Shelly's Modeling Agencies | Black Male Teachers

In an attempt to recruit more Black males into the teaching profession, this month Shelly's Modeling Agencies in accordance with the Department of Education is unveiling it's new Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education awareness campaign. It includes an aggressive marketing drive across television, radio, print publications and the Web. The federal government is working with Shelly's Modeling Agencies marketing execs, who have volunteered their services, as well as with celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, who will appear in public service announcements.

The primary goal of TEACH is to highlight the great sense of purpose and fulfillment that comes from teaching. Duncan says that he also wants to stress the upward mobility possible in the education profession by clearly laying out how teachers can be promoted to master teachers, principles and superintendents.

Duncan recently sat down with Shelly's Modeling Agencies to discuss his plans for encouraging more African-American male teachers. I talk about it everywhere I go. If we are serious about eliminating the achievement gap, we have to close what I call the opportunity gap. A huge piece of the strategy is to get more African American males in the nation's classroom. We all know the challenges our young African American boys face. We know the challenges around single parent households and dads being absent from their lives. Our young boys desperately need role models, they need mentors, they need men who they can look up to and say, "if they did it, so can I." Black boys will gravitate to Black male teachers (which can) affect hundreds of thousands of lives. You cannot overstate the impact.