Reflecting on this incongruity, we’ve come to the conclusion that to be a Black teacher in America today is to — as James Baldwin put it — “be in a rage almost all the time,” while simultaneously operating in a constant state of hope. And, though no community of any kind is or should be considered a monolith, we wanted to dedicate some time to exploring why that is through our own experiences and the experiences of Black teachers around us.

Hope

, compared to 78% of white teachers. While we can’t speak for every Black teacher, we know that for us, part of the pull to stay is the sense of activism imbued in our daily work. We know a Black educator’s presence — in the classroom, but also in the building — instills a sense of hope in our students who look like us and even those we don’t teach. Their hope gives us hope.

, compared to just 13% of white teachers. In Black traditions, we train our replacements. We know that the work we are doing is so connected to children and grandchildren who will look like our own children and grandchildren, that determining who will lead the next generation of classrooms is work that must be attended to. 

, compared to just 25% of white teachers. We believe part of the explanation behind this is our deep belief in the abilities of our students. We know that two teachers can look at the same student so differently, and that our belief in them is critical to their success. We also know that when the pandemic paused formal schooling, teachers of color had the antennae to pick up on the signals of learning happening outside of it. 

We recognized the leadership roles kids were playing: managing budgets, taking care of siblings and getting them fed. And we know how to tap into that resilience and independence to catch students up on the schooling they missed, because the alternative — to give up, to lose hope — is unacceptable.

Rage

The optimism expressed in these survey results must be tempered by recognizing it is not fueled solely by hope. It is also fueled by rage.

We know that if we leave the classroom, there may be no one left — not one Black teacher — to represent the culture and community when we’re gone. We don’t just ask. “Who’s going to teach my kids if I leave?” but also, “Who is going to support them in the racial and cultural context(s) in which they’re being educated? Who is going to challenge the misrepresentations in their curriculum? Who is going to make these spaces less anti-racist, less anti-immigrant, less anti-Black?”

And, while survey results show that Black teachers and teachers of color are seemingly more optimistic than white teachers, they still �������’t optimistic: . It’s an unthinkable but relatable paradox, especially as Black male educators, to want more people who look like us to join us in a difficult and lonely profession. K-12 education more often than not is a hostile space for Black people, and changing it from the inside out is exhausting. 

This difficult, lonely profession sometimes looks like coming to school the day and listening to complaints about the broken copy machine. It sometimes looks like facing “professionalized racism:” experiencing a racist incident that brings you back to an experience you had as a student, and grappling simultaneously with the trauma of that memory and its repetition in the moment. 

It sometimes looks like school districts claiming they want more Black teachers,but refusing to take meaningful steps to stabilize, secure and support these educators, such as through the . No one has Black teachers in their backpacks, but there are steps and models for school and district leadership teams can and must take to address both ends of the pipeline: recognition, recruitment and retention.

Organizations like the Center for Black Educator Development are certainly a source for Black teachers by providing a model and a lens for how to invite youth into the profession and how to treat them — providing safe and sustainable cultures that ignite and encourage them to show their brilliance — in order to retain them.

To be a Black teacher in the United States is to live in a state of activism and analysis fueled by both hope and rage, because the alternative is to live in a state of utter despair. It has to get better. We must lift our students as we climb ourselves, even if we are also balancing on a precipice.  We work tirelessly alongside teachers of color, who believe that it will get better, who channel their hope and their rage into fighting for every one of our students. 

Teachers who express optimism do so not because they are happy now, but because they believe deeply in what they are working toward.

This heartwarming show takes a comedic, mockumentary approach in tackling some of the most pressing issues around urban education: inadequate school funding, teacher turnover and the misappropriation of school funds. However, one other major theme also stands out for me: the positive impact of Black educators.

Part of what makes ABC’s refreshing and unique is the fact that this majority-Black school is comprised of a mostly Black staff. From the school leader to the janitor, the default in this West Philadelphia school community is Blackness. But, this narrative is far from the norm for many of our nation’s students as they navigate their 13- year public school experience. In fact, the reality is that while Black students make up 15 percent of the nation’s public education system, only 7 percent of our educator workforce identifies as Black. At just under 2 percent, the share of Black male educators is even more disheartening.��

indicates that the presence of Black teachers in the classroom is directly linked to improved student outcomes for all students, especially Black students. For example, having at least one Black teacher early on reduces a Black student’s likelihood of dropping out of school by up to 39 percent. Additionally, when Black students have access to two Black elementary school teachers, they are 32 percent more likely to go to college.��

Principal Coleman, Ms. Teagues, Mrs. Howard and Mr. Eddie demonstrate the importance of ensuring that all kids have access to educators that not only reflect their cultural background, but also share common sociopolitical interests with their students.��

One of the series’s most memorable moments is when Quinta Brunson’s character, the ever-hopeful second grade teacher Janine Teagues, pays homage to the community she and her students grew up in by teaching a lesson on the use of Philly slang — from “jawn” [basically a substitute noun for any people, place or thing] to “oldhead,” [someone older or whose generation came before].��

It’s no wonder that the Philadelphia City Council recently to celebrate the show for spotlighting the many joys and challenges of working as an educator in Philadelphia’s school system.

While the teaching profession has been neglected for so long, this feel-good show beautifully highlights the profound impact teachers, specifically Black teachers, have on their students and their communities. My time spent in the classrooms of Gates Elementary in San Antonio, Texas illuminated some of the same support and tension that the teachers in Abbott Elementary grapple with. Starting a school garden with one of my co-workers, disregarding my own self-care on some days, and being mentored by one of the amazing veteran teachers on campus are just a few of the many shared experiences. I saw a lot of myself in this show, which was both triggering and affirming if I must confess.

As the wise kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard, played by Sheryl Lee Ralph, tells her colleagues: “Teachers at a school like Abbott, we have to be able to do it all. We are admin, we are social workers, we are therapists, we are second parents. Hell, sometimes we are even first. Why? Cuz it sure ain’t the money. … Want to know my secret? Do everything you can for your kids.”

Abbott Elementary is truly the gift that keeps on giving and I hope that we can continue to give Brunson, the show’s creator, producer and star, her flowers for uplifting the narrative around the profound and long-lasting impact that Black educators have on their students. Black teachers, like Brunson’s mother or the namesake of the show, her sixth grade teacher Ms. Abbott, went to great lengths to meet their students where they’re at, while challenging them to reach their highest potential. That’s why we need more of them.��

At the Center for Black Educator Development, we’re partnering with local and national organizations to create a movement around education as a form of activism through the launch of our national campaign. The goal is to raise awareness around the shortage of Black teachers, with hopes of inspiring a new generation of leaders to answer the call to become a changemaker in the classroom. Learn more about the campaign .��

During their reunion on , Joyce Abbott recalled her former student, the gifts she brought to class and those she needed a little help in realizing.

“Quinta was an awesome student. When she came into my class, she was really shy, timid. But as I challenged all of my students — we had to speak in complete sentences — I built their confidence that whatever you want in life, you can do it.”

What a special thing it is for Black educators to challenge their students academically, while simultaneously making them feel seen and encouraging them to pursue their dreams. Ms. Abbott, Ms. Teagues, Mrs. Howard and Mr. Eddie all prove to us that Black teachers do more than just provide a strong education — they empower their students.��

Mimi Woldeyohannes is director of strategic partnerships at the Center for Black Educator Development. She is the former special projects and community manager at ����Ӱ��.

The paper presented the findings of focus groups conducted during the spring and summer of 2020, compiling the perspectives of 105 Black teachers from across 12 states. Educators in the group had an average of 12 years of classroom experience, though some were newer to teaching and others were more veteran.

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The report offers key insights on how to build school environments that feel welcoming for Black educators, such as ensuring that curricula include the perspectives of historically underrepresented groups. The authors also recommend that leaders provide opportunities for teachers of color to participate in mentorship programs and focus groups to debrief their experiences, especially in schools with majority-white faculty, where Black, Indigenous, Hispanic or Asian educators may be one of just a few colleagues who share their racial identity.

The findings come at a crucial time, as Black teachers are leaving the profession at than many other groups due to myriad issues including professional isolation and burnout. Currently, about 7 percent of all teachers nationwide are Black compared to 15 percent of all students.

Research underscores the academic and social benefits that teachers of color deliver for young people of all races, but . Many experts point to teacher diversification as a , yet nationwide, 79 percent of educators remain white compared to only 47 percent of students.��

“We know that students of color, particularly Black students, if they have a Black teacher, they’re more likely to succeed in school,” Sharif El-Mekki, founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, told ����Ӱ��. But all too often, he noted, teachers of color are met with hostile work environments that leave them simultaneously overburdened and isolated — what he calls the “invisible tax” of being one of the few Black, Indigenous, Hispanic or Asian educators at their school.

The report co-published by El-Mekki’s team and Teach Plus points out numerous systemic reasons for the current teacher diversity gap. The often-celebrated 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case, for example, integrated U.S. students but not educators — spurring . Many of them were than their white peers because teaching, albeit in segregated schools, was one of the few professions widely available to African Americans with advanced degrees during Jim Crow.��

Today, teacher preparation programs continue to feed of white educators into the field, thanks in part to certification exams that ​​have long been the target of concerns for racial bias.

“The challenges to [boosting teacher diversity] are deeply embedded and calcified in our public schools,” said El-Mekki, who previously worked as an educator and principal in Philadelphia, in a . “Undoing them will require intentional and comprehensive effort by teachers, principals, district and state leaders.”

“Hiring people of color is not enough to create culturally affirming schools,” added Kyle Epps, a Philadelphia teacher cited in the report. “Schools need to have systems, programs, and curriculum in place whose main goals are to foster and celebrate people of color.”

Some first steps toward implementing such measures may be holding meetings and launching surveys through which parents can share their voices, teachers suggest.

“It is imperative that leaders cultivate a culture where families and communities have a platform to advocate for their kids and are given opportunities to play a role in decisions that impact learning and student success,” said Mississippi teacher leader Nicole Moore, who was also featured in the paper.

The group of Black educators who spoke to Teach Plus and the Center for Black Educator Development identified key recommendations for school leaders looking to foster more welcoming environments for their teachers of color. The paper includes practical resources such as for teachers to help examine their own biases and tools to deepen curricular materials with that relate to students’ own lived experiences.

“[The report] addresses not only what an affirming school culture looks like, but also provides clear and concise action steps teachers, educational leaders, and policymakers should take to transform school culture for Black teachers — in service of their students,” said Travis J. Bristol, assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a Teach Plus board member.

Similar action steps, however, have recently come under fire in classrooms and rowdy school board meetings across the country. As some schools have begun to acknowledge and discuss systemic racism in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, a nationwide backlash (El-Mekki calls it a “whitelash”) against the perceived propagation of critical race theory in education has put a target on activities like implicit bias trainings or books written by Black authors. In one Texas town, it even led teachers to wrap their own personal bookshelves in , as administrators cracked down on classroom collections.

That’s not stopping El-Mekki or the Center for Black Educator Development.

“This idea of policing … Black minds and Black intellectuals is nothing new,” he told ����Ӱ��. “Doing racial justice work takes courage and bravery.”

His organization will next month hold a conference to , who currently make up just 2 percent of all U.S. teachers.��

But dismantling racism in schools, he underscores, is everyone’s responsibility — white folks included.

“It’s part of being an educator,” said El-Mekki.

And lest the path toward improvement seems daunting, the report cites Arkansas educator Iesha Green, who reminds principals and officials that, for key guidance, they need look no further than their colleagues who show up to classrooms day after day.

“My advice for leaders who wish to create culturally affirming schools is to learn about the nuances of various cultures and then listen to and work collaboratively with the practitioners who know the students best—teachers,” she said.