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Over the past 20 years, the number of male teachers in both elementary and middle school grades have plateaued at around 16 percent, a number that remains true at La Crescent Elementary School.

The school has five male teachers on staff and only one male student-teacher this year.

Garrett Soper is that student-teacher and he says the need for male role models in the classroom is growing.

Cambridge College education professor Jim Horn presents his new book, "Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys Through 'No Excuses' Teaching," as a necessary antidote to my 2009 book, "Work Hard. Be Nice: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America."

The Group called Profound Gentlemen is ready to tackle an assignment to get more black male teachers inside the classrooms. The group is working with school districts in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland and Charlotte.

They admit it is a challenge but they claim achieving the goal will pay off.

After being involved with the Young Male Leadership Academy since the eighth grade, Adrien Pocasongra describes it as one of the best things he’s ever done.

“It gives me a sense of belonging,” said Pocasongra, now a junior at Warren Central High School.

Michael Coleman, a minority teacher recruiter at Warren County Public Schools, has been involved with the program for 10 years.

During his high-school days, no football game could start without Louis Blackmon III: the team’s center. Each play began with his snap.

Though Blackmon was renowned for his hustle on the field, he didn’t put the same effort into the classroom. “In school, I was just an average guy,” Blackmon said. Typically, he pulled Cs, with a few Ds, at McDonogh 35 High School in New Orleans.

New York City is rolling out a $16.5 million initiative to recruit and retain nonwhite male teachers so that its teaching staff better reflects its student population.

Jahi isn't your average rapper. He doesn't have to just worry about flow and lyrics when he tours with Public Enemy as part of the group PE 2.0. As an educator and pioneer of the African-American Male Achievement program in the Oakland, Calif., public school system, he has to wait until summer break, when the kids are out, to tour for his new album, InsPirEd.

Shaker Heights Schools, working together with the U.S. Department of Education and Howard University is looking to launch a program to attract African-American male teachers to the district.

A Charlottesville-based nonprofit is working to increase the diversity of teachers in Albemarle County and Charlottesville public schools.

According to the African American Teaching Fellows (AATF) there is only one minority teacher for every 122 students in both the city and county.

A study released Wednesday by the American Federation of Teachers found that, just as American schools are getting more and more segregated, teachers in several major American cities, including the nation’s three largest school districts, are getting progressively less diverse, particularly when it comes to black teachers.

Three young career changers are getting a competitive education at a Clarke County high school this school year, but the main beneficiaries might be students at Cedar Shoals High School.

I neutered God in my family's dinner prayer. It's the same prayer I recited growing up as a Lutheran, but now that I'm raising two girls, I switched out the "father in heaven we thank thee" to "we thank thee." I want my daughters to be grateful, but I don't want to assign a gender to a God before they're old enough to form their own conclusions about him. Or her. Or if one exists.

The inclusion of men in early childhood programs has garnered considerable attention over the years. This interest is due to three related trends: 1) the lack of men—usually fathers—in the lives of many of our young children, 2) the dearth of men in the early childhood field, and 3) an increased interest in father involvement in early childhood programs. While almost everyone agrees with the need to get men involved in the lives of young children, solutions to this dilemma are few and far between.

Young black males have a better chance of being taught by someone who looks like them now that the first two graduates of the College of Charleston's Call Me MISTER program are teaching in area schools.

And more are in training.

Call Me MISTER is increasing the number of black male teachers in South Carolina by providing a support system for black men pursuing degrees in education, program leaders say.

Having retired after three sparkling decades as a public high school teacher in Washington state, I decided to apply for a license as a substitute teacher during a two-month visit to Lakeside. On Nov. 9, 1981, feeling a little shaky and insecure, I reported to the principal of Lakeside Elementary for my first assignment.