A Teacher Similar to Me: The Role of Student-Teacher Race (Poster 7)

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Research on race congruence has found that students taught by same-race teachers exhibit higher academic performance, better behavior, greater school attendance, and increased social-emotional skill development. However, given the small percentage of teachers of color relative to the larger proportion of students of color and the geographical distribution of racially diverse teachers and students, it is unlikely that all students can be paired with a same-race teacher. In this study, we examine an alternative – pairing racially-minoritized students with other racially-minoritized teachers that are not of the same race, which we refer to as race-similarity. Research from political science and public affairs, motivated by the rainbow coalition framework, suggest that racial minorities often support one another, yielding better outcomes for traditionally underrepresented minorities even when they are not same-race. Applying the lens of the rainbow coalition framework, we extend the research on race-congruence to understand how student-teacher race-similarity predicts student achievement and social-emotional skills. We use ordinary least squares in combination with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 (ECLS-K:2011), following two nationally representative samples of students starting in Kindergarten and throughout their elementary school career. Preliminary results do not suggest any significant overall relationships between teacher-student race similarity and student reading or math scores or social-emotional skills. However, when disaggregated by individual race-similar pairings, we find that Black students taught by Asian teachers score better in measures of self-control and externalizing problem behavior.

Authors

• Adam Kho, University of Kentucky

• Tong Tong, University of Southern California