Student-Teacher Ethnoracial Matching and Postsecondary Outcomes: Evidence From New York City

• In Event: Student-Teacher Ethnoracial Match, Teacher Training, and Student Academic and Disciplinary Outcomes in New York City

Abstract

Objective
Few studies have explored whether assignment to teachers in high school that share students’ ethnoracial backgrounds is associated with changes to the likelihood of college enrollment. In the only study to examine the long-term impacts of student-teacher ethnoracial match, Gershenson, Hart, Lindsay, & Papageorge (2017) find that assignment to a Black teacher in grades 3-5 increases the college aspirations of low-income black students. However, this study does not explore actual college outcomes. To build understanding of the contributors to inequality in outcomes for youth of color, and to set direction for policy related to these children’s teachers, this study uses data on students and teachers in New York City to answer the following research question:

Is assignment to a same-race teacher in high school associated with an increased likelihood of college enrollment for Black and Latinx students in New York City?

Methods
Data. We use data from the New York City Department of Education and postsecondary enrollment and performance data from CUNY’s administrative data for students who enroll at any of CUNY’s 18 two- or four-year institutions from NYC public schools. Our data covers from 2013 to 2018, and allows for the linking of students with teachers in each year. For students, the files include all students in non-charter schools in grades 9-12 each year, and include year-by-year information on student attendance information (days absent from school); disciplinary information (whether students were suspended from school and the length and severity of those suspensions); course taking, and graduation.
Empirical Methodology. To measure the likelihood of college enrollment for students who had a teacher of color in high schools in New York City we use linear probability models. The linear probability model provides the descriptive relationship between the number of teachers in secondary school and the likelihood of college enrollment.
Yist= Bo+ B1 Number of teachers of color +B2Xist +B4Sit +thetat + eist
In this equation, the outcome is the likelihood of college enrollment. The primary predictor is the number of teachers of color in secondary school in a given school s in a given year t for student i. We include a vector of demographic characteristics and academic performance variables. We include race, gender, free and reduced price lunch status, poverty level in the census tract of residence, and whether a student is born in the United States. Academic performance variables are student grade point average in high school (GPA), average annual student attendance rate in high school, and student pass rates on the NYS Regents exams. We include year and school fixed effects and cluster standard errors at the school level.

Scholarly Significance
This is one of the first papers to measure the relationship between student- teacher ethnoracial match and students’ postsecondary outcomes. Given the prior research that demonstrates the positive impact of ethnoracial match on both academic and behavioral outcomes for students in K-12 settings, this study provides new evidence of the importance of teachers of color with respect to postsecondary outcomes.

Authors

• Tolani Britton, University of California - Berkeley

• Travis J. Bristol, University of California - Berkeley

• Matthew Shirrell, The George Washington University