CONFERENCE ATTENDEES: Pictured, in front kneeling, Kerry Taylor, from left standing Tyrek Jenkins and Corey Barkum, seated Brayleon Thorns, front right, Southeastern Louisiana University alumnus Jonte J. David, and far-right back standing Richard Davis.

For the second consecutive year, University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Preparation supported coalition members in attending the EdFest conference hosted by The Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice. The need for calling attention to and dramatically increasing the number of teachers of color is critical for disrupting social injustices across the nation. Today, only 2% of teachers nationwide are Black men.     

The Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice is a professional membership and activist organization dedicated to advancing the recruitment, development, and retention of black male educators. The organization works in partnership with many groups like US PREP and hopes to triple the number of highly effective black male teachers to 1,000 by 2025. 

US PREP coalition members sent 53 college of education leaders, teacher candidates, and district partners to the October Ed Fest Conference. Coalition leaders such as Dean Jacob Easley from Touro Graduate School in NYC, Department Chair Doug Hamman from Texas Tech University, and Vice President of Human Resources Rick Rodriguez from Lubbock ISD served on a panel to share how they are working to recruit and retain black male educators in their teacher preparation programs and schools.

Conference participants had the opportunity to meet many educators including former Southeastern Louisiana University student Jacob Jonte’ Lee, who was a conference presenter and gave the young men direction about leadership and networking. Lee currently teaches in the District of Columbia and presented a workshop examining language barriers and standardized test results among students of color.