Across the country, paraprofessionals in cities are primarily Black and Latina women, and they are far more likely than teachers to live in the district and even the school zone where they work. However the percentages of Black teachers in major city school districts across the nation have declined, while the percentages of census-designated…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of Latina/o teachers in New York City. Using critical race theory and LatCrit theory as the theoretical framework, 15 participants engaged in semi-structured interviews, focusing on how their racial identities shape their educational and professional paths. Thematic…

Purpose: Many US school districts currently face teacher-retention issues, raising questions about which new teachers might remain long term in district schools. Positing that a teacher's local ties matter, this quantitative analysis was designed to compare the long-term retention of community-based teachers to community outsiders in the school…

This quantitative study was designed to investigate teacher preparation as an interactive system and examine whether individual approaches to preparation are associated with differential retention benefits across different teacher subgroups. Drawing on longitudinal data on mathematics teachers who entered teaching through the New York City…

High-stakes testing is currently the primary measure of student success in the United States. Based on this measure of student performance, closing the "achievement gap" in test scores between Black and Latinx students and their white peers has become the main indicator of success for schools serving Black and Latinx students. When…

Teacher certification exams were put on hold as New York City became the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis in March of 2020. State officials closed testing centers and school buildings, and teacher candidates began to panic as administrators at their student teaching placements worked feverishly to adjust. This changed teacher candidates' ability…

Students who experience teacher caring and high expectations (i.e., warm demand) are typically more engaged and successful at school. Yet, relative to White students, students of color tend to report lower levels of school social belonging and more distant relationships with their White teachers. Leveraging data from 179 6th-9th grade Measures of…

Maria Montessori was one of Italy's first female physicians, and she developed a groundbreaking educational method based on astute observation of children's behavior while working in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Rome (Gutek 2004; Kramer 1988). As someone who witnessed the extent of injustice experienced by poor women and children…

The Black Teacher Project (BTP) is an organization that supports, develops and sustains Black teachers for schools in the United States. The organization is building a Black teaching force that reflects the diversity and excellence of Black people in the United States. In our pilot year, BTP offered racial affinity-based professional development…

This article examines how three Black women educators disrupt oppressive norms in urban schooling through their applications of critical race womanist pedagogy (CRWP). Using narrative excerpts formed from semi-structured interviews exploring how they contend with sociopolitical injustices through their pedagogical choices and actions, CRWP…

Teachers of African descent encounter obstacles such as lack of representation, microaggressions, myths and alienation within their profession and have multifaceted experiences that hinder or advance their identity development. Fifteen teachers of African descent from New York City were interviewed. The conceptual framework used for this study…

The purpose of this 2-year phenomenological study was to build on the legacy of Black women educators before and after "Brown v. Board of Education" and examine the ideological standpoint of early career Black women educators from the millennial generation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three Black women educators…

Increasing racial and gender diversity has been an urgent goal in many professions and education is no exception. Though the call for more Black men is a worthy one, many challenging questions arise when one considers the country's socio-historical record. The purpose of this study is to explore some of these questions that arise as one probes the…

Black and Latinx educators make up a critical portion of the early child education (ECE) field; 31% of the center-based workforce and about half of those employed in Head Start. These diverse educators are from communities where the impacts of the pandemic have been the most detrimental -- according to the Centers for Disease Control and…

Black male teachers make up less than 2% of the U.S. public school labor force. A prevalent discourse among educational stakeholders has suggested that Black male teachers are the key to helping students in urban schools develop skills to succeed in school by acting as role models. This assertion presents Black male teachers as a panacea to…