National Board Network of Accomplished Minoritized Educators

National Board Network of Accomplished Minoritized Educators (National Board NAME) commits to excellence, equity, and access in education for all students; and to elevating the education profession by designing and facilitating learning and leadership for teachers of color to engage as a collective of leaders to positively impact students, families, teachers, and our profession. National Board NAME is a coalition of education leaders who volunteer their expertise, experience, and time to empower an estimated 4,000 colleagues in 35 states and D.C.-directly and indirectly impacting nearly 280,000 students -by facilitating professional learning, mentoring and coaching, and leading diverse affinity spaces for colleagues of color. 

Elevate Prize funding and accompanying support would scale and advance our work by further developing and expanding the existing network and increasing its capacity to serve colleagues, and thus students and families, throughout the continental U.S., Washington D.C., and U.S. territories. The prize would increase our ability to cultivate human capital, through fair compensation, practical professional learning, and educator social emotional learning (SEL), to support teachers of color in becoming more accomplished and effective teachers and leaders, improving and enriching the learning and lives of students and families, specifically within traditionally marginalized, underserved communities.  

As an educator of color, I experienced professional and social isolation from colleagues of color; leading within professional spaces that didn't value my worth or cultivate my leadership. Never having an educator of color during K-12 education, I was actively dissuaded from pursuing honors classes and even college by educators in school. I was determined to persevere, excel in college and career, and address barriers and limitations imposed by others.

 As a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) and 18-year veteran educator in the country's fifth largest school district, I proposed a national professional network to meaningfully connect, uplift,value, and empower educators of color as accomplished leaders to positively impact student learning and achievement. With this emphasis, my goals include professional learning  development and empowerment of educators of color and their students using effective strategies that advance educator excellence and student success. 

I collaborated with NBCT colleagues from seven states to design and build my vision of equity and excellence in teaching and learning through empowerment of accomplished, minoritized educators and the students they teach. My ultimate goal is for equity and excellence in education to be afforded to all students and educators to close persisting equity and opportunity gaps.   

Equity and diversity are critical issues not only in education, but in all fields. Recruitment, support, and retention of educators of color are global education challenges; challenges that research and personal colleagues in the United States, Canada, Kenya, and India confirm. It is difficult to quantify how challenge(s) of teacher diversity affect people. Yet research indicates that 56% of students are of color, while 80+% of teachers are White, noting teacher diversity benefits all students. Millions of students, families, and educators in our nation are affected by teacher diversity. 

Professional learning, engagement, and empowerment of educators of color are the factors that contribute to the problem as it relates to our organization/network. National Board NAME, as a national network of accomplished educators and leaders of color, effectively and powerfully impacts the essential relationships, reflections of self, and shared learning and leadership that educators of color find necessary to be successful as professionals in education. 

Our organization designs and facilitates meaningful development, cultivation/mentorship, connection, and support/empowerment of educators of color as accomplished experts. We provide critical spaces that foster vulnerability, build confidence, and confirm the immeasurable worth of educators of color as bold innovators and advocates for all children. 

Our work is innovative in that it convenes and engages diverse, accomplished educators of color throughout the country [i.e. BIPOC educators (Black, Indigenous, People of Color, including Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander) teaching practitioners, administrators, nonprofit directors] as impactful leaders of social resistance, self-identifying as disruptors, infiltrators, and survivors, within an inequitable system designed upon an unsustainable, unjust infrastructure that does not serve well traditionally marginalized communities of students and families. 

Passionately committed to excellence, equity, and access in education, we engage in coordinated and collaborative efforts with state and national leaders and partners to increase the number(s) of accomplished educators of color through recruitment, support and pursuit of National Board certification, and retention as education leaders and advocates within our profession. 

Leveraging collective impact as a significant lever of change, National Board NAME is committed to expanding and scaling the impact we, as diverse educators and leaders of color, have within the profession on all students with regards to reflecting as  mirrors and windows; through authentic, trusting relationships, a culture of high expectations, and culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy. We courageously disrupt the narrative that learning, teaching, and leading in excellence is established through comparison to 'white excellence'. 

National Board NAME honors its passion and privilege in "...our collective responsibility...to ensure that all young people have equal access to a high-quality, world-class education". We embrace this commitment to impact humanity through professional leadership, learning, support, and empowerment of educators of color as social justice advocates for diversity, excellence, equity, and access in education. 

A collective of solutions-oriented education leaders, embodying the Five Core Propositions, Architecture of Accomplished Teaching, and National Board Standards as our leadership frame, we engage in the following steps to achieve significant impact for students, families, and our profession, the effectiveness of which is evident through diverse research and experience:

*develop and facilitate meaningful professional learning, leadership, and SEL through professional learning communities, networks, and affinity groups for educators of color;

*commit to and lead disruption of systemic racism to provide excellent and equitable access to education for students and families;

*foster accomplished teaching and leadership through the pursuit of National Board certification; to

*positively impact student learning outcomes, academic achievement, and lifetime earning potential of our students

Research reveals positive impacts of effective, equitable education for students; ultimately improving significant outcomes such as socio-economic mobility, health, well-being, and opportunity.