Portland preschool teacher breaks the mold of early childhood education

Outside the Sunshine Center in North Portland’s Overlook neighborhood, the sounds of children playing, laughing and singing greet visitors. Inside the preschool and child care center, you’ll find founder Troy Tate.

A Black male teacher, Tate is a rarity in Oregon early childhood education, where the vast majority of professionals are white women.

As families across Oregon prepare this month to send their children back to school, Tate said he is aware he is offering something unique.

“It’s not better or worse, just different,” Tate said. “Most students aren’t going to have a Black male teacher this early in their academic career – some not at all.”

In 2022, roughly 92% of Oregon early education professionals were women, and 75% identified as white, according to a survey of the state’s early childhood care providers. That doesn’t match Oregon’s overall student population. According to the National Council on Teacher Quality, 40% of pre-K through 12th grade students are children of color compared with 15% of all teachers.

When Tate opened the school in 2010, he said some people were appreciative about sending their children to the Sunshine Center because of their gender and race.

“I hired a white woman, and I kind of had her as the face of the school initially, because I didn’t want to scare people off,” he said. “A lot of times that would happen. When they would show up, and there was a Black guy who was the owner, operator and founder, I could tell some people were just immediately uncomfortable with that.”

Over the years, that narrative changed. National conversations about equity and bias fostered a more inclusive outlook, he said.

“Now, it’s almost the norm,” Tate said. “It’s not a big deal when people see my face, or come here and see me teaching in the classroom. It’s not an issue like it once was.”

Preschool for All

Tate loves working with children and says students often return later in life to share the impact he had on them. His expertise shows in the classroom, and the kids are attentive and willing to listen to him.

On a recent morning in August, one small child knocked over another.

“No thank you,” Tate said politely to the boy. “Look at him, buddy. How do you think that made him feel?”

“He looks sad,” the child said with a glimpse of guilt in his voice. He then apologized, and the two went on playing like nothing had happened.

Tate said he manages classrooms at the Sunshine Center with kindness and respect. He’s usually teaching preschool, but staffing shortages have led him to fill in at the child care center, too.

Like many preschools and child care facilities, Sunshine Center has sometimes struggled to manage the many demands of the classroom, according to a review of state records. A few complaints filed by parents and others over the years, including that a staff member once pushed a child outside and closed the door, hinting at the challenges; the staff member denied the pushing allegation.

The Sunshine Center’s day care is currently at capacity with nine children, and Tate often has to turn people away. The preschool will have 17 students in the fall, 15 of whom will have free tuition through Multnomah County’s Preschool for All initiative.

Voters approved the Preschool for All initiative in 2020, and it aims to offer preschool to all Multnomah County students ages 3 and 4 by 2030. The county collected around $187 million for the program in the 2021 tax year, despite a large number of high- income residents failing to pay the tax.

Sunshine Center is one of 82 locations participating in the Preschool for All program this year, up from 47 in the 2022-2023 academic year, according to Leslee Barnes, director of Multnomah County’s Preschool and Early Learning Division.

Of the 1,400 classroom seats projected for this year, the program has enrolled roughly 93%, Barnes said. Preschool for All provides funds to private businesses like Tate’s that are not supported by a school district. Over half of the sites in the program are private businesses, Barnes said.

‘Took over my life’

Outside of the school and day care, Tate is a pastor at Christ Memorial Community Church, a board member for the historical organization Oregon Black Pioneers and a father of two young children.

He grew up in Portland and graduated from Grant High School. Tate then studied at Concordia University and earned his bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Eastern Oregon University last year.

Tate’s original plan was to work as an accountant. He never thought he’d be running Sunshine Center.

He leads his church’s non-profit, Community Help Institute for Learning and Development. When the 2008 recession hit, many of the nonprofit’s grants relied on dried up, so the institute opened the preschool and day care to help fund its other programs.

“I think I’ve always loved working with kids in some capacity, but I didn’t ever feel like I would become a preschool teacher,” he said. “For one, it’s a very female-dominated profession. But once I started the preschool, it just took over my life.”

Tate said having male teachers with diverse backgrounds is important for children’s development and helps students avoid racial bias later in life.

“It means that there’s a Black male who is contributing to their lives in a positive way,” he said. “To some degree, it helps to alleviate or remove unintentional bias that can be created about Black people, and particularly Black males, because I’m introduced to their life at an early age.”

Tate said he looks up to those who paved the way to more equitable education, such as long-time education activist and director of Portland’s Albina Head Start program Ron Herndon.

Herndon highlighted several problems facing the industry, including pay. About 56% of early childhood educators reported making less than $50,000 a year, and over 20% said they made less than $25,000, according to the early childhood care survey.

Preschool for All has helped Tate pay his employees a living wage, said Ryan Yambra, a spokesperson for the county. The minimum hourly wage for a preschool teacher assistant at a Preschool for All site is $19.91 or about $41,000 per year, and the target hourly wage for a lead teacher with a college degree is $37.48 or $78,000, Yambra said.

“Preschool is a very demanding job,” Herndon said. “I think the problem for people, regardless of ethnicity, is that they all find they can make more money in other fields.”

But it’s important that faculty reflect the diversity of their students, Herndon said, and teachers like Tate help set that standard at an early age.

“It’s important the children see figures in the classroom who are a reflection of them and the cultures they come from,” he said. “These adults should reflect the society they’ll be living in.”

Stephanie Younger sent her two children to the center last year when she was coping with an illness. Her children, who are white, also have benefited from the unique experience at Sunshine Center, she said.

“Troy is a really great person, and that comes through in his teaching in the classroom,” Younger said. “The kids loved it, and they were always excited to go.”

– Austin De Dios; adedios@oregonian.com; @austindedios; 503-319-9744

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