- Minority teachers can help minority students by serving as “role models, advocates or cultural translators”
- Role models cause them to increase their motivation and expectations for accomplishment 
- Same-race teachers can help to reduce stereotype threat 


University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

This study looked to see if having a teacher with the same race would positively impact student growth and achievement in the classroom for math and reading

The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement study 

Egalite, A. J., Kisida, B., & Winters, M. A. (2015). Representation in the classroom: The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement. Economics of Education Review, 45, 44-52.

positive previous literature about own-race teachers on student achievement 

- Particularly in the education sector, there are not that many minority teachers, which could potentially be causing the racial achievement gap
- Studies found that teachers subconsciously evaluate their students based off similarities between the teacher and student demographics-one study showed that teachers gave better assessments to the students with the same race as them 
- Studies have also shown that teachers rate their students with different races with lower scholarly aptitude and are more likely to evaluate them as not attentive 
- A lot of studies on the topic of same race matching and school achievement have been inconclusive


motivation for own-race teachers on student achievement study

- In the data, the ratio of white students to white teachers (10.8:1) was much smaller than the ratio of other minority students to their teachers (black, 26.5:1; hispanic/latino, 41.4:1; asian, 47.1:1)
- Tracked students over 7 years from elementary school to high school 
- Students are in grades 3-10 from 2001-2002 to 2008-2009
- They utilized a standardized exam called the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test)
- They link 2.9 million students to 92,000 teachers-they do this through an indicator that is listed in both the student and teacher profiles for a given year, allowing them to match students and teachers over time
- Although some students go to more than one teacher for a specific subject, they credit only one teacher for the students’ growth so it fit in the analysis 
- They screened the data and successfully included 96% of the students 


data used for own-race teachers on student achievement study

- There is a statistically significant achievement increase in reading for black and white students who were racially matched to their teachers, and in math for black, white, and asian/pacific island students who were racially matched to their teachers 
- Black students-the racial match impact is bigger in math, .019 SD, than in reading, .004 SD which was mostly driven by the elementary school years 
- White students-the racial match impact was about the same for both math and reading: .007 SD for math and .005 for reading. The math effect was driven in the elementary grades as well
- Asian/Pacific Island students-had positive impact of .041 SD in math, which was driven by middle/high school 
- Hispanic students-there were negative effect sizes: -.011 SD in reading and -.007 SD in math-however there are data limitations because Florida has many different people from different origins and many people who are not native born
- Low-performing students benefited particularly from race match- it is not statistically significant for reading but for math, there is a positive effect size of .005 SD and an interaction effect of .007 SD
- Low performing white students have an interaction effect of .016 SD in reading and 0.14 SD in math, and black students have an interaction effect of .02 SD in reading and .027 in math 


results of own-race teachers on student achievement study

- Even though the effect sizes appear to be small, they only represent the change from one year. As a result, they can be compounded over time to create a significant impact for policy makers 
- recruitment of minority teachers are helpful in closing the achievement gap by serving as role models and/or holding higher expectations for their same-race students

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