the Center for Black Educator Development. The Center exists to ensure there will be equity in the recruiting, training, hiring, and retention of quality educators that reflect the cultural backgrounds and share common socio-political interests of the students they serve. The Center is developing a nationally relevant model to measurably increase teacher diversity and support Black educators through four pillars: Professional learning, Pipeline, Policies and Pedagogy. So far, the Center has developed ongoing and direct professional learning and coaching opportunities for Black teachers and other educators serving students of color. The Center also carries forth the freedom or liberation school legacy by hosting a Freedom School that incorporates research-based curricula and exposes high school and college students to the teaching profession to help fuel a pipeline of Black educators. Prior to founding the Center, El-Mekki served as a nationally recognized principal and U.S. Department of Education Principal Ambassador Fellow. El-Mekki’s school, Mastery Charter Shoemaker, was recognized by President Obama and Oprah Winfrey, and was awarded the prestigious EPIC award for three consecutive years as being amongst the top three schools in the country for accelerating students’ achievement levels. The Shoemaker Campus was also recognized as one of the top ten middle school and top ten high schools in the state of Pennsylvania for accelerating the achievement levels of African-American students. Over the years, El-Mekki has served as a part of the U.S. delegation to multiple international conferences on education. He is also the founder of the Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice, an organization dedicated to recruiting, retaining, and developing Black male teachers. El-Mekki blogs on Philly's 7th Ward, is a member of the 8 Black Hands podcast, and serves on several boards and committees focused on educational and racial justice. (3)">
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School Reform

When School Reform is Not Enough

In 2004, I graduated college and started teaching in New York City as a Teach For America (TFA) corps member. The experience challenged, changed, and inspired me. I was blown away by the magnitude of inequities present in the school where I taught...

CRT

A Year Later, One Thing Is Clear: Being 'Woke' Isn't Nearly Enough

It has been a year since the murder of George Floyd and the “American Spring” that followed it. Corporate America, sports leagues, marketing firms, and nonprofits of all kinds have made public...

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educational justice

The Real History of Teachers Being Complicit in the Miseducation of Black and White Children

As we celebrate and honor what would have been Malcolm X’s 96th birthday this week, I can’t help but think of his legacy in the context of today’s whitelash against speaking and teaching truth to the...

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COVID-19

This Is the Moment to Tackle Teacher Diversity. We Can't Wait.

President Biden has put our nation’s education system front and center, recently announcing plans for enormous investments in education from pre-K through college, in addition to the imminent arrival...

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Implicit bias

No, You Should Not Be Teaching Black Children if You Reject Anti-Racism

There would be no lynching if it did not start in the schoolroom. Dr. Carter G. Woodson The news has been full of parents, school boards and elected officials up in arms about the evils of...

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Sharif El-Mekki

Most White Teachers Are Not Ready to Teach Black and Brown Students

Effective teachers can change and save lives, but being a great teacher is hard. The challenge is especially acute in our high-poverty, under-resourced public schools where teacher tenure is lowest....

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Mentoring

Inside the Decade-Long Plan to Recruit, Hire and Retain 9,000 Black Educators Across the Country

Across the entire United States, there aren’t nearly enough Black teachers inside classrooms. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, less than 7% of teachers nationwide are Black;...

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