Do students perform better academically with teachers of their own race? Some people think so, but on the other hand there's evidence:
A recent study has disproved the widespread belief that teachers of the same race as their students will result in better instructional effectiveness due to shared cultural understanding, role modeling, and mentoring on behalf of the teacher. Published in the journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly, the study concluded that were “null effects of student-teacher racial or ethnic matching on academic achievement, social-emotional behavior, or executive functioning.”
In an article for USA Today, the authors of the study also conclude that “preliminary work finds that matching’s effects may be specific to whether teachers attended historically black colleges and universities, regardless of their ethnicity.” The effects of matching are also seen more on “subjective measures like classroom behavior than on objective measures of academic achievement,” a pointed response to widespread fixation on those subjective measures.
The study should not come as a surprise — verified teaching methods are what should be used to improve student outcomes, not race.
The article then mentioned two examples of school which considered laying off teachers by race rather than experience.
Unfortunately, these appeals to “representation” are self-sabotaging: Studies show that teacher experience can decrease student absenteeism, provide mentorship for less- experienced teachers, and, yes, standardized test scores.
A new progressive narrative that teachers need to look like their students to better understand and help them sounds appealing at first, but identity politics sacrifices students and their futures.
It amazes me that anyone could think anything different, but obviously plenty of people do.
3 comments:
The fact that Asians somehow succeed without teachers of their own race, and often in schools where many/most kids of other ethnicities (often black and Hispanic) fail, is not often mentioned. My four kids attended 8 different schools, in large districts in three states, and only encountered ONE Asian teacher (Filipino). The Asian students were mostly Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean.
Well, duh. When it comes to education, Asians are "white adjacent".
The left is truly the master of creating imaginary terms that support their kooky world view.
A recent study has disproved the widespread belief
Where is the survey backing up the claim that it's a widespread belief?
I would like to see a similar report on whether or not male teachers in elementary school have a positive effect. That would be at least plausible since since many of the boys from low SES families haven't seen what a real man looks like.
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