Effects of Teacher-Student Ethnoracial Matching and Overall Teacher Diversity in Elementary Schools on Educational Outcomes

ABSTRACT

The United States is facing culture gaps between students and teachers in schools. Although the U.S. school-age population is racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse, the teachers are predominantly White. This article investigates whether assignment to same-race teachers affects students’ math and reading achievement growth in early elementary grades. The article also examines if overall teacher diversity in schools moderates the relationship between student-teacher ethnoracial match and achievement growth. This study finds that assignment to same-race teachers has no effect on minority students’ math and reading achievement growth between kindergarten and 3rd grade. However, the overall teacher diversity in school does affect whether minority teachers are effective educators for minority students. This interactive effect is significant for math and reading achievement growth among Hispanic students. Hispanic teachers are most effective as educators for Hispanic students when these teachers also teach in schools with greater teacher diversity. Hispanic teachers are least effective as educators for Hispanic students when these teachers work in schools with low teacher diversity.

KEYWORDS:

• Growth models
• math and reading achievement
• student-teacher ethnoracial matching
• teacher diversity

Notes

1. The study excludes 5th and 8th grades from the sample because school administrators were no longer asked to provide information regarding the proportion of teachers belonging to different racial and ethnic categories in their schools. As a result, the key independent variable “teacher diversity” could not be created for grades 5 and 8 from the ECLS-K data set.

2. Teachers were asked to participate in the ECLS-K survey based on the fact that they were teaching the students in the sample. It must be noted that the ECLS-K sampled students and not teachers. Also, teacher diversity at the school level and racial mismatch at the classroom level are measured at the student level unit. In regard to teacher-student racial mismatch variable, not all students in a classroom get a singular value in general. In case of the school level diversity measure, however, all students of a school are assigned a single value, and this value varies across schools. Because the focus of this article is on analyzing student learning and not making conclusions about teacher workforce in classrooms and schools, the ECLS-K sample is particularly suitable in examining roles of teacher diversity in schools and teacher-student ethnoracial mismatch in classrooms in student learning.

3. Scaled variables are imputed with the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method because we have an arbitrary missing data pattern (Schafer, 1997). Categorical variables are imputed with a logistic regression method.

4. This can be illustrated through an example. One school has two groups of teachers: 40% of them are African American, whereas the rest are White. The Diversity Index for this school is 0.48. Another school with 25% African American teachers and 75% White teachers has a lower Diversity Index at 0.45.

5. The category racially uniform consists of mostly schools that have 100% White teachers. All schools where the proportion of minority teacher ranged between 50% and 99.9% are included under the category majority-minority.

6. The growth models control for student’s English language status.