Rodney Robinson

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Rodney Alexander Robinson is a Virginia educator known for working with students in the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center. He teaches social studies and history to grades 6 through 12 at the Virgie Binford Education Center and was named Virginia Teacher of the Year in 2018 and National Teacher of the Year in 2019.

Robinson was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1978. He was inspired to become a teacher by his mother, Sylvia, who had wanted to teach but couldn’t in segregated Virginia. After a school incident, a high school assistant principal encouraged him to pursue college. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Virginia State University and a master’s degree in educational administration and supervision from Virginia Commonwealth University. He began teaching in 2000, teaching at Armstrong High School for 11 years and also at Lucille M. Brown Middle School and George Wythe High School. He is married to Summer Robinson, who is also a teacher in Richmond.

At the detention center, Robinson focuses on the whole child: social and emotional growth first, then academics. He decorates the walls with college banners and inspirational quotes to motivate students who are temporarily in the center, hoping to put them back on track to graduate. He believes every student is different and should receive what they need to succeed, not just what is fair. He helps students with things like voting rights restoration and, when eligible, getting their rights back after a felony.

Robinson has faced the trauma his students experience, including shootings, and has sought therapy to cope with it. Outside school, he volunteers as a Little League coach and serves as a public address announcer for Armstrong High School events. He participates in city history projects and works to recruit more underrepresented male teachers. He contributed to Yale Teacher Institute curricula on race, class, and punishment and received the R.E.B. Award for Teaching Excellence in 2012.

As National Teacher of the Year, he aimed to push for more equal school funding and to increase the number of minority men becoming teachers. He met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office after the president broke tradition by presenting the award in person. Robinson described the honor as humbling and said it validated the work of teachers and students across the country.