts derived from the data gathered rather than existing theory.265 The research team discovered the analytic categories in this study through a close reading of the interview transcripts and later connected them with theoretical concepts derived from a close reading of the literature.
The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Kesha Moore, PhD. The data are not publicly available due to Internal Review Board restrictions protecting the confidentiality of the study participants.
