Improving Teacher Training, Recruitment, and Diversity in New York: ESI and NYC Men Teach

Focused Area

Improving School Climate for Youth-At-Risk

Relevance to Focused Area

The Expanded Success Initiative (ESI) is the nation’s most ambitious effort to tackle the achievement gap and increase the number of Black and Latino young men who graduate college and career ready. In partnership with the NYC Office of the Mayor’s Young Men’s Initiative (YMI), ESI is supporting NYC Men Teach, an initiative focused on increasing the number of Black, Latino, and Asian male teachers in the classroom. Research has shown that all students benefit from diverse teaching populations. In particular, students of color benefit from instruction that reflects and empowers their identities. Through NYC Men Teach, ESI and YMI are working to improve school leadership, school climate, and instruction for our most vulnerable student population.

Primary Strand

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Relevance to Primary Strand

A major focus of ESI and NYC Men Teach is improving equity and access in schools and classrooms. This involves implementing strategies critical to moving the needle and creating more equitable learning environments for Black and Latino young men. Some examples of this are through ESI’s work with culturally responsive education, restorative justice practices, and mastery-based learning. Discussion of ESI, YMI, and NYC Men Teach will be most relevant to the “Head”: Academic Achievement & Leadership and “Family & Community" conference strands.

Brief Program Description

The Expanded Success Initiative (ESI) is the nation’s most ambitious effort to tackle the achievement gap and increase the number of Black and Latino young men who graduate college and career ready. In partnership with the NYC Office of the Mayor’s Young Men’s Initiative, ESI is supporting NYC Men Teach, an initiative focused on increasing the number of Black, Latino, and Asian male teachers in the classroom. Research has shown that students of color in particular benefit from instruction that reflects and empowers their background and identities and that all students gain from more diverse teachers and diverse instruction. Leaders interested in learning about improving outcomes for students of color—on the district, school, and classroom level—will learn promising strategies, and preliminary findings from ESI, YMI, and the NYC Men Teach initiative.

Summary

Supported by Open Society Foundations, the Expanded Success Initiative (ESI) is the educational component of the New York City Office of the Mayor’s Young Men’s Initiative (YMI). Launched as a research and development initiative, ESI is the nation’s most ambitious effort to tackle the educational achievement gap and increase the number of Black and Latino men who graduate high school prepared to succeed in college and careers.

Through ESI’s work across its network of over forty high schools, new strategies and practices for improving outcomes related to academic, youth development, and school culture for Black and Latino male students have been implemented. Some such examples are the infusion of culturally responsive pedagogy in classrooms, restorative justice practices, and mastery-based learning. Through ESI’s partnership with YMI, these critical strategies will be leveraged to increase teacher diversity and effectiveness through NYC Men Teach.

ESI’s partnership with YMI and the NYC Office of the Mayor has helped create NYC Men Teach, NYC’s effort to increase the number of Black, Latino, and Asian male teachers working in NYC public schools. The workshop will explore the need for ESI: from the statistics that underlie the social and moral importance of this work, to the initiative’s early research findings and examples of ESI at work, to the research that underlies the need for increasing teacher diversity and practice for increasingly diverse school populations. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of NYC’s approach to meeting this challenge—on the district level, at the school level, and in the classroom.

Evidence

The Expanded Success Initiative is grounded in the use of data to inform its work. Research Alliance, the initiative’s external program evaluator, has released several reports to strengthen the capacity of schools to serve their students and to meet the goals of the initiative. NYC Men Teach is also a data driven approach—from new research into how school districts can better recruit and retain teachers of color, to internal benchmarks and metrics—to increasing teacher diversity and effectiveness. This presentation will share information about those structures on the district and program level but also preliminary findings and promising strategies from the work of ESI that underlie the conceptual framework of NYC Men Teach.

Format

Individual Presentation

Biographical Sketch

Richard Haynes is the Director of School Support for the Expanded Success Initiative. Born in New York, Richard attended college in Virginia and graduate school in Baltimore. A TFA alumnus, he has worked in education for over 15 years, as a teacher and now an administrator for central offices in NYC. Richard's work with ESI has focused on increasing culturally responsive teaching practices.

Paul Forbes is the Director of the Expanded Success Initiative (ESI). A native New Yorker who was born, raised and still lives in Brooklyn (NYC), he has dedicated his professional life to working with students and families from historically underrepresented neighborhoods and communities. After three years in Harlem as a Dean of Discipline, Paul has spent 14 years as a central administrator in various roles; Community Based Organization (CBO) Coordinator, Youth Development Director, Safety Director and Suspension Director. In his current role as the ESI Director, Paul works with and supports 40 NYC high schools that are researching and developing strategies, activities and ideas that will increase the number of Black and Latino young men who graduate from high school prepared to enter, persist and succeed in college and career pathways.

Start Date

10-23-2016 10:00 AM

End Date

10-23-2016 11:00 AM

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Oct 23rd, 10:00 AM Oct 23rd, 11:00 AM

Improving Teacher Training, Recruitment, and Diversity in New York: ESI and NYC Men Teach

The Expanded Success Initiative (ESI) is the nation’s most ambitious effort to tackle the achievement gap and increase the number of Black and Latino young men who graduate college and career ready. In partnership with the NYC Office of the Mayor’s Young Men’s Initiative, ESI is supporting NYC Men Teach, an initiative focused on increasing the number of Black, Latino, and Asian male teachers in the classroom. Research has shown that students of color in particular benefit from instruction that reflects and empowers their background and identities and that all students gain from more diverse teachers and diverse instruction. Leaders interested in learning about improving outcomes for students of color—on the district, school, and classroom level—will learn promising strategies, and preliminary findings from ESI, YMI, and the NYC Men Teach initiative.