SEL Awardee
Isaiah Johnson
Auburn School District
Auburn, WA
“Auburn School District will elevate recruitment and retention of educators of color to achieve our strategic priorities and SEL goals. Students of color who have a same-race teacher show increased sense of belonging, engagement and passion for learning; decreased chronic absenteeism, increased family engagement and decreased behavior referrals (Gershenson, Holt, and Papageorge, 2016; Gershenson, Hansen, & Lindsay, 2021).
Our one-year project will develop a strategic action plan for retaining and supporting a racially diverse and thriving educator workforce through four activities:
1. Focus groups with Educators of Color, centering their social and emotional well-being.
2. Conversations with our Students of Color (SOC), focusing on the impact the presence or absence of Educators of Color (EOC)has on their social and emotional well-being.
3. In partnership with SOC and EOC, align retention implications gleaned from listening sessions with district SEL goals.
4. Pilot a co-designed leadership community space that is supported and resourced by school and district leadership that supports the wellbeing and career aspirations of EOC.
Two end-of-year impacts are expected:
1. Readiness to launch a comprehensive retention strategy in 2023-2024 that centers the morale and thriving of our Educators of Color.
2. Learning from two pilot practices as part of the strategy:
a. An EOC leadership community that centers the thriving of EOC through identity-sustaining professional learning.
b. A repeatable feedback loop of conversations with EOC and SOC to ensure that practices and experiences are effective.”
Tags:
Boys and Young Men of Color, District, Elementary School, Traditional Public School, Urban