If It Were Not for AATF, I Probably Wouldn't Have Stayed": The Impact of a Pathways Program on African American Teacher Recruitment and Retention

Black teachers are underrepresented in U.S. public schools, where 16% of students are Black but only 7% of teachers are Black (USDOE, 2016). Black students are positively impacted, both academically (Dee, 2005) and socially (Milner, 2006) by having Black teachers. In Charlottesville, both school districts (Albemarle County Public Schools and Charlottesville City Schools) have a higher percentage of Black teachers than the national average, yet Black teachers are still underrepresented compared to their student demographics. To increase the number of Black teachers in Charlottesville, African American Teaching Fellows (AATF), a pathways program, recruits Black teachers to join their organization. Through its work, AATF has increased the number of Black teachers in Charlottesville. The purpose of this study is to understand how AATF works to recruit and retain its fellows and what factors influence fellows to join AATF and to continue teaching in Charlottesville or not once their fellowship ends, which directly impacts Black teacher representation in Charlottesville schools. Findings based on the document analysis, open-ended questionnaire, and interview data are presented in this capstone. The three findings that emerged from this case study are: 1) AATF uses a range of strategies to recruit and retain Black teachers in Charlottesville, 2) Fellows identified a wide range of factors influencing their decision to join AATF and teach in Charlottesville, and 3) Fellows identified a wide range of factors influencing their decision to stay or leave teaching and/or Charlottesville.