North Carolina Central University (NCCU) just launched a program to increase the number of Black male teachers in education, The Black Wall Street Times reports.
They recently launched The Marathon Teaching Institute (MTI), a program aimed at recruiting, training, and preparing students for the HBCU’s Teacher Education Program. The focus is increasing the number of Black male teachers and administrators in North Carolina schools.
Currently, Black men make up less than two percent of public school teachers across the country despite Black students making up about 37 percent of the student demographic. The institute’s goal is to make changes to those statistics by recruiting, mentoring and training African American males to enter into the education field.
According to Urban Ed Academy, a nonprofit building education equity through Black male teacher representation in San Francisco, studies show that students who have teachers that look like them perform better in school. Black students are also 29% more likely to go to college and 39% less likely to drop out of high school if they have a Black male educator during their elementary school years.
Randal Seriguchi Jr., executive director of Urban Ed Academy, spoke about his own experience with the education system, saying, “I didn’t have a Black male teacher myself until college. The absence of that really fueled my own personal passion for wanting to make this mission work – placing one Black male teacher in every elementary school in San Francisco now, but certainly in any urban metro that needs it.”
Bradley Hinton, a 4th grade math and science teacher in Mansfield, Texas, said becoming an educator as a Black male has been one of the best things he’s experienced in his life.
“One of the reasons is because I feel I am a representation that can possibly leave a lifelong imprint on my students of what a Black man can be. Too often, our image is construed or manipulated. We are force-fed to believe we can only succeed in sports or entertainment. Having my students see someone like me at a young age can plant the seed of seeing Black men in a different light and not succumbing to the stereotypes,” said Hinton.
Applications for MTI at NCCU are currently open. Candidates must be a minority male, major in elementary, middle grades, birth-kindergarten, music, health or physical education or counseling, work on community service projects with the Male Achievement Center/African American Male Initiative and maintain a 2.7 GPA.
If you or someone you know is interested in applying to NCCU’s Marathon Teaching Institute, click here.
Photo Courtesy of KIPP