- 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 


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

impacts of the own-race teachers on student achievement study

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

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Persistent and significant gaps in academic performance and/or educational attainment between white and minority students.

Race Achievement Gap

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.

This article focusses on research about racial and ethnic patterns in school sanctions and considers how disciplinary practices might contribute to achievement among students of color (focussed on Black, Latino and American Indian students). 

Discipline Gap and the Race Achievement Gap 

There is a statistically significant difference that can be labeled the racial achievement gap between white and African-American students. Whether it is the graduation rate of high schools or standardized test scores, the educational outcomes tend to be in favor of white students. This article suggests that part of the reason for this achievement gap is that the intervention from teachers for struggling students tends to be in favor of white students while African-American students are rarely noticed. 

Politics of the Black-White Achievement Gap

This study examined whether having African-American student (seventh to eighth grade), write essays affirming their personal values, improves their academic performance. These subtle interventions would lessen minority students' psychological threat related to being negatively sterotyped in school. 
Ending results show that over 2 years, the grade point average of African Americans was on average, raised by .24 grade points, and those who were low-achieving, benefited the most, improving their average .41 points. 

Recursive Processes in Self-Affirmation: Intervening to Close the Minority Achievement Gap 

The goal of this study is to improve minority students' performance and to better understand how psychological threats can undermine self-integrity, leading to poor academic performance. Researchers tested whether psychological threats can be lessened by reaffirming self-integrity, thus improving academic performance amongst negatively stereotyped minority students. 

Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention- Goals of Study

- The study analyzed underrepresented racial minority students (URM)'s grades over 2 years in comparison to white/asian students 
- They found that a multicultural approach to diversity ideologies help to improve URMs grades (and does not affect white/asian students), and thus helps to close the racial achievement gap 
- main takeaway-colleges cannot simply acknowledge diversity and inclusion-the specific way that they go about it matters 

multiculturalism vs colorblind diversity ideology-reducing the racial achievement gap 

One research study looked at the different kinds of achievement gaps that were present in science classes, such as gender and minority gaps. A sample of students were studied based on their demographic (gender, ethnicity, SES). Through an assessment that involved testing students based on their knowledge of physics, biology, chemistry, and earth science, this study tried to identify the how and why behind these achievement gaps and to see if teacher involvement could mitigate said gaps. 

Gender and Minority Achievement Gaps in Science in Eighth Grade- Summary

Growing concern surrounding the framing of the "achievement gap" stems from the unintended consequences that result from the use of the term. In the context of race, it can imply that white achievement is the norm. It also focuses on student performance rather than on structures of racial inequality, and thus may lead to perpetuation of racial stereotypes regarding intellect/work ethic. This framing may lead people to deprioritize the issue of the achievement gap, as well as to short-term solutions that do not target the root of the problem, due to framing effects associated with the term.

Issues with language in context of Racial Achievement Gap

Using OLS and regression models, Xu & Jaggars found that students' performance and persistence in online courses were overall worse in comparison to in-person classes. Data analysis of students enrolled at Washington State (p=40,000) found that:
- Previously existing disparities and achievement gaps found between student subgroups were exacerbated; students that were male, African American, or low-performing would continue to perform worse in an online setting.
- The degree of difference in performance varied by major, with some majors (i.e English) being more negatively impacted by being online when compared to other majors (i.e natural sciences)

Online vs In-Person Learning - Xu & Jaggars

STEM faculty who believe ability is fixed have larger racial achievement gaps and inspire less student motivation in their classes

This paper looks at the problematic trend of students that come from underrepresented minorities (URM) or are a first-generation college student (FG) who tend to give up on courses of science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). It then goes on to explain not only the factors that lead to a lack of motivation in succeeding in these classes but potential interventions that could mitigate these problems, leading to success. The research study discussed in this article looks at how these interventions are used in a biology course with students of various backgrounds (minority, majority, first-generation or not, and combinations of both racial and social backgrounds) to see what the results are (in the form of class grades) from using the interventions to address lack of motivation.

Closing Gaps with A Utility-Value Intervention: Disentangling Race and Social Class

The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement study 

Goal-setting intervention decreases the gap between ethnic minorities and majorities. 

The effects of goal-setting on the ethnic minority achievement gap 

- This study looked at the impact of spacing and self-testing on final student outcomes for both URM and non-URM students
- URMs were less likely to employ self-testing which might contribute to the achievement gap 
- The intervention helped to close the self-testing gap for URMs in one of the years that they completed the study 
- Reported self-testing and spacing did better, but especially those who continued to use the practice over the entire course period, meaning that these techniques need to be consistently practiced 


Spacing and Self-testing impact on URM students study

Social identity threat’s contribution to racial achievement gaps in schools depends on the context of the school. For high-potential-threat-context schools, the effect of social identity threat is about 12.5%. This means that social identity threat makes up significant portion of the reason for a race achievement gap in high-potential-threat-context schools.

Social Identity Threat and Race Achievement Gap Relationship

Marginalized students were found to have lower GPAs in high-potential-threat-context schools than their counterparts in low-potential-threat-context schools. 

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