NEIU's Goodwin College of Education (GCOE) was one of 10 member institutions selected from over 50 applications for the inaugural AACTE Networked Improvement Community (NIC)--Changing the Demographic of the Teaching Workforce. The aim of this project is for the various universities to learn from each other about how to increase the number of African American and Hispanic male teachers. The GCOE team is comprised of faculty, administrators, staff, and students, including four faculty members from the Department of Educational Inquiry & Curriculum Studies. 
 
To learn more about this initiative at NEIU you may contact EICS faculty members: Drs. Sunni Ali (a-sunni@neiu.edu), Kimya Barden (k-barden@neiu.edu), Alison Dover (a-dover@neiu.edu), or Brian Schultz (b-schultz@neiu.edu).
 
From the announcement on AACTE's website: 
 

"The NIC aims to address the problem of alignment between the teacher workforce and the demographic makeup of the PK-12 student population, particularly in relation to increasing the percentages of Black and Hispanic male teachers.

Currently about 80% of PK-12 teachers are White, middle-class women. The PK-12 student population is much more diverse; over 40% of students are non-White. Yet more than 40% of public schools have no teachers of color at all. According to data collected from AACTE members through the Professional Education Data System, of the total number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in 2009-2010 to teacher candidates, only 6% were awarded to Black candidates and about 4% to Hispanic candidates. And according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 2% of public school teachers are Black males, and fewer are Hispanic males."