Veteran School Administrator Boosts Education for Boys of Color

Dr. Eric Becoats has spent much of his career championing education for students of color. In 2015, he became an assistant superintendent in the Philadelphia School District, where he is in charge of its Turnaround Network. Eric Becoats has also supported minority students through his own Becoats Foundation. He holds a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The non-profit Becoats Foundation partners with other community organizations in North Carolina to provide community-level programming in the areas of education and emotional, social, and physical development. The foundation seeks to empower students, specifically minority boys, through its development framework based on character, collaboration, and commitment.

Programming covers five major domains, including STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), personal identity, literacy, health awareness, and cooperative agriculture. Dr. Becoats notes that the framework gives young men opportunities to put principles into practice, helping them understand their significance in the context of the larger world in which they live.