Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

In U.S. public schools there are significant inequalities in academic and disciplinary outcomes between students of color and White students (Carter, 2018; Reardon, Robinson-Cimpian, & Weathers, 2015). One contributor to the inequitable academic and behavioral outcomes facing children of color is these students’ lack of access to teachers who share their ethnoracial backgrounds (Graham, 2011). A significant body of research demonstrates positive outcomes for students of color when they are taught by teachers who share their ethnoracial backgrounds (Dee, 2004; Eddy & Easton-Brooks, 2011; Egalite & Kisida, 2017; Egalite, Kisida, & Winters, 2015; Gershenson, Hart, Lindsay, & Papageorge, 2017; Joshi, Doan, & Springer, 2018; Lindsay & Hart, 2017).

Although we know a great deal about the ways that teachers of color can reduce inequalities in outcomes for students of color, there remain several significant gaps in our understanding. First, we know little about the impacts of teachers of color on outcomes for students of color in the setting where the disparity between the racial composition of students and teachers is most severe: large urban school districts. Second, we know little about the impacts of same-race teachers on outcomes for Asian and Latinx students, despite the fact that these groups students comprise a large and growing percentage of U.S. public school students (Hussar & Bailey, 2018).

This study fills these gaps, using ten years of data on students and teachers in New York City to answer the following research question:

Does assignment to a same-race teacher improve student academic and disciplinary outcomes for Asian, Black, and Latinx students in a large urban school district?

Data for the analysis are drawn from deidentified personnel and student outcome files provided by the New York City Department of Education. These files span the ten years 2007-08 through 2016-17, and allow the linking of grades 3-8 students with teachers in each year. We use standard procedures (outlined by Egalite et al., 2015) to link each student with a single math or reading teacher in each year, and student fixed effects to compare outcomes for students in years these students were assigned same-race teachers to outcomes for these same students in years when they were not assigned such a teacher.

Preliminary results show a positive effect of assignment to a same-race teacher on math test scores, primarily among Asian and Black students. In reading, we find negative same-race effects on reading scores for Latinx students. In terms of discipline, we find that assignment to a same-race teacher reduces the likelihood of out-of-school suspension for Black, but not Asian or Latinx, students.

With urban districts increasingly devoting funds and other resources to recruiting and supporting more diverse teacher workforces (Bireda & Chait, 2011; Superville, 2015), findings of this study will assist large urban districts, and other districts with large percentages of Asian, Black, and Latinx students, target their teacher recruitment and retention efforts at those teachers that can most effectively reduce inequalities in outcomes for students of color.