Support and Retain Educators of Color: 6 Principles for Culturally Affirming Leadership

[00:01] Announcer:

Welcome to Principal Center Radio, helping you build capacity for instructional leadership. Here's your host, Director of the Principal Center, Dr. Justin Bader. Welcome, everyone, to Principal Center Radio.

[00:13] SPEAKER_01:

I'm your host, Justin Bader, and I'm honored to welcome to the program Dr. Andrea Terrero-Gabedon. Dr. Gabadon is a leadership coach and founder and lead principal of ILM Consulting Group. Her work touches on culturally responsive and sustaining leadership, school organizational dynamics, and educator diversity. She served as a high school teacher, teacher leader, instructional coach, and assistant principal and director of curriculum and instruction in both traditional public and charter schools.

[00:40]

Dr. Gabadon has also served as an instructor of undergraduate and graduate education, working with aspiring and in-service teachers and school leaders at institutions such as Temple University and Swarthmore College. She's a frequent presenter at national conferences and has published numerous articles in leading academic journals, evaluation reports, and with ASCD, her new book is Support and Retain Educators of Color, Six Principles for Culturally Affirming Leadership, which we're here to talk about today.

[01:08] Announcer:

And now, our feature presentation.

[01:11] SPEAKER_01:

Dr. Gabadon, welcome to Principal Center Radio.

[01:13] SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much for having me.

[01:15] SPEAKER_01:

Well, I first wanted to ask about the focus of your book on supporting and retaining educators of color. One word is noticeably missing from that title, and it's the one that we tend to think of first when it comes to our workforce, and that is recruiting. Why do we talk so much about recruiting and pay so little attention to supporting and retaining educators of color?

[01:39] SPEAKER_00:

So the good news is that our recruitment efforts over the last three decades or so, particularly as it relates to educators of color, has lent itself to positive outcomes. So in short, we've actually seen educator diversity initiatives launching nationwide since around the 1980s. And as a result, we actually see higher numbers of educators of color coming into the profession. What the data shows, however, from the work of Richard Ingersoll of the University of Pennsylvania and others, is that at the same time, educators of color are leaving the profession at higher rates than their white counterparts. And so if we look at that data, we see we're actually doing a lot of things properly. We need to maintain those systems of recruitment.

[02:25]

And the focus now needs to shift from recruitment to retention to stop that churn, right, or that disproportionate turnover that we're seeing occur nationwide among educators of color.

[02:37] SPEAKER_01:

Well, certainly across the education profession, we've seen a great resignation, as we've seen across all sectors of society. And certainly in education, teacher turnover has become a major concern, people leaving the profession entirely or just looking for different working conditions. What do you see as some of the key factors that are driving the particularly high rates of turnover among teachers of color? What's pushing people out of their jobs?

[03:05] SPEAKER_00:

Great question. And so we know that the data, again, tells us that educators of color are more likely to teach in urban contexts or in districts and LEAs with a high number of students that reflect their own kind of ethnic, cultural, and racial backgrounds. And so these often are perhaps Title I or underfunded districts. Now, If we are to take a closer look, you might assume, okay, so maybe folks are leaving because of dissatisfaction with working conditions or lack of resources. But again, I'm going to point to the work of Richard Ingersoll, who does an amazing analysis and has actually done so for about Over a decade of educators of color, he argues, and the data supports this, that educators of color are not leaving because of kids, nor behavior, nor the lack of resources, or even pay.

[04:01]

Even those things are important and lend themselves to motivation and sustaining in their work. But rather, educators of color are citing poor working conditions, poor organizational conditions, and also poor leadership that eventually push them out. Now, there's obviously a lot of nuance in this, particularly as it relates to the urban context. But if we zoom back out, right, big picture takeaway is that folks aren't leaving, right? Educators of color are not leaving because of kids, but rather many times they're leaving because of the adults or the conditions. Right.

[04:37]

The policies and practices that are put in place by the leaders in their school. And so the book really attends to this. How can we address those organizational conditions and the leadership quality so that we are ultimately supporting educators and sustaining them to stay in the specific context in which they are working?

[04:57] SPEAKER_01:

So it's not the kids. Working with the students is what people signed up for. It's not necessarily the compensation. And certainly some of our larger districts are among those that pay the best. The working conditions and the leadership. Let's talk about the first there.

[05:12]

One of the things that I've noticed about the expectations that are put on teachers, particularly in urban schools, particularly in schools that serve Title I populations, there are just so many requirements, just so many expectations for completing lesson plans and collecting data and just doing all these things that as I look more nationwide at what expectations teachers work under, I just honestly see a lot more to do, more workload. What do you see in your research?

[05:43] SPEAKER_00:

What you describe is what we would know as the byproduct, right, of No Child Left Behind, of ESSA, of other initiatives that are aimed at addressing what is called the quote unquote achievement gap, right, which we really know is an opportunity gap. or an education debt, right? The fact that many times these initiatives that are attempting to improve student learning and increase student outcomes by holding educators so accountable to every minute detail is rooted in this misunderstanding and this long misunderstanding that we've had in the United States that if we just try a little harder, perhaps we can get these kids to learn when the reality is, Children in these communities have been historically underserved, you can argue, from the origins of public school.

[06:36]

It is systemic. It is intentional. It is not by accident. And so if we think about how can we address some of that, it really requires a change in what we understand to be the roots of of the opportunity gap or the roots of the education debt. And it's not by trying harder. You can't just muscle your way to improve student learning, but rather it takes a complete paradigm shift that recognizes the debts that we truly owe to these communities.

[07:07] SPEAKER_01:

And this idea that we can simply work teachers harder, that we can squeeze more out of our educators has not really paid off in my thinking, that it has this kind of counterproductive effect of simply causing turnover, right? actually getting more out of people over the long term, those unrealistic expectations, those excessive demands in terms of workload just burn people out. Is that impression consistent with what people say about their own experience working in higher poverty schools in particular?

[07:37] SPEAKER_00:

It certainly is. And then I'll also say, when we think about what educators of color experience in terms of their racialized interactions and the assumptions that are often held of them, it becomes, well, you are of a particular demographic that mirrors this underserved student population. Well, shouldn't you be the antidote? You should be able to work miracles. Why aren't you doing that? And so the pressure is heightened.

[08:06]

in ways that are often compounded by the mere ethnic racial background of the educator. And that is unfair. That is an assumption, particularly when we're not providing the sustainable supports that allow that educator to be effective within that context. You can't work miracles if you're not given the resources and the support. That's just the truth, period.

[08:27] SPEAKER_01:

I've never heard it put that way, but that makes total sense that we would have, in a lot of cases, just kind of unrealistic expectations that having things in common demographically with your students, like it doesn't make up for material support. It doesn't make up for having the resources you need, having the time you need, having the leadership and the working conditions that you need. There's no real magic here, even if there is tremendous value in recruiting teachers of color and in recruiting teachers who... more closely match your student population, it's not going to replace adequate funding and adequate time and adequate training and all those things that people need to actually do their work and stay in this profession long term.

[09:04]

Well, let's talk, if we could, a little bit about the leadership conditions. And I think probably people everywhere have always had experiences of working under less than ideal conditions. leadership, but what are some of the particular pressures that are driving educators of color out of the education profession when it comes to the leadership that they're working with?

[09:23] SPEAKER_00:

So the book touches upon the ways in which race, gender, and other aspects of historically marginalized identities influences how one engages the school. Now, how does that manifest particularly with leaders? Well, if we think about realities such as implicit bias, realities such as racial and gendered microaggressions, those certainly emerge in every aspect of leadership that can occur. So one such example might be going back to our conversation of educators of color had that secret sauce that can magically undo hundreds of years of inequity and education that facing students of color. And so you might have an educator of color, perhaps, who is placed with the lowest group, the lowest level of learners in a particular school.

[10:14]

Perhaps they're the students that are most challenging in terms of discipline. And because of the mere nature of their ethnic racial background, there's an implied assumption that you got this. You can do this. You don't need support. These kids look like you. After all, the research says that students of color benefit from educators of color, right?

[10:33]

And again, what that does at the end of the day, whether these... are explicitly said or implied, right, the educator of color is going to be marginalized within their school context in ways that are unshared by their white counterparts. And so I make an argument, a concrete argument in the book around the ways in which leaders need to interrogate microaggressions and interrogate implicit bias, interrogate their understanding of identity and its intersection with marginalization, and understand that even in our aspirations to be equitable towards kids, we can still enact harm among the educators that we're working with. And that case is supported by dozens of stories from real life educators in the book.

[11:25]

And these are stories that I've collected over the course of years from my research.

[11:30] SPEAKER_01:

Well, Dr. Gabadon, one of the issues that I think we often recognize but don't necessarily do a great job of is the need to support people's practice, that we recognize that it's not just a matter of hiring people and setting them loose, but that in order to have long-term careers in education, educators need support. What are some of the supports that educators need to be successful, and what have you seen work in your research?

[11:56] SPEAKER_00:

The supports that have been most effective, both in my personal experience as an educator, as a leader, but that I've also seen in the research, are those that are targeted to meet the needs of the educator. And so, yes, things like induction are important, but we want to think about the more nuanced forms of support Such example as, you know, content specific planning support, mentoring, you know, spaces where folks are able to perhaps receive personal and professional development from colleagues. And this can come in the form of like racial affinity groups. Right. So various kind of targeted supports that meet the nuanced needs of educators that are outside of the realm of just those one and done or very broad scope professional developments. This can even look like what are the ways in which we're providing nuanced PDs to meet the needs or nuanced support rather that meet the needs of an early career educator versus a veteran educator.

[12:56]

Those that are working with certain demographics versus others. Again, this idea of meeting the targeted needs of an educator is really what is moving the needle.

[13:07] SPEAKER_01:

So having talked a little bit about the kinds of support that educators need, what does the data show that people are actually getting and how can we think about how to provide that type of support more effectively?

[13:21] SPEAKER_00:

And so one of the elements that I bring up in the book is the lack of support that is often experienced or the lack of high quality support that is often experienced by educators of color. And that can be dissatisfaction with the current support because it's not targeted to meet their specific needs for reasons that I just shared. But the lack of instructional support can also be linked to aspects of their identity, right? Race-based assumptions or stereotypes or even low expectations of kids that lead educators to being deprived or withheld the opportunities for support that would sustain them in the classroom. And so some practical examples, right? Going back to what I mentioned earlier about the educator of color, let's say it's a black educator who's placed with black students, but the assumption that you look like these children, you're able to move the needle academically, you should be able to support and increase their outcomes.

[14:16]

But if you're given the lowest level of learners, perhaps in a large classroom, Your immediate need may not be to improve outcomes. It may need to be, how do I build a collegial or a positive classroom culture? Maybe that's what that teacher needs, perhaps if they're in their first year, second year, or earlier in their career, right? But again, there could be this racialized assumption, oh, you look like the kids, you got it. And therefore may be deprived of that support or perhaps because of capacity issues, maybe other classrooms where the students don't look like the teachers and perhaps there's more tension and more fires in those spaces. Those are the classrooms that get the classroom management support, not the teacher who appears to have it together.

[15:04]

Moving on to, again, what if it's a more veteran teacher who has the classroom management down? Oh, your kids look like they're compliant. They look like they're learning. You don't need the support. Well, the teacher might really want support because they want to improve in their practice. They want to maximize student learning.

[15:19]

They know they can do more, but how can they do that if we're not giving them the guidance and the support? Right. And so in my research, I've encountered story upon story upon story where folks are saying I am being looked over for support. I'm not getting the coaching. They assume that I have it. I'm being told you have great classroom management.

[15:39]

You don't need much more support or this other room is on fire and therefore you're not a priority. How can I feel empowered and valued in a context? if my legitimate needs as a person and as a professional are constantly being overlooked. And I wish I could say in the stories that I've collected from educators, maybe this just happened once or twice. I mean, I can think of educators right now who I talk about in the book who This marked years upon years of their time in the classroom, just being overlooked for support, not being given mentorship, not being given coaching. Every PD was geared towards another content area, but they didn't receive what they needed for their content area.

[16:20]

And so, again, it goes back to being asked to do more with less. And this is often legitimized implicitly by the nature of their racialized background and how they navigate that school context.

[16:35] SPEAKER_01:

Great point. I know this may not be the main topic of the book, but I'm really intrigued by something you just said about content area specific support. I don't know if you're seeing this, but I'm picking up on the sense that a lot of professional development recently has been redirected to be more universal. Like this is for everybody. It applies to all grade levels, all subject areas, and a shift away from content area specific professional development. And when I was a teacher in Seattle, I was a science teacher.

[17:05]

Almost all of the professional development that I received was science specific. It was about my curriculum. It was about pedagogy that was relevant to the way my subject was taught. Are you seeing that same shift? What's happening with content specific professional development?

[17:18] SPEAKER_00:

I mean, that's such a great point, right? And we don't want to make broad sweeping strokes because, you know, local context matters of schools and of districts. And there's districts that are doing amazing work supporting educators. But I will say in my experience where I've seen a shift away from content-specific professional development, it really was because of capacity issues. And what does that have to directly deal with? Funding, right?

[17:40]

And it's therefore an absence of either personnel or resources that can be applied or utilized to then give educators the support they need. And when at the end of the day, honestly, some of the most enriching, nuanced, content-specific professional development that someone can receive is just having some common planning time, right? Getting in a room with other brilliant educators that they can learn from and with. And so there's other factors, of course, but I would say capacity and funding issues certainly are at the heart of why we see this broader movement towards the one size fits all PD versus having these smaller clusters. You also have to think again about your earlier point of accountability and how in many of these contexts where there's kind of high accountability measures, you need to be able to control the conditions in which that occurs, right?

[18:33]

And so if I have a one size fits all PD and I'm aware of the content and there were specific takeaways for all 30, 40, 50, 60 of my staff, it's easier for me to hold folks accountable because I know at the end of the day what I should be seeing versus having these kind of grassroots organic spaces and trusting our educators as professionals that they are learning from each other, right? And so it is a multifaceted issue that needs to be addressed.

[19:01] SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's a great point about leaders' perspective and trust because Yeah, probably my administrators when I was going off to, you know, off campus district provided or regionally provided. Science PD, they had no idea what I was doing. They had to trust that I was doing something valuable and that I was actually showing up to that and getting something that was valuable. And as leaders, as a principal, it certainly felt more in control to me to have everybody on my campus doing something altogether that I would be clear on and I didn't have to go and check with anybody else. Hey, what did you guys talk about? I didn't have to make sure that people showed up to things.

[19:36]

It just felt more controllable. But yeah, I feel like we're getting away from that content-specific PD that I feel like people really need.

[19:43] SPEAKER_00:

Let me add just one thing to that, right? Because the roots of the issue are always so much deeper, right? And so this issue of accountability doesn't always lie with the principle, but we always have to look higher than that. And it doesn't lie at the district leaders or the LEA or the superintendent. It lies higher than that. And so when we see this national shift towards high expectations for student learning, which I'm a fan of, I'm all about high expectations, but high expectations without the lack of support with equally high accountability isn't healthy for anyone.

[20:12]

And when we see principals under this duress and under this intense accountability that your teachers need to be meeting XYZ outcomes, that narrows the scope of my options of what I think I can do with my educators. And so therefore, we really need to kind of re-envision the principal role as a disruptor role, as an advocate role. And think collectively. And I would say, you know, collectively meaning, you know, leaders, principals, as well as those of us who advocate and support their work. We have to think collectively about how do we balance the tension between what is expected of them and how they're held accountable. And how do we find the gray area so ultimately we can do what's best for teachers for the purpose, again, of their support and their retention.

[21:00] SPEAKER_01:

I wanted to ask if I could about one more, I think, source of talent drain from the classroom, particularly when it comes to teachers of color. And that is the leadership pipeline itself. You know, the same reasons we want to have classroom teachers of color, you know, many of the same reasons we want to have leaders of color. And when leaders are underrepresented, there's a particular pressure to accelerate that pipeline. And one of the things that I've seen happen is that there is just a very strong pressure to get out of the classroom, you know, to be tapped for leadership right away. And, you know, sometimes that's the path that people want to take and great, but help me understand this issue of kind of taking some of our best educators out of the classroom because we want them for leadership roles.

[21:47]

I mean, I feel like that's a double-edged sword, but what's your take on that?

[21:50] SPEAKER_00:

I think that's a marvelous question. And I appreciate it because I don't think we are talking enough about this talent drain, as you put it. I think there's two pieces here that we need to consider, right? So One, who is being tapped to move into leadership and why? And who is not being tapped for leadership and why? And I think both of these points intersect the book in terms of the everyday racialized and often gendered experiences of educators of color.

[22:27]

And so going back to the first one, who is tapped and why? I mean, that... tap on the shoulder to move into leadership is highly attractive, particularly in a field where we are not paying our teachers enough. It is a compliment to be tapped on the shoulder and to be told that you might have a shot at expanding your reach while also making an actual livable income.

[22:57]

In many states, we know that there are tremendous gaps between what teachers and what leaders are making and so I think we have to think about like why is that with those educators you know is it because they want to move into leadership or is it because we're just not paying educators enough and we're not making the actual conditions of being a teacher attractive enough to want to stay right I also think that speaks to the need to provide more paid opportunities for educators to explore leadership opportunities without necessarily leaving the classroom. I'll give you an example of maybe some local efforts that do that. But one of the many hats that I wear is I lead the Philadelphia Affinity Group Network in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And this work is with Teach Plus, which is a national advocacy organization.

[23:49]

And in recognizing this talent drain, but also the need to pay educators more and need to value their time while also supporting their exploration of leadership, we provide paid leadership opportunities and professional development and opportunities for educators to actually um learn about affinity groups lead and design affinity groups for other educators of color and do that work while again getting a stipend but that also gives them an opportunity to expand their reach while staying in the classroom and there's not enough opportunities like that again where teachers are able to explore how you can be in the classroom and also wear the hat of a leader without shifting completely out of the classroom

[24:34] SPEAKER_01:

That's a great point and such a simple strategy there. I want to emphasize that because it would be easy for our listeners to miss and easy for me to take for granted. Just the idea of paying teachers to go to professional development. A lot of administrators do the math and look at their increased hours on campus after they become administrators and say, wait a minute, I might have actually been making more per hour as a teacher. And for professional development to be paid, I think we could probably close a lot of that compensation gap by paying teachers for that professional development that allows them to stay in their role and get better at it without having to leave the classroom, without having to pursue a different job category to increase their professional status and their income.

[25:19] SPEAKER_00:

or also just valuing the time and expertise of staff as many educators of color are taking on unpaid duties, right? That are often connected to, again, these implied assumptions or these racialized invisible burdens that they're exposed to, right? And so what does that look like? Going back to Let's say a teacher of color who's, they have great classroom management. And before we know it, they're now being asked to man the hallways during transitions, or they're asked to support another teacher and mentor them or provide them coaching. All of that is unpaid labor, right?

[25:53]

And that could be recognized as a leadership opportunity, valued and paid as such, and therefore really supports the educator in exploring their leadership potential while also supporting Again, providing that opportunity to stay close to the classroom. And I wonder how many educators would stay in the classroom if there were more ways that they could explore their reach while also being valued for their time and their expertise in that way. So there were two pieces that I mentioned, right? The first being who's tapped on the shoulder to move into leadership and why, and then who's not being tapped into, right? And so I want to get into that second piece of who's not being tapped on the shoulder, because again, we need to make visible the invisible burdens that educators of color are facing in their schools every day. We need to call these out.

[26:40]

We need to disrupt them and we need to adjust this trend. And so one thing that I learned in my research is the realities in which educators of color by droves are experiencing being passed over for leadership opportunities. And this happens not necessarily in the hiring stage, but even in the ways that they may be prepped for particular roles or because of implied assumptions about their skill set. Right. They may not be welcomed into certain positions of leadership. such as others, right?

[27:13]

So one such example can be the ways in which, again, going back to this idea of how educators of color are often positioned as disciplinarians Are you being welcomed into the role of dean of culture? Or can you be maximized as an instructional leader who just also has really good classroom management? The best lesson is often the best classroom management. And as I've talked with educators, they had desires to explore leadership and desires to explore other positions and opportunities, but implied assumptions about what they quote unquote were good at were often limiting factors. And again, these implied assumptions were race-based assumptions that tied back to aspects of their identities, and again, influenced how they navigated and experienced their school content.

[28:03]

I think the core message of the book, and that I would want listeners to take away, is that recruitment is not enough. And we've talked about support, right? You and I have talked about the many ways in which support can occur. I think what we have not emphasize enough, and I want to make sure that it's clear to the listener, that the presence of some of these supports that we've discussed, whether it's more intentional instructional support, whether it is the presence of affinity groups and other race-based supports, whether it's improving the overall organizational conditions, at their core, this really is a work that has to be rooted in anti-racist efforts. And so just changing the tactic in and of itself is for example, maybe just introducing a new professional development program is not going to be sufficient to change the organizational culture and how it's being experienced by educators of color.

[28:57]

It has to be rooted, right? These efforts have to be rooted in a deep reflection, a sustained reflection about what is happening in the school context. Why is it happening? There has to be a sense of root cause analysis and a systematic plan where teams are coming around. And again, without anti-racism at the forefront. How do we draw on anti-racism as a lens to then improve leadership practice, to improve leadership quality, to improve aspects of these working conditions?

[29:31]

If we attempt to just change what's happening on the surface, the periphery, then the core issues will be unaddressed. And the ways in which microaggressions, racialized and gendered microaggressions and implicit biases, those will be unchecked and therefore will still influence the organizational culture of the school. And so I really want to make sure that folks are walking away understanding that this is not a one and done effort. The book in and of itself is a call to enact anti-racist systems and practices in your school and how that actually does lend itself to supporting and retaining educators of color. Because ultimately, when we retain our educators, it's what's best for our kiddos. And we cannot enact these supports with these kind of light touches.

[30:22]

It has to be sustained, ingrained, and just rooted, even not just in our very culture, but even deeply connected to our goals as a school. And so it is a radical transformation that has to occur in these contexts to support and retain educators of color. But as you said, with teacher shortage and talent drain, big problems require big solutions. And the good news is that there are resources and there are folks across the nation who are already making tremendous strides with this work.

[30:56] SPEAKER_01:

Good deal. So the book is Support and Retain Educators of Color, Six Principles for Culturally Affirming Leadership. Dr. Gabadon, if people want to find you online, get in touch with you and learn more about your work, where's the best place for them to go?

[31:10] SPEAKER_00:

Yes, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Andrea Torero-Gabidon on LinkedIn. I am active on Twitter or X, I believe it's called now, at ATGabidon. Then you can also check out my website, ILM Instructional Leadership and Management Consulting Group, ilmconsultinggroup.com. And so I look forward to engaging with individuals, with LEAs around how can we do this transformational work in your context.

[31:39] SPEAKER_01:

Thank you again for joining me on Principal Center Radio. It's been a pleasure.

[31:42] SPEAKER_00:

Likewise. Thank you.

[31:45] Announcer:

Thanks for listening to Principal Center Radio. For more great episodes, subscribe on our website at principalcenter.com slash radio.