Why Do Prospective Teachers of Color Walk Away? Join the Community Action Team

By Josh Crosson

While nearly 35% of students in Minnesota identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color, the teacher workforce across the state has remained at a stagnant 5% throughout the past decade. We know that systemic barriers prevent many people of color from becoming educators each year. 

This year, EdAllies will work to identify and remove these barriers alongside our community. Are you or is someone you know a once-prospective educator of color? We’re excited to introduce our 2023 Community Action Team: Eliminating Barriers for Prospective Teachers of Color.

WE NEED YOUR VOICE!

EdAllies seeks a core group of committed educators to join a Community Action Team. This team will include 10-15 people of color who seriously considered entering the K-12 teaching profession but ultimately decided another career path. Building off of previous research while identifying new policy ideas, this team will:

• Share and hear stories of cohort members’ experiences with the teacher pipeline, helping us to identify trends and problem areas in teacher recruitment;
• Dig into statewide and national data, and help to identify what contributes to the teacher data; 
• Through a facilitated process, identify and research policy solutions to develop community-led recommendations for change to be implemented by school leaders and policymakers to improve recruitment and retention efforts

OTHER INFO

• Fill out this form to apply
• Applicants should be once-perspective educators and self-identify as a person of color or Native American person
• Applicants should be willing to share their personal stories, listen to others, and help develop key findings and recommendations
• The team will meet for five one-hour sessions from mid-January to June, 2023
• Meetings will be scheduled based on the availability of cohort members. Each cohort member is expected to participate in every session
• An honorarium of $500 will be provided upon completion of the cohort.

Not for you? Do you know someone who would be interested? Fill out this form to nominate them for the cohort of leaders.

If you have any questions about this opportunity, or would like to learn more from a member of the EdAllies team before you apply, reach out to Alex Jacques, Community Action Team project manager.