Growing up in rural Virginia, Rodney Robinson only had one Black male teacher.
He served as not only an educator but as a “role model” and “confidante” outside of the classroom.
However, due to the lack of representation in the classroom, Robinson and other Black students at his school “ran” to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) after graduation.
“We had to get that cultural relevancy that was missing throughout our entire K-12 experience,” said Robinson, senior advisor with Richmond Public Schools and 2019 National Teacher of the Year by the Council of Chief States Schools’ Officers.
His story is not uncommon.
Other educators shared similar sentiments, many of whom had not been exposed to even one Black male teacher, during Educational Testing Service’s (ETS) virtual seminar, “Building Black Male Educator Pipelines Through Effective Recruitment,” on Tuesday.
The three-part series aims to highlight the low representation of Black males within the teaching profession and provide recruitment strategies to strengthen the pipeline.
