Effects of Teacher and Student Race Congruence on Engagement in Ninth-Grade Mathematics

• In Event: Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: High School Students of Color and STEM Education

Abstract

Racial diversity among American students steadily increased in past decades. However, the pipeline of teachers of color into the workforce has stagnated. This paper investigated the relationship between teacher race and student classroom engagement. Our analyses treat racial congruence as a proxy for cultural congruence with the awareness that shared cultural understanding between teachers and students may improve student engagement. Data were drawn from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 which contains nationally representative information on more than 21,000 students. We employed multivariate analyses, modeling effects teacher race on engagement, controlling on student and teacher background characteristics. We found teacher race congruence was significantly related to engagement for black students only. Implications for policy and further research are discussed.

Authors

• Will J. Jordan, Temple University

• Crystal Menzies, Temple University

• Julia Camille Ransom, Temple University

• Briana L. Chang, Temple University