Jenae Addison sits Becky Pringle, NEA President to discuss the changes students will experience this academic year.

“When we’re talking about the educator shortage. You’re seeing that a lot of the teachers are leaving, are teachers of color, and we’re talking about a diverse classroom and students, you know, being able to see someone that looks like them and getting them excited when it comes to education, how are you making sure that the classroom is diverse?”, Addison inquires.

Pringles responds, “We are not only partnering with the White House and the Department of Education, which has entered this work, and not just the recruitment of teachers writ large, but specifically focused on recruiting and retaining, which is so important. You can’t leave that out because even when we are all the work we’ve done to recruit the teachers of color, particularly black teachers, they are leaving at a disproportionate rate so that the retention of all of our teachers of color is extraordinarily important. And what we’ve learned is building community among them, making them, making them feel as though they belong in that community, making sure the school has resources.”

LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION BELOW

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