When Dominique Alexander Lane struggled to pass math tests in third grade, her teacher told her that she was never going to get it.
“I took that with me through the rest of my academics,” she said. “Like, ‘I’m not a math person. I just can’t do it. I won’t do it.’”
Now Lane has returned to Seibert Elementary, the Bakersfield school she attended as a child, through a teaching residency launched in the spring by Cal State Bakersfield. The Black Educator Teacher Residency (BETR) is aimed not only at recruiting Black teaching candidates like her but at transforming the education system for Black students.
Black students often have negative experiences in school, as Lane did. The educational system — from the curriculum and the books students read to systems of practice — wasn’t created to support Black students, according to Shaylyn Marks, director of teacher credentialing for CSUB teacher education.
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