Statements

Mission

TECA's mission is to amplify the voice, presence, and support for educators of color while remaining student-centered and solutions-oriented. We believe that in order to ensure strong accountability systems that promote equitable outcomes and excellence in education, more educators of color need a shared elevated voice and stronger presence. Additionally, ALL students, especially students of color, deserve racially and ethnically diverse teachers in their classroom.

Background

During the Fall of 2016, Diarese George, a former classroom teacher in the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, formed the Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance (TECA) to provide a platform to amplify the voice and presence of educators of color. Diarese saw a lack of people of color involved in education policy at all levels, as well as a lack of convening space and resources in Tennessee for the recruitment and retention of educators of color. Diarese engaged colleagues from across Tennessee to form a Steering Committee that discussed the landscape of what's trending in teacher diversity and began to develop an identity of the unique strengths such an organization could bring to the table.TECA submitted its 501(c)3 paperwork in early fall of 2017 to formalize its status as a new non-profit in Tennessee and has since been approved by the federal government. Around the same time, TECA was selected by Conexion Americas as a sub-grantee for its educational equity grants. These grants are designed to advance the capacity of Conexion America's partner organizations across Tennessee to become leading voices in education advocacy efforts, especially on behalf of communities and students of color. Since then, TECA has formed a full Board of Directors, intentionally targeting a diverse community of educators coming to the table with experience at a variety of levels of the education system. We aim to provide mentorship, fellowship, and leadership for educators of color in Middle Tennessee in our first two years, and with a five-year plan to expand offerings across the state.

Impact

The Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance (TECA),is an organization focused on developing, supporting, and connecting educators of color with decision-making power who shape, create, and influence policy. Recruiting, retaining, and providing mentorship and leadership pathways for educators of color are by products of this work. More recently, TECA was instrumental in advocating for the unanimous adoption of Tennessee's statewide Educator Diversity policy which requires each district to set recruitment and retention goals for educators of color in relation to the students of color they serve. Since TECA's inception, it has supported over 2000 educators across the state with professional development, advocacy training, policy engagement, and leadership development.

Needs

As our organization continues to grow we have identified needs that would be critical to our ability to continue to support a more diverse and inclusive educator population in Tennessee. Our biggest need is to expand our team. We currently have a full-time Executive Director and Director of Leadership Development. As we continue to grow we hope to hire a Director of Membership Engagement and Director of Communications in 2022.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Education  - Parent & Teacher Groups
Secondary Category:	Education  - Alliances & Advocacy
Tertiary Category:	Education  - Single Organization Support

Areas Served

Our organization provides services statewide. However, we have been concentrating our efforts throughout middle Tennessee, particularly in Davidson County. Most of our physical activities, outside of the statewide focus groups with teachers of color we hosted in Knoxville, Memphis, and Chattanooga, have been in Nashville (we conducted focus groups there too). Nashville has served as the central location for our annual conference, policy report release event, and networking opportunities.

TN - Montgomery

TN

TN - Davidson

TN - Rutherford