This past week was National Teacher Appreciation Week, a time to thank educators for their “tireless efforts,” and recommit to taking care of them, according to a proclamation by President Joe Biden kicking off the week.
For many schools, it’s also a time to celebrate their best and brightest role models, and Education Minnesota, the state’s largest educators union, is no different. As URL Media partner Sahan Journal reported, the union named Tracy Byrd its teacher of the year earlier this week.
Byrd, who is now a ninth-grade English teacher at the high school he once attended, told the outlet that his goal as a teacher is to “normalize excellence and success.”
“My thing is, if you’re going to get a C, why wouldn’t you get a B? And if you’re going to get a B, well, we probably should just try to get an A,” Byrd told Sahan Journal. “It’s just that push of being the best you can be all the time in whatever it is you’re doing.”
Hattie Anderson, now a sophomore at Washburn High School, told the outlet that because Byrd is also Black, she was able to better connect with him and the material she was being taught.
“That’s the first time I ever got an A in English. I always got Bs,” Anderson told Sahan Journal. “Ever since then, I haven’t gotten a B in English.”
Anderson’s experience is no surprise.
Studies show that teachers of color are linked to “positive academic, social-emotional and behavioral student outcomes,” driven, in part, by what’s known as “culturally responsive teaching,” EducationWeek reported.
“We think of culturally responsive teaching as being multidimensional, having multiple components to it,” David Blazar, the study’s author and an assistant professor of education policy and economics at the University of Maryland, told the outlet.
In New York, Haitian American education advocates are pushing for school districts to provide culturally responsive transfer high schools not just for immigrant youth, but also for adults, URL Media partner The Haitian Times reported.
“These schools are experts in educating immigrants,” Darnelle Benoit, executive director of nonprofit Flanbwayan, told the outlet. “They know exactly what they’re doing and what to give students for them to thrive that other schools are not doing.”
These high schools focus on serving students ages 16-21 who have dropped out or fallen behind in credits, and generally attract immigrant students new to the city, The Haitian Times reported.
“For immigrant students, once they pass 17, they have problems finding high schools to enroll them,” Benoit told the outlet. “Schools don’t want to look bad if their graduation rates surpass four years.”
Benoit said that when students have access to culturally responsive education and support at transfer high schools, “beautiful work,” happens.
“They graduate,” she said. “They go to college. They get a career.”
And with a teacher shortage gripping the nation, it’s more important than ever for school districts to recruit, support and retain educators of color to lead the increasingly diverse, though still deeply segregated, U.S. student body. — Alicia Ramirez
Uplift. Respect. Love.
