Skip to content

Teachers and Leaders

City Year

There is a need to prepare greater numbers of teachers, leaders, and administrators to effectively serve students facing challenging circumstances. We recognize and celebrate educators for the lives they change every day.

We support a wide range of programs that connect educators to professional development opportunities, giving them a chance to innovate and improve teaching techniques. We support new teachers, especially underrepresented educators, to be trained and enter into the profession better prepared.

Programs & Initiatives

Education Rising

We invest in a pipeline of effective professional development opportunities to strengthen teachers and school leaders. As a national philanthropic model, Education Rising using strategic partnerships to build a network of support for a community of educators.


Supporting Diverse Educators

Increasing and supporting educators of color is paramount to serve our increasingly diverse classrooms. We support Black, Latinx, Asian, and Middle-Eastern educators by bringing them together for an annual conference, Amplify KC, as well as elevating awareness through data and investing in organizations that support districts in developing inclusive environments.


TEACH Kansas City

TEACH Kansas City offers the support and resources both aspiring and experienced educators need to navigate the teaching profession. Everything needed to become a teacher in one place, for free.


BetterLesson PD Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning (CRTL)

In order to truly close the race- and ethnicity-based opportunity and achievement gaps in education, teachers must be provided with the culturally responsive strategies, tools, and resources needed to ensure their classrooms maximize the learning of all students, and in particular those who have been historically most marginalized by our education system.


City Year

City Year, a part of AmeriCorps, helps to close gaps in high-need schools by supporting students’ academic and social-economic development while also providing schools with the additional capacity to enhance school culture and climate.

Kansas City Teacher Residency

Incubated at the Kauffman Foundation, KCTR recruits, prepares, develops, places, and retains mission-oriented individuals who want to make a deep commitment to working in high-need urban schools in the Kansas City area.

Teach for America

Teach for America finds outstanding leaders who commit to expanding educational opportunity, beginning with at least two years teaching in an under-resourced public school. Corp members go beyond traditional expectations.