April 7, 2021
(Posted from ACT’s Leadership Blog)
ACT and The Hunt Institute are mission-aligned on closing gaps in education equity, opportunity, and achievement. Stay tuned for opportunities to engage with both organizations as we work together to provide equal access to high-quality education and improve education and career outcomes for all students, regardless of race/ethnicity, income and other demographic characteristics.
How is The Hunt Institute working to advance education equity? Are there any specific programs you have to do so?
The Hunt Institute was founded 20 years ago by Governor Jim Hunt to provide policymakers and changemakers all the tools necessary to bring about an equitable education for all learners, so equity is intentionally integrated into all of our programming.
Our flagship program, the Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows program, named for Governors Jim Hunt and Tom Kean – champions of education and bipartisanship – has cultivated leaders whose agendas have a prominent focus on education. ElevateNC: Higher Education brings together leaders determined to further build a pipeline to postsecondary education. Our Belk Impact Fellows program is designed for college students who are focused on social impact, working at organizations whose main focus is improving educational equity.
The racial unrest that took place in the spring of 2020 caused us to further amplify issues of inequity via a Race & Education webinar series that has zeroed in on issues of systemic racism in the education system. We will continue to provide this space to magnify these issues in hopes of developing solutions.
Our most recent work revolves around an initiative to add one million teachers of color to the workforce over the next decade, and we are hoping to involve U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in this effort.
Read the remainder of the first blog post here, and the entirety of the second blog post, which also features conversations with Illinois Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton and Guilford County NC Superintendent Sharon Contreras, here.
