Transcript
Kevin: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Black teachers currently account for only 7% of all public school teachers. This trend contributes to the achievement and opportunity gaps among Black students. In fact, studies show that having at least one Black teacher reduces a Black student's likelihood of dropping out of school by almost 40%. How can we cultivate Black teachers? Why is developing Black teachers especially important for Black students? And how can we better train all teachers to support students regardless of their background? This is "What I Want to Know." And today, I am joined by Sharif El-Mekki to find out.
Sharif: So this orientation of this idea that, you know, the purest form of activism is teaching Black children well, resonated with me so deeply that that fueled me for 30 years. So I pivoted from my route to law school to leading a classroom in Southwest Philadelphia.
Kevin: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Black teachers currently account for only 7% of all public school teachers. This trend contributes to the achievement and opportunity gaps among Black students. In fact, studies show that having at least one Black teacher reduces a Black student's likelihood of dropping out of school by almost 40%. How can we cultivate Black teachers? Why is developing Black teachers especially important for Black students? And how can we better train all teachers to support students regardless of their background? This is "What I Want to Know." And today, I am joined by Sharif El-Mekki to find out.
Sharif El-Mekki is the founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, an organization dedicated to developing effective Black educators. Prior to founding the center, Sharif was a nationally recognized principal and U.S. Department of Education principal ambassador fellow. He joins us today to discuss the importance of developing and recruiting Black teachers.
Sharif, welcome to the show. Sharif El-Mekki, my brother, it is so good to have you on the show and welcome to "What I Want to Know."
Sharif: It's my honor and pleasure. Thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to this conversation.
Kevin: You know, we have known each other for a long time, and I jokingly say that you have snatched the pebble because you understand and you continue to be steadfast in making sure that we provide our children, all of our children with a quality education. And I want to talk more specifically in a moment about your work in ensuring that we fill the pipeline of solid, committed Black educators in our schools. But before that, I want to go back. I mean, you're from Philadelphia. How did you get into education?
Sharif: Yeah. Listen, West Philadelphia born and raised. I'm sure a lot of your audience knows the rest of that jingle.
Kevin: Oh, yeah.
Sharif: Overbrook High School graduate. And, you know, early on, I was not . . . Particularly when I was a student at Overbrook, or even later at IUP, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, it never dawned on me to become a teacher. And my roommate, one of my roommates was an education major. My mother was a long-term public school teacher. And it just never . . . that wasn't part of just . . . I often say I didn't cross it off a list. It never made it on a list. You know?
Kevin: Wow.
Sharif: But I do think that the teachers that I had, the Black teachers that I had as a youth planted seeds that just needed to be fertilized and in a different way with a different voice and schema, so to speak. And so it was . . . I knew I wanted to be supportive of my community. I knew activism was going to be a part of my orientation as an adult. I thought it was going to be through the law school and through the courtrooms and legal proceedings.
I met Dr. Martin Ryder, veteran educator and, you know, Black man in the school district of Philadelphia, and he helped me really see the connection between activism and teaching well. So this orientation of this idea that, you know, the purest form of activism is teaching Black children well, resonated with me so deeply that that fueled me for 30 years. So I pivoted from my route to law school to leading a classroom in Southwest Philadelphia.
And as I mentioned, that's 30 years ago, I never looked back. But being able to connect the dots between educational justice and racial justice was something that I could really sink my teeth in, and I understood like, oh, this is what our people have been building, striving. You know, here are the issues that they've been resisting and using teaching as a framework to do it.
Kevin: You know, what I love about your work and your commitment, and this is where you and I connected many years ago with the Black Alliance for Educational Options, is that you understand, as an activist, that you can't put limits on your activism. And you always have to grow because, as you and I both know, there are a lot of activists out there, and I'm not saying this pejoratively, they get stuck. This is the issue. This is what we fight on. But you have always taken the approach that even as you enter into the teaching ranks and the school leadership ranks, you want to continue to try explore how to do it better, how to make it better, how to make it work so that all kids benefit, so you have more of an open mind. You understand what I'm saying? Where did that come from?
Sharif: Yeah. No, absolutely. You know, I think a part of it is just from my family and those who were the community that they raised us in, and them seeing both their wins as well as their missteps. So having grown up and having four members of the Black Panther Party, the West Philadelphia branch, having so many activists in our family and in the community really got to see like, "All right, here are some of the things that, you know, should carry on and have been a consistent thread, but here's also how the struggle and the resistance, as well as the journey of love that we have in our community, here's how it has evolved over time." And looking at like, what can we learn from the past and how do we apply it?
But it won't be the same exact strategies. Often they're strategies that they didn't have to think of. And so I think even in my educational experience as a profession, going from even a teacher to a teacher leader, which is kind of redundant term, right, teachers are leaders, right . . .
Kevin: Right. Exactly, yeah.
Sharif: . . . you know, to administration, I had to learn and employ different tactics, even in that very specific framework, let alone a broader sense of educational, racial justice pursuits.
Kevin: Now, I want to talk about the Center for Black Educator Development, but one last area, just generally from a global point of view, what are your thoughts about the state of public education today, generally? I mean, I think that that's sort of a good entrée to what led you to do the work you're doing.
Sharif: Yeah. Unfortunately, you know, while there are pockets of great things happening for kids, by and large, I can't, and I would challenge anybody too, point to a system across this country, you know, where all children, particularly Black children are doing well, like where that's the majority. Not like, oh, this specific school or this specific classroom or this specific, you know area.
But like where is it safe for Black children to go to school where they're going to be intellectually, culturally, emotionally, and spiritually supported, protected, challenged with high expectations, high degrees of support, where their opportunities are there, where families don't have to wonder in the back of their head, "I hope my baby's okay today. I hope they're not experiencing racism today. I hope they're not experiencing low expectations today. I hope they're not being dehumanized by the curricula or the mindsets of the educators in front of them."
You know, I can't point to a district where that is, by and large, where you can just say, "Yes, that's happening." And I get, like, people may say, "Well, that's a utopia." When you look at it, there are some groups of students who are like they're pretty safe. They're okay. Their racial identity is affirmed over and over and over again in both subtle as well as overt methods. And so, for our children, I think this is imperative. And we underestimate the peril that some of our students are in, you know, to a great disadvantage to them and us, right? They're our future.
Kevin: Yeah. I want to talk about the center, but, you know, I think about what you just said, Sharif. I mean, you kind of dropped something on me there. I think it's a real statement. And again, this isn't a knock on our school system. But the reality is, you know, I think that applies to all children. There's not one school district where every single child is getting what they need.
And that's an indictment on us. And it also should lead us to take the approach that you've taken, frankly, where, you know what, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You've got to do something different. When you looked at the pipeline of the Teaching Corps in America, and only 7% of the teachers in this country are African American, you decided to do something about it. Why did you choose to found this center? And how did you view this as a way to try to cut into that reality?
Sharif: Yeah. You know, I think a big part of it is like, you know, what you mentioned earlier as far as like evolving. So initial work that I was doing in 2014 was supporting Black men, which is . . .
Kevin: Yes, I remember.
Sharif: . . . less than 2% of Black men educators, right, or teachers in America's public schools. And so we were supporting them. Matter of fact, later on, hopefully, we'll get to talk about our BMECs, which the sixth is coming up. But this whole idea of we're supporting Black men, but at some point, we're just like, "Wait a minute. We need a pipeline. Like, yeah, we can support the ones who are here, but what about entry points, you know, while we support retention?" Because I do believe the best recruitment plan is a strong retention plan.
Kevin: Yes.
Sharif: And there are a whole lot of folks like, "Oh, we want to recruit, we want to recruit." We're like, "Okay, how are you retaining them?" Like, "Huh? What do you mean?" Like, yeah. Like let's address that ecosystem that you're inviting people into. Some of it's racially hostile, and they're not going to stay. They're going to come in the front door, leave the back door.
But, you know, we also . . . this idea of lifting as we climb, which Mary Church Terrell, Black Educator Hall of Famer, you know, when she talked about Black educators lifting as they climb. And when I think about that, I'm like, "Okay, how are we doing that?" And in our Freedom Schools tradition it's retrain your replacements. And so we just thought like, "Okay, a Black teacher pipeline has to be strong, robust, and insulated. It has to be protected. It has to be held up by these pillars."
And so we decided to start an organization, the Center for Black Educator Development, looking at that. What are the policies? We call it these three pillars, the three P's. Policy, advocacy, and research, right? Like so what is around there that supports or undermines a Black teacher pipeline? Professional learning. What is the professional learning, the mindset, the skills, the will necessary to be an effective educator? Black educators, as well as colleagues and supervisor who many of them have a hand in closing the door for recruitment and opening the door for attrition.
And so we have policy, professional learning, and then pathways. How do we invite our talented youth into the profession? How do we point out their leadership skills that they're showing and we say, "You know what, that's what the best teachers do?" You know, we see them advocating for racial and educational justice in all these different ways and we say, "You know what? That's what the best educators do," and help them connect the dots and invite them into the profession.
So then we have pathways, professional learning, and policy, and we say, "You know what? This is something that we believe can support a Black teacher pipeline locally here in Philadelphia, but as well nationally as well."
Kevin: How are you actualizing this vision that you've created with the center in terms of getting other school districts to embrace this philosophy, which will help grow their pipeline?
Sharif: Yeah. You know, interesting enough, you know, districts around the country reach out to us and they say, "Hey, we need Black teachers." And we tell them, like, "Yo, we don't have them in our back pockets or the trunk of our car. Like, we have a model where you can develop a pipeline, and you can support a pipeline." And so how this is actualized is actually having . . . It's three components we believe to the pathway part. You figure three pillars. The third pillar is a pathway, and that pathway has three components.
So pathway, you know, component one is a teacher academy. So imagine CTE, career and technical education where students are getting credit, dual enrollment credit. You know, this idea of graduating high school with an associate's degree in education as a Black youth opens up multiple doors, right? It saves money. It gives you clear-eyed understanding of what you're getting involved in and what it means, the connection between historic and today, what are the Black teaching traditions that work well, all of that.
So that's teacher academy. That's during the day, but connected to CTE where they're actually practicing teaching. That's connected to out of school time. So paid apprenticeships.
So we're like, you know, our students, they're not going to McDonald's and Enterprise. They're interested in teaching. So they're coming to teach, and they teach first, second, and third graders, like this inter-generational approach. So they've had seat time as high school students, and then during out of school time, they're working with their peers as well as college students who are teaching first, second, and third graders. So we borrow from this Freedom School tradition, and we call it Freedom School Literacy Academy. So it's a teacher development model.
And both of those components then feed into this Black teacher pipeline fellowship that we have in partnership with UNCF, where students who are interested in teaching are able to apply for the fellowship, and they get college scholarships dollars. So imagine already having an associate's degree in education, but then also being able to access up to $5,000 a year in college scholarships, right, less loans to pay back and more support in a fellowship, but then also a retention bonus once they get to their fifth year of teaching.
So this comprehensive approach is connected to the social, political, and economic conditions that a lot of aspiring Black educators find themselves in, the rising cost of college, the lack of Black teaching traditions, as Dr. Akosua Lesesne talks about, in educator prep programs, unable to do student . . . you know, this is opportunity to kind of do student teaching as early as your sophomore year in high school. So this is how we're, you know, designing it. And so there are districts, you know, who are interested. We're in Philadelphia. Both the school district of Philadelphia, as well as some local charter networks, both here and as well as around the country.
Kevin: You know, Sharif, the data, it speaks for itself. Forty percent of Black students are less likely to drop out, and nearly 30% are more likely to go to college if they have a Black teacher in their educational experience. We have so many, you know, of our African American students who matriculate through school and don't have any Black teachers. Talk about how this identity piece is so important to young African American students.
Sharif: Oh, yeah. And that data right there that you cited is absolutely incredible. And that's, as you said, a single Black teacher.
Kevin: Yeah.
Sharif: You know? And that Black teacher can have that level of impact. And imagine if they have multiple. Imagine if there's curricula that's not racist, that there's actually anti-racism in both the pedagogical, the teaching part as well as the curricula, the content itself. And, you know, this is so incredibly important.
And what we found in our Freedom School Literacy Academy, as these Black high school and college youth are teaching first, second, and third graders, and being coached, mentored, and supported by us, we see this development, not just in the scholars, first, second, and third graders, but even in the high school and college students who are saying like, "Oh, I have a better understanding of what this all means. I have a better understanding."
And, you know, we've had youth who are saying like, "Hey, I've been in ed prep programs for three years now, I'm a junior, and I learned more about teaching Black children this summer in your Freedom School Literacy Academy program than I did in my three years."
Kevin: Yeah.
Sharif: And so what does it mean to not erase Black youth? Just take history, for example. We have schools right now who are teaching children, not just our children, but all children, "Oh, Black people, Black Americans' history began with enslavement." That's the start of their history. You know? And then other spaces where they're just erased. They're just non-existent.
So anybody who can go through, even let's just take STEM, if they can go through biology and chemistry and physics and never even mention other contributions besides white men in those fields, then that is a constant assault on the psyche and the development of a Black child, where they're saying like, "Oh, maybe I don't belong." But it's not just them. They may be sitting next to their best friend who happened to be white. And even if they're besties, that white child unconsciously may start to develop like, "You know what, your people actually haven't contributed to civilization."
Kevin: Well, and especially, Sharif, when mathematics was started in Africa.
Sharif: And then we are telling Black kids, "Y'all just not good at math. Like, we're not going to teach . . ." Like, wait a minute. Like, do you understand, like, where this came from? You know?
Kevin: Well, you know, there's another strand of this as well, which is often understated. Talk to me a little bit about the importance to have Black teachers in front of white students.
Sharif: Yes. In front of white students and also leading white educators.
Kevin: Exactly.
Sharif: And some of the best . . . White educators have come to me, and not just at my school that I led as a principal for 16 years, but in other spaces where they talked about . . . And you know what? Some of the best professional development I've had was through Black educators, being in proximity with Black educators, that they were bringing . . . They were like, "They're bringing something else that I didn't get in my traditional professional development. You know, I'm learning how to have high expectations and high support, how to center a child, how to create culture in a way that's more effective and engaging, how to communicate with children and their families and the community at large, right?"
Like, they're like, "I'm learning all of this just by being in proximity and watching them work." They say like, "Watch me cook." Watch these Black teachers cook and, you know, you learn something, you know, pretty powerful. And then also students and being able to . . . You know, sometimes the person who may disrupt racist thought and racist ideology that may have been implanted into the psyche of white children is the Black educator.
That cognitive dissonance necessary to disrupt constantly anti-Black messages may be from a Black educator because contrary to popular opinion, yes, you know, systemic racism, institutional racism is absolutely an issue, but there's a whole lot of racism being taught at people's dining room tables and then in the car rides home, right?
Kevin: Yeah.
Sharif: And so a Black educator who's effective can interrupt that in a pretty powerful way.
Kevin: You know, you've mentioned several times, I don't want to get too far off track, the Freedom School concept.
Sharif: Right.
Kevin: Talk a little bit about Freedom Schools, because that was birthed out of the '60s, and actually the roots came before that when, you know, African Americans couldn't go to public schools and they end up setting up their own schools in their communities. It was, you know, now we call them schools, but it was really get-togethers and teaching kids the basics, and the Freedom School concept . . .
Sharif: Each one teach one, each one teach 1,000.
Kevin: Each one teach one, each one teach 1,000. And then this whole idea of Freedom Schools really was like the community school. Just talk briefly about that because I do think that that has served as a foundational piece for what you're trying to do.
Sharif: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, just that intergenerational approach, and again, it connected to the social, political, economic realities, right? And I'm glad you mentioned that it happened even before the '60s. Dr. Greg Carr, as well as Dr. Fuller both speak about like just this . . .
Kevin: That's right.
Sharif: . . . long trajectory of education and liberators, and that being tied to this educational activism, both when it was illegal as well as when it was unsupported. And we were financing it ourselves, everything from clearing the field to chopping the trees down and using it to build these schools post-Civil War, even during the Civil War, right? So . . .
Kevin: And during reconstruction, and it was a big part of it. Yeah.
Sharif: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, you know, and when people are typically talking about Freedom Schools, as you said, it started in the '60s by SNCC, Charlie Cobb . . .
Kevin: That's right.
Sharif: . . . you know, who wrote it. And people can look on the SNCC Legacy website and still see his original memo about why we should start Freedom Schools. They're like, "Hey, we're working with parents and grandparents and getting them registered to vote. We've got to also address the children and grandchildren who are subjected to educational malpractice and outright violence in schools, assaults on their intellectual curiosity and abilities. We should start schools." Right?
And so these happened, started happening in churches, homes, under trees, right, in this Freedom School concept, and fast-forwarded Marian Wright Edelman kind of reinvigorated the movement through Children's Defense Fund. And we have Freedom Schools all around. And then you have variants from that. You know? So you have Philadelphia Freedom Schools. You had others that were focused on different things.
And so, but the idea has always been how do we center the experience of Black children? How do we make sure that people in front of them have an anti-racist, pro-humanity framework and orientation? And how do we make sure that literacy and positive racial identity development is an integral part of it? How do we build community around this idea about learning? How do we infuse fun and joy as well as high expectations and achievement in a school? You know?
Dr. Carr often says, at some point, for our youth, we should be able to get rid of the freedom part and just make it school. But right now, we're not there yet. You know, as we say on the "8 Black Hands," I mean, on Freedom Friday, you'd be like be a little bit more free. You're not totally there yet. You know, Dr. Fuller says liberated, but not yet free. Part of that not yet free, I think is the educational experience of so many youth as well as the working conditions of so many Black educators.
Kevin: One of the things that I love about what you do, and, frankly, all good school leaders and teachers get this, is one uncompromising, non-negotiable facet is you have to believe that all kids can learn. And I think that part of the challenge we have, when you go back, Sharif, to what you said earlier, that there's no school district in America that takes care of all of its kids the right way from a learning quotient point of view, part of it is we have too many people in front of our children who don't believe that some segment of them can't learn. I mean, how do we purge that mindset? And I know there's the focus on the Black educators and Black children, but across the board when that mindset is almost like its own internal cancer.
Sharif: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it eats away at so many aspects. I mean, it, like, really short circuits the learning process. It kills the curiosity of children. At some point, it just . . . High expectations is not only important for youth. It's also important for the educator to have about themselves and their peers, right, because if I have low expectations about myself, about what I can achieve as a leader in a classroom or a school or district, that means I'm already setting the bar so low for what students can achieve. Right?
And so when we see that, you know, over and over and over again, and we have studies out of our lived experiences, but also studies out of, like, Yale where they say that, "Oh, Black youth, Black children start experiencing their teachers' racial biases as early as 3 and 4 years old, 3 and 4 years old." And imagine that's before you even get to kindergarten, and then having 13 years, because it's not like it just subsides as a Black child gets older. If anything, it intensifies, right?
And so when we have this and low expectations, which is a big part of believing that, you know, all children can't learn at high levels, all children can't achieve, and then when you overlay race, class, power and privilege on top of that, and you see that disproportionately it keeps hitting some of the same groups, right? Like, it's like taking a two-by-four and keep bashing a kid in the head over and over and over again with these low expectations. Like that's how imagine enduring that.
And at some point, the kid, even without the language to describe how the inhumane experience that they're having, they recognize like, "This isn't just. This isn't right. I need to check out." Right? And then they start building walls also that creates barriers for their own achievement outside of that. And this is why it takes this ecosystem of advocacy for them, teaching them how to advocate for themselves, but also making sure that we have healthy environments even outside, definitely inside of school, but outside as well, because some of our children need detox centers.
Some of them need recentering centers where they come out, they're like, "Oh, no, I'm not crazy. Oh, no. You know what? I am actually a full human being, and I know that because it's being reinforced in my faith-based institution, the rec center, in my home, in the community," all of these other ways that kind of reinforces and interrupts any kind of self-doubt, internalized racism or other forms of oppressions, that they may start thinking that, "Well, this is what we deserve."
Kevin: Look, two quick final questions. One is you mentioned BMECs, and you still are working with that. Talk about, you know, your upcoming event.
Sharif: Oh, listen, we are so excited, and hopefully, your audience not only will attend, but will share it widely. So this will be our sixth annual Black Men in Education Convening, BMEC, #BMEC2023. You know, every year, it's typically about 1,000 Black men. And it's open to everybody, you know, but it really centers the experiences, perspectives, and needs of Black men, what we call the less than 2%. And these Black men are from all over, both current and aspiring educators, from high school students interested in the, you know, field of education all the way to superintendents.
And so this will be November 16th through the 18th, again, here in Philadelphia. People can go to our website, thecenterblacked.org\bmec. And hopefully, you know, this will be another, you know, great turnout, opportunity. And all the feedback that we've been getting over the years is just how invigorated . . .
Somebody sent me a text today and talking about BMEC 2022 changed their lives, you know, reinforced their why they wanted to stay in a profession, helped make the connections, but also the personal and the professional development that they felt like they received. And we're looking forward to continuing to build community.
Kevin: Right. And I look forward to joining you.
Sharif: We're going to have to get you there. It might have to be maybe a live show from there. You know?
Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. I would love to do that. In fact, I will come this year. I'll mark my calendar, and I'll be in touch with you on that.
So this is the last question, Sharif. This is what I really want to know. You know, I want to get granular a little bit because a lot of school leaders listen to the show, a lot of school administrators, superintendents. And what steps should schools take to just begin the process of developing their pipeline, a new pipeline of Black educators? I know you've got the three pillars in place. But if you had a brief conversation with a school superintendent who, you know, just walk him through the two or three things he should immediately do in order to begin to address that issue.
Sharif: Oh, yeah. No, this is a great question. So, one, I would really evaluate. And you can't evaluate without getting the feedback from the people who are experiencing it. But I would start there. What is the Black students' experience as students in my school and district? You know, one of the number one things that will deter a future educator is being in there as a student and saying, "I don't want to be colleagues with my teacher. I don't want to ever work under a person like my principal or my superintendent."
So what are their experience? And making sure that we are soliciting the experience and asking them, "Hey, what would you rate your school experience, you know, 1 to 10?" And whatever number they give, the next question should be, "What do you need to see from me to make it two points higher?" Right? So even just asking that and being proactive. Not waiting for, "Oh, yeah, we've got a suggestion box over here, you know, in the corner, dusty." But no, actually soliciting and getting the feedback from students about their experiences. So that's one.
The other one is creating teacher academies, like actually giving students the opportunity to practice what teaching is because too many district leaders think of, "Oh, well, you were all students for 13 years, so if you're interested in teaching, you would just, you know, become a teacher." They look for it to be an organic process, where we're like, "No, be even more intentional. You know? Have a system."
It's like having a baseball team with no farm system, and just thinking that they're going to have, you know, an all-star team. Like, no. There's a farm system for the students to have at-bats, so to speak, you know, you continue with that. Have practice, right? And so this is why the role of our high school apprentices, who are teaching first, second, and third graders, that near peer, that modeling, that understanding like, "Wow, I actually helped that young child develop in this way, and this is the feedback that they're giving me." Right Like, so having those type of opportunities is absolutely critical.
So the experience as students, the experiences of practicing as apprentices. And then the third thing would be retaining the ones who are there because they are the best ambassadors. Those Black educators who already exist, that ambassadorship where they can invite people in the profession and not feel bad about it. Not invite . . . You know, Dr. Chris Emdin said that sometimes recruiting Black youth to become teachers is like inviting someone to return to the scene of a crime, a crime committed against themselves, right?
And if you have a Black teacher who's already experiencing racial biases from their colleagues and supervisors, it hearkens memories that they had as students when they experienced racism, right? So that's two parts. But now, they're also trying to protect students who look like them from some of the same conditions that they experienced as students. That's pretty heavy. And that's before lesson plan development, relationship building, you know, building community with families.
Kevin: Before learning.
Sharif: Before grading. Yah, all of that. That's before all of that. Like, no. So I would say the experience of students, the experience of being apprentices, learning what teaching could be, and not just making it organic, and then also making sure that we are really supportive of the Black educators who exist now because we know the attrition rates of Black teachers, particularly Black men is very high not only in our cities, but around the country.
Kevin: Yeah. Sharif El-Mekki, I appreciate all that you do, and thank you so much for joining us on "What I Want to Know."
Sharif: It's my pleasure. It was great seeing you again. Looking forward to seeing you in person soon.
Kevin: All right. Take care. Thanks for listening to "What I Want to Know." Be sure to follow and subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app so you can explore other episodes and dive into our discussions on the future of education. And write a review of the show. I also encourage you to join the conversation and let me know what you want to know using #WIWTK on social media. That's #WIWTK.
For more information on Stride and online education, visit stridelearning.com. I'm your host, Kevin P. Chavous. Thank you for joining "What I Want to Know."
Meet Sharif
Sharif El-Mekki is the founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, an organization dedicated to developing effective Black educators.
Before founding the Center, Sharif was a nationally recognized principal and U.S. Department of Education Principal Ambassador Fellow.
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What I Want to Know
In this podcast, you will hear from leaders in education as we talk through learning solutions for homeschool, online school, education pathways, and topics tailored specifically to online students and parents.
