As a novice teacher in 1999, I was grateful to have a colleague across the hall who was also new to the profession. We swapped stories, shared strategies, and commiserated about our shared challenges around lesson planning and staying in touch with students’ families.

At some point, though, our experiences at the same Florida elementary school diverged. While my colleague was asked to lead a grade-level team, I was tapped to head up the school’s Black History Month programming. After school, she oversaw academic enrichment while I supervised detention. On the weekend, she led a scholars program while I coached the basketball team.

My colleague was a white woman. I am a Black man.

My early leadership opportunities reflected important school staffing needs and aligned with my skill set. And while these assignments were mostly enjoyable, they didn’t prepare me for the next steps on my leadership journey. Through dogged persistence, informal guidance from fellow leaders of color, and my fair share of luck, I became a principal and, later, a district superintendent. The system, however, was not set up to support my success, leading instead to teachers of color experiencing burnout.

Factors Impacting Burnout for School Leaders of Color

That’s because male educators of color are often “tracked” into disciplinary roles, and men and women of color report being tapped to lead equity initiatives and perform other functions that do not necessarily capitalize on their instructional expertise. Principal and superintendent roles are increasingly focused on instructional leadership. That means many educators of color who step up to lead early in their careers find themselves lacking the types of experience hiring managers look for when recruiting for school and district leadership positions.

Many of the non-instructional efforts that educators of color find themselves tapped to lead involve extra time, added stress, and little or no compensation. It’s a perfect recipe for teachers of color to experience burnout. Is it any wonder why the turnover rate for educators of color is higher than the national average? If we don’t figure this out, the continued loss of talented educators of color from our schools will persist, further hindering recruiting efforts.

Read the full article about burnout for teachers of color by Harrison Peters at Chalkbeat.