Teachers Rooted in Oakland — increasing recruitment and retention of teachers of color by addressing the cost of housing/cost of living

Problem

In Oakland, 78% of the hard-to-staff specialized teachers, including STEM and SpEd, believe they may need to leave teaching because of the lack of affordable housing; this number is even higher for teachers of color. Our students — who are predominantly students of color — then suffer from major racial disparities in outcomes of academic performance. 

Solution

Our mission is to advance educational equity by addressing the cost of living and providing affordable housing to increase the recruitment & retention of highly skilled and committed Black, Latinx, and other teachers of color. We do this by providing affordable housing or housing stipends to incoming teacher residents (research shows teachers trained through residency models stay longer and are more effective) during their residency year and then supporting with guaranteed income stipends for the following 4 years, as long as they continue teaching in the school district.