RE-IMAGINE EDUCATION
What We Do:
Re-Imagine Education is a nonprofit with a mission to attract BIPOC talent to education careers and to promote retention and upward mobility through mentorship. “Forty-two percent of Black teachers are leaving the classroom after two years because of a lack of mentors and sense of belonging,” says Isiah King, a former teacher and principal in Beloit and co-founder of Re-Imagine Education. “In Wisconsin, 31% of students are people of color and only 6% of teachers are people of color.” Co-founder Keith Streicher, an Iraq War veteran, was the interim business operations manager for Rocketship Transformation Prep School. “I saw how our teachers were suffering with a lack of supplies and diversity,” he says.
Re-Imagine Education's Future Teachers Incubator program targets career-changers and college students, providing mentors to help them enter the education field. Re-Imagine Education also trains current teachers in working with students of different backgrounds. “A lot of the teachers who are in city schools don't look like the students they serve,” says Shayla Burris, an assistant principal at Cristo Rey High School, who worked with Re-Imagine Education. “They did it in a relational way,” she says of the experience. “We learned things we could put into practice the next day.”
Where Your Money Goes:
Donations support programming to prepare a new generation of BIPOC teachers, as well as to train teachers to work with students of diverse backgrounds. Programs include the Future Teachers Incubator. Funds support an annual scholarship for a BIPOC student studying to become a teacher.
4938 N. 56th St. 414-485-5817 re-imagineed.org