The Long-Run Impacts Of Same-Race Teachers Essay

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According to the peer-reviewed article "The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers", "We find that Black students randomly assigned to at least one Black teacher in grades K–3 are 9 percentage points (13 percent) more likely to graduate from high school. They are 6 percentage points (19 percent) more likely to enroll in college than their same-school, same-cohort Black peers who are not assigned a Black teacher." Teachers' effects on students of the same race has been a topic that has been studied for a long time. This is a topic many scholars want to understand how and why race can affect a student's educational outcome. Through the research done, this paper will explain how students educationally benefit from teachers of the same and how …show more content…

Teachers and students of the same race aid the students in having better behavioral outcomes. According to Seth Gershenson a Professor of Public Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University and Cassandra Hart an associate professor of education policy, "The potential power of demographic role models in the classroom—who can influence students' understanding of their choice sets and behaviors—is evidenced by a recent experiment in which exposure to a charismatic and successful female economics major increased female students' enrollment in economics". This experiment can be useful to help understand the impact of teachers on students' behaviors and actions in an academic setting. Teachers with similar racial backgrounds to students can influence behavior and set expectations higher than a teacher of a different race. Furthermore, Anna J. Egalite an Associate Professor at North Carolina State University, Dr. Kisida an Assistant Professor at the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, and Marcus A. Winters an associate professor at Boston University found, "Using panel data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, Dee (2005) found that the odds that a teacher will report a student as inattentive are 33% higher when the teacher and student do not share a common race/ethnicity." Beyond this many teachers gave poorer evaluations of students due to their race or ethnicity (Egalite et al.). By having more racially diverse teachers we can help students achieve and pursue success. Integrating this diversity is also important for white students because it allows the students to understand and value equal and fair opportunities for themselves and their peers. These pieces of evidence support that students' test scores are positively skewed when a teacher shares the same race and culture with the student. While test scores are important they are not