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Representation in the classroom: The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement

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... Επομένως, οι παιδαγωγοί διαδραματίζουν σημαντικό ρόλο στην καλλιέργεια του πολιτισμικού γραμματισμού των παιδιών, αφού πρέπει να τα βοηθήσουν να κατανοήσουν το μεγάλο εύρος των διαφορετικών πολιτισμών (Egalite et al., 2015;Delano-Oriaran, 2012) και να τους ενσταλάξουν έναν βαθιά ριζωμένο σεβασμό και εκτίμηση για την ποικιλομορφία που τα περιβάλλει, αποφεύγοντας να προσεγγίσουν την διαφορετικότητα με έναν πραγματολογικό ή επιφανειακό τρόπο. Άλλωστε, όπως είναι γνωστό, οι παιδαγωγικές προσεγγίσεις που εφαρμόζουν οι παιδαγωγοί έχουν αντίκτυπο στον τρόπο με τον οποίο τα παιδιά αντιλαμβάνονται και αλληλεπιδρούν με τον κόσμο (Salmona et al., 2015), ενώ στην προκειμένη περίπτωση αναπόφευκτα διαμορφώνεται από τον βαθμό του πολιτισμικού γραμματισμού που ίδιοι έχουν. ...
... Η ενσωμάτωση του πολιτισμικού γραμματισμού στην παιδαγωγική πράξη αποτελεί μια ουσιαστική και καλά σχεδιασμένη προσπάθεια, η οποία απαιτεί από τους παιδαγωγούς να υιοθετήσουν μια σειρά από κατάλληλες παιδαγωγικές πρακτικές. Στόχος αυτών των πρακτικών είναι να βοηθήσει τα παιδιά πρώιμης παιδικής ηλικίας να γίνουν δεκτικά στον ποικιλόμορφο κόσμο που υπάρχει γύρω τους (Egalite, 2015;Foti et al., 2022;Salmona et al., 2015). Πιο συγκεκριμένα, στο επίκεντρο αυτών των παιδαγωγικών πρακτικών βρίσκεται η δημιουργία ενός περιβάλλοντος χωρίς αποκλεισμούς, όπου κάθε παιδί θα βλέπει την αντανάκλαση του δικού του πολιτισμού και των άλλων. ...
... Η συνεργασία με συναδέλφους για την ανάπτυξη δραστηριοτήτων που ενσωματώνουν τους πολιτισμούς όλων των παιδιών, η δημιουργία ευκαιριών για τα παιδιά και τις οικογένειές τους να μοιραστούν το πολιτισμικό τους υπόβαθρο, η ενσωμάτωση στοιχείων από άλλους πολιτισμούς στο παιδαγωγικό πρόγραμμα και η τροποποίηση των δραστηριοτήτων ώστε να είναι προσιτές για όλους τους πολιτισμούς των παιδιών, εφαρμόζονται σε ένα μέτριο επίπεδο από τους παιδαγωγούς. Οι πρακτικές αυτές υποδηλώνουν μια προσέγγιση προσανατολισμένη στην κοινότητα, εκτιμώντας την ποικιλομορφία ως σημαντικό εργαλείο για τον εμπλουτισμό της παιδαγωγικής εμπειρίας (Egalite, et al., 2015;Markowitz et al., 2020). Ωστόσο, οι μέτριες βαθμολογίες μπορεί επίσης να αναδεικνύουν προκλήσεις που αντιμετωπίζουν οι παιδαγωγοί, όπως για παράδειγμα υλικοτεχνικοί περιορισμοί ή έλλειψη υποστηρικτικού θεσμικού πλαισίου. ...
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Στις μέρες μας, ο πολιτισμικός γραμματισμός, δηλαδή η ικανότητα κατανόησης και εκτίμησης της πολυπλοκότητας των διαφορετικών πολιτισμών αποτελεί αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι για την ευημερία όλων των σύγχρονων κοινωνιών. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό, αναγνωρίζεται όλο και περισσότερο η σημασία του ως απαραίτητο συστατικό της αγωγής των μικρών παιδιών, καθώς συμβάλλει στην καλλιέργεια συμπεριληπτικών και ενσυναισθητικών αξιών και στάσεων. Για τον λόγο αυτό, οι παιδαγωγοί που εργάζονται σε δομές αγωγής και φροντίδας στην πρώιμη παιδική ηλικία, θα πρέπει να φροντίζουν όχι μόνο για τη μετάδοση γνώσεων στα παιδιά σχετικά με τους διαφορετικούς πολιτισμούς, αλλά και για την διαμόρφωση ολόκληρης της κοσμοθεωρίας τους, αφού βρίσκονται σε ένα κρίσιμο αναπτυξιακό στάδιο κατά το οποίο διαμορφώνονται θεμελιώδεις αξίες και στάσεις. Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τα παραπάνω, η παρούσα εργασία αποσκοπεί στη διερεύνηση του τρόπου με τον οποίο οι παιδαγωγοί αντιλαμβάνονται τον πολιτισμικό γραμματισμό και τον ενσωματώνουν στην παιδαγωγική διαδικασία. Για την επίτευξη του σκοπού αυτού, κατασκευάστηκε ένα ερωτηματολόγιο που απευθυνόταν σε παιδαγωγούς πρώιμης παιδικής ηλικίας και συνδύαζε την ποσοτική (κλειστού τύπου ερωτήσεις και ερωτήσεις τύπου Likert) και την ποιοτική ανάλυση (ανοιχτού τύπου ερωτήσεις). Τα δεδομένα που συλλέχθηκαν αναλύθηκαν με τη χρήση του SPSS για τα ποσοτικά στοιχεία και της θεματικής ανάλυσης για τα ποιοτικά. Τα ευρήματα της μελέτης, προσφέρουν πολύτιμες γνώσεις για τους υπεύθυνους χάραξης πολιτικής και τους παιδαγωγούς, τονίζοντας τη σημασία του πολιτισμικού γραμματισμού στην ανάπτυξη μιας πιο περιεκτικής και πολιτισμικά ευαισθητοποιημένης γενιάς παιδιών, ενώ παράλληλα αναδεικνύουν τις παιδαγωγικές πρακτικές που εφαρμόζονται στις δομές αγωγής και φροντίδας για την καλλιέργειά της.
... Previous research demonstrates that racial/ethnic differences between teachers and students could be one of the mechanisms transmitting educational inequalities through biased views, limited information, or incorrect beliefs (Anderson, Fryer, and Holt 2006;Hart 2020;Hoxby and Turner 2013;Merolla and Jackson 2019). Several studies provide evidence that exposure to same-race teachers may improve students' academic achievement (Dee 2004;Egalite, Kisida, and Winters 2015). Gershenson et al. (2017) also find evidence of long-term benefits for Black students when attributed to a Black teacher, after following five cohorts of third grade through high school students. ...
... And when it comes to performance, Redding's (2019) review describes that the few studies that look at the overall relationship of having a teacher of the same race/ethnicity indicate a small, positive effect. In an analysis of more than eight million observations by Florida students, Egalite, Kisida, and Winters (2015) found an overall racial/ethnic matching effect of 0.002 standard deviations in reading and 0.008 standard deviations in mathematics. Clotfelter, Ladd, and Vigdor (2007) show evidence of slightly larger effects (in elementary school), with effects ranging from 0.007 to 0.020 in reading and 0.017 to 0.029 in mathematics. ...
... Most empirical evidence suggests that student-teacher identification mainly benefits students from social and ethnic minorities, since these groups are commonly marginalized in society, making the inspiration effect even stronger (Boser 2014;Egalite, Kisida, and Winters 2015;Gershenson, Holt, and Papageorge 2016). ...
... One important consideration for ECE practice and policy, highlighted by the results of the current study, is the importance of representation among teachers. Egalite et al. (2015) found that when students were paired with teachers who have a similar racial/ethnic background, the teachers were more likely to be seen as role models and mentors. Egalite et al. (2015) also found that racial/ethnic match predicted better outcomes for students in (0.001 SD) reading and (0.008 SD) math. ...
... Egalite et al. (2015) found that when students were paired with teachers who have a similar racial/ethnic background, the teachers were more likely to be seen as role models and mentors. Egalite et al. (2015) also found that racial/ethnic match predicted better outcomes for students in (0.001 SD) reading and (0.008 SD) math. Although this study was done in elementary school-age children, it holds relevance for early education children. ...
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A growing number of early childhood education (ECE) programs are using trauma-informed trainings to support teachers in better managing children’s trauma-related challenging behaviors. However, there is not a great deal of research on how effective these programs are for improving children’s school-related outcomes. This study examines whether a 6-hour trauma-informed training provided to preschool teachers was related to children’s child expulsion risk, teacher perception of child behavior, and student-teacher relationships. Seventy-four teachers from 7 elementary schools in the Mountain West region received a six-hour trauma-informed training over three months. Children’s school-related outcomes were collected through teacher report in pre- and post-training surveys. Linear growth modeling was used to estimate change in children’s outcomes over time, adjusting for child gender and student-teacher racial/ethnic match. There were significant decreases in child disruption, a subscale of expulsion risk, and improvements in student-teacher closeness following training; no other child outcomes changed significantly. More evidence-based research is needed to support or refute whether trauma-informed training is effective and promotes positive child outcomes.
... *p ≤ .05. Figure 3. Results of the latent multiple-group moderated mediation model. motivated by instructors who are similar not only in terms of demographic characteristics such as gender and race/ ethnicity (e.g., Andersen & Reimer, 2019;Bettinger & Long, 2005;Dee et al., 2004;Egalite et al., 2015), but also in terms of learning-related attitudes and mindset beliefs (Varela et al., 2015;Yeager et al., 2022), it is conceivable that female students (with an immigrant background) would be more attuned to the mindset beliefs signaled by female STEM instructors (with an immigrant background) particularly when they are in line with their own mindset beliefs. However, the evidence on student-teacher similarity in terms of gender and immigrant background is mixed, with some studies showing advantages (Andersen & Reimer, 2019;Egalite et al., 2015), others disadvantages (Höhne et al., under review), and yet others no effects (Neugebauer et al., 2011(Neugebauer et al., , 2022. ...
... motivated by instructors who are similar not only in terms of demographic characteristics such as gender and race/ ethnicity (e.g., Andersen & Reimer, 2019;Bettinger & Long, 2005;Dee et al., 2004;Egalite et al., 2015), but also in terms of learning-related attitudes and mindset beliefs (Varela et al., 2015;Yeager et al., 2022), it is conceivable that female students (with an immigrant background) would be more attuned to the mindset beliefs signaled by female STEM instructors (with an immigrant background) particularly when they are in line with their own mindset beliefs. However, the evidence on student-teacher similarity in terms of gender and immigrant background is mixed, with some studies showing advantages (Andersen & Reimer, 2019;Egalite et al., 2015), others disadvantages (Höhne et al., under review), and yet others no effects (Neugebauer et al., 2011(Neugebauer et al., , 2022. ...
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We examined how undergraduate STEM students’ ( N = 389) perceptions of their instructors’ beliefs that intelligence is malleable ( growth mindsets) or unchangeable ( fixed mindsets) influence their uncertainty about belonging and, in turn, their dropout intentions. Taking an intersectional research perspective, we focused on students’ gender and immigrant background to better understand the distinct and combined impact of these social categories on students’ academic experiences. Our results show that male students who perceived their instructors to hold more fixed mindsets reported fewer dropout intentions. In contrast, female students’ dropout intentions were unaffected by their perceived instructors’ mindset beliefs. Belonging uncertainty predicted students’ dropout intentions regardless of their gender and immigrant background, but did not serve as a mediator in the relationship between perceived instructors’ mindset beliefs and dropout intentions. Overall, our findings suggest the predominance of students’ gender in the examined context rather than definitive evidence of intersectional effects with their immigrant background.
... However, even as the PK-12 U.S. student population grows increasingly diverse, the teaching force has remained stagnant regarding cultural, racial, and linguistic diversity (Egalite et al., 2015), wherein 80% of teachers are white (NCES, 2019) compared to less than 50% of U.S. students (NCES, 2019;Schaeffer, 2021). Bolstered by mounting evidence that this teacher/student cultural mismatch contributes to gaps in academic achievement for diverse students, the proximate need to develop teachers who are culturally responsive and agentive has never been greater (Carter Andrews, 2021;Gershenson et al., 2022;Yarnell & Bohrnstedt, 2018). ...
... Though culturally responsive literacy teaching, centering students' varied and intersecting cultural identities as classroom assets to embolden literacy and academic success (Darling-Hammond & DePaoli, 2020;Ladson-Billings, 1995), is a promising pedagogical practice, literacy teachers must be intentionally trained in and implement humanizing, asset-based pedagogies to realize the positive impacts of this work (Kwok et al., 2020(Kwok et al., , 2022Rios et al., 2024). Without intentional, immersive training and tools that center diverse identities and cultures across teaching and curriculum, continued negative impacts on student outcomes and teacher success are likely (Egalite et al., 2015;Souto-Manning, 2021;Villegas & Irvine, 2010;). ...
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Selecting diverse texts is vital for creating culturally inclusive and responsive literacy classrooms. However, despite growing student diversity and a push for multicultural literature curricular adoption, little impact has been made on secondary teacher multicultural text selection. This text selection stagnation begs further examination amidst the alarming context of a marked reading decline in U.S. classrooms wherein fewer than one-third of students entered high school as proficient readers this year (Nation’s Report Card, 2022). This study uses data from recent high school graduates to unfurl text selection practices in Kansas high school English classrooms. Study results detail Kansas's most frequently taught texts, compare these texts to two previous studies, and suggest a continued homogeneity in text selection. These results demonstrate the need to understand the factors influencing text selection practices and the impact of traditional text selection on students’ engagement, motivation, and learning.
... Racial concordance in education refers to a student's alignment with a teacher of the same race. Race-based alignments help mitigate implicit bias and improve educational outcomes (Egalite et al., 2015). Research across several fields has shown that people tend to show greater favorability toward those they perceive to be in their in-group, even when interacting with children. ...
... Research across several fields has shown that people tend to show greater favorability toward those they perceive to be in their in-group, even when interacting with children. While outcomes in studies of racial concordance or race match in education settings have been mixed, some recent empirical studies on the topic have found that racial concordance improves educational outcomes (see Blake et al., 2016;Carver-Thomas, 2018;Gershenson & Papageorge, 2018;Egalite & Kisida, 2017;Egalite et al., 2015;Rasheed et al., 2020). ...
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Despite ubiquitous calls in existing literature, there are limited research studies on preparing culturally responsive African American female teachers for urban schools serving predominantly African American students. This article reports findings from a case study of two African American female preservice mathematics teachers who were part of a mathematics methods course and practicum field placements within a yearlong initial teacher certification Master of Arts of Teaching program at an urban university in the Southeast region of the United States. Data reveal that after conceptualizing culturally responsive mathematics teaching practices, the participants identified and challenged the devaluing of African American culture as a perennial characteristic of the United States education system. Implications and recommendations for research and practice are explored.
... Likewise, findings in teacher education research showed that the majority of teachers are White females (Guarino et al., 2006;Redding & Baker, 2019). These findings are relevant as some studies have suggested beneficial effects of samerace teachers and role models on students from minority backgrounds (Egalite et al., 2015;Szecsi & Spillman, 2012). Furthermore, there is scarce research about mindfulness that represents people of diverse ethnicity, disability, religion, socio-economic status or sexual orientation (Chin et al., 2019;Iacono, 2019). ...
... Due to the safety and relief felt when finding others who shared aspects of their identity, participants emphasised the importance of connecting with group members or leaders who shared similar demographic characteristics to themselves (Egalite et al., 2015;Hardy, 2013). Many called for a more balanced representation of the wider population, noting the "Whiteness" of these programs (Kenny et al., 2020;Redding & Baker, 2019). ...
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Objectives There is a growing recognition of the importance of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in mindfulness-based Teacher Training Programs (TTPs), given current imbalances in representation of teachers and trainers, and a recognised need to build awareness of personal and organisational biases. Little is known about how EDI issues may impact the experience of trainees on a TTP. This study aimed to explore underrepresented trainees’ experiences on a TTP, including what hindered or helped them access training or feel included, and their views on how best to foster EDI in TTPs. Method Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with seven current and graduate mindfulness teacher trainees from underrepresented groups. Their experiences of EDI throughout training were explored. Data was analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Results Key findings were that feelings of inclusion were influenced by how represented and acknowledged trainees felt by their trainers and peers; feelings of safety influenced their choices around disclosure; a main access barrier was cost; and more explicit teaching about EDI in TTP curricula is needed. There was a need for wider access to entry trainings such as 8-week mindfulness-based programmes. Conclusions This study provides valuable insight into how underrepresented teacher trainees experience TTPs and highlights opportunities to better support mindfulness teacher trainees. TTPs need to integrate EDI awareness and understanding into their ethos and curriculum. Further research is needed to inform and develop approaches to further embed EDI in mindfulness-based program teaching and training.
... International evidence suggests that exposure to teachers from a similar race/ethnicity can have a positive impact on the academic achievement of ethnic minority students (e.g., Egalite et al., 2015;Gershenson et al., 2022;Harbatkin, 2021). Ethnic minority pupils with teachers from similar ethnic backgrounds are less likely to be excluded (Grissom et al., 2009;Lindsay & Hart, 2017) and suspended from school (Wright, 2015) or to drop out (Gershenson et al., 2022). ...
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This paper reports on the findings of a comprehensive structured review of the factors that can help explain and perhaps improve the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority teachers in schools. This issue has been a policy concern in several countries. The review followed a conventional protocol, beginning with a search of key educational, psychological and sociological databases, followed by intensive screening and weighting the strength of evidence of each included report. Fifty‐one studies relevant to the research question were finally included in the review. There is strong evidence that the ethnic match between school leaders and teachers is strongly linked to the hiring and retention of minority ethnic teachers. Although there is some evidence that the student ethnicity of the school may be an important factor in the retention of ethnic minority teachers, this chiefly applies to Black teachers in the studies found from the USA. The entry qualifications and assessment criteria for certification to teach were deemed potential barriers to ethnic minority prospective teachers entering teaching. There is no good evidence that alternative certification of teachers increased the probability of ethnic minority teachers being hired or retained, but there are certain supportive features of alternative pathways that could improve their chances.
... This complex relationship is illustrated by Meier et al. (2004), who found that higher standardized test scores by Latinx students in schools with Latinx administrators were largely attributable to greater numbers of Latinx teachers also in these contexts. Researchers have consistently found that students with race/ethnicity-matched teachers perform better in school (e.g., Blazar & Lagos, 2021;Egalite et al., 2015;Redding, 2019). ...
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Each year, SC TEACHER publishes different workforce profiles, sharing details and demographics around South Carolina educators for a better understanding of our public school workforce. Among these publications, this report is the first to examine the state’s school administrator workforce.
... Specifically, some research shows students tend to perform better when taught by a teacher of the same gender. More significantly, a substantial amount of empirical data supports the idea that matches between teacher and student race/ethnicity can lead to significant academic and related gains (e.g., self-efficacy), especially for traditionally underserved populations (e.g., Banerjee, 2018;Blazar & Lagos, 2021;Egalite et al., 2015;Redding, 2019). These findings also led us to include an analysis of teacher gender and race/ ethnicity in the report. ...
Technical Report
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SC TEACHER’s research mission includes publishing yearly reports that detail the South Carolina educator workforce, sharing insights with educators themselves, policymakers, community members, and other stakeholders. This report is an annual review of the state's public school teacher workforce.
... Undergirding the concern of Li and Koedel (2017) is one of the most consistent findings in research on student-teacher interactions at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels: students perform better when exposed to more demographically matched instructors (e.g., see Bettinger and Long, 2005;Carrell et al. 2010;Dee, 2004;Egalite et al. 2015;Fairlie et al. 2014;Gershenson et al. 2022;Gottfried et al. 2022;Hoffman and Oreopoulos, 2009;Lindsay and Hart, 2017;Price, 2010). A subset of this literature at the postsecondary level further shows college students are more likely to complete classes, and majors, in fields when they experience a demographic match with a professor (Bettinger and Long, 2005;Carrell et al. 2010;Fairlie et al. 2014;Price, 2010). ...
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During the 2015–2016 academic year, racial protests swept across college campuses in the U.S. These protests were followed by large university investments in initiatives to promote diversity, which combined with existing diversity dynamics, have helped to shape recent faculty diversity trends. We document diversity trends among faculty in STEM and non-STEM fields since the protests in 2015–2016. We find that recent diversity trends are narrowing the gender gap among faculty in STEM and non-STEM fields, but widening racial-ethnic gaps, especially among Black faculty. A large body of prior research suggests these trends will affect students’ college experiences and how they choose majors.
... One might wonder how these studies emphasise the impact and contribution of teachers of colour and minority teachers to schools. Research consistently demonstrates that students of colour benefit significantly from being taught by teachers of colour, leading to positive outcomes such as improved test scores, increased classroom engagement, and greater enrolment in advanced courses (Blazar, 2021;Darling-Aduana, 2021;Dee, 2004;Egalite et al., 2015;Gershenson et al., 2022;Hart, 2020). This positive impact extends to longterm educational achievements, including higher high school graduation and college attendance rates (Gershenson et al., 2022). ...
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The world map is changing due to waves of immigration, population and demographic changes in mainland Europe and North America. There is a growing need for a more diverse teacher workforce to close the racial and ethnic gap between students and teachers in populations with high diversity. The scholarship discussing integration challenges facing teachers of colour and minority teachers in majoritarian education systems has yet to be exhaustively analysed and synthesised. Moreover, the literature remains fragmented despite numerous studies emphasising the significance of supporting teachers of colour and minority teachers to ensure equity and inclusiveness in majoritarian education systems to better represent the student body. This study reviews the literature through a bibliometric analysis of 387 peer‐reviewed papers on this topic published between 2000 and 2024, followed by a synthesis of the top‐cited papers. First, we emphasised the importance of researching the integration of minority teachers and teachers of colour to understand their contribution to students' thriving and the transformation of education systems towards diversity and inclusion. The quantitative analysis is followed by a systematic qualitative synthesis of the top 18 cited papers. The results highlighted that most research on minority teachers and teachers of colour is from the United States and the United Kingdom. They also highlighted the necessity of revisiting curriculums and enhancing relationships with children to raise awareness about issues of systemic racism, cultural responsiveness and deeper inclusion. Recommendations emphasise addressing systemic racism and enhancing cultural responsiveness. These findings can guide future research, policies and practices to support minority teachers' integration and better represent student diversity. Context and implications Rationale for this study The world map is changing due to waves of immigration, population shift, and demographic changes, highlighting the growing need for a more diverse teaching workforce to close the racial and ethnic gaps between students and teachers in highly diverse populations. However, the scholarship discussing the integration challenges faced by teachers of colour and minority teachers in majoritarian education systems remains fragmented and has yet to be exhaustively analysed and synthesised. Therefore, this paper presents a mixed‐methods systematic review of recent international evidence on the integration of minority teachers and teachers of colour in majoritarian education systems worldwide. Why the new findings matter This research contributes to further insights in the scholarship foci, including identifying several research gaps related to the integration of teachers of colour and minority teachers. Our findings can inform future policies by enhancing understanding of the unique needs and challenges faced by minoritised teachers within various political, social and educational contexts. This knowledge can guide the training, recruitment, mentoring and retention of minority teachers. Additionally, further comparative research on this topic is necessary to enrich knowledge and contribute to diverse models for preparing, recruiting and retaining teachers of colour, thereby enhancing diversity in schools and fostering the success of minority students. Therefore, this study not only enriches our understanding of the current state of research but also sets the stage for future inquiries that could inform more nuanced and effective educational policies and practices worldwide. Implications for educational researchers and policy makers Our research findings offer valuable insights for scholars, policy makers, superintendents and school principals who are committed to conducting future empirical research, systematic reviews or implementing policies for the equitable inclusion of minoritised teachers in majoritarian education systems. These insights aim to promote deep diversity and representation. Key takeaways include: This systematic review identifies a research gap concerning the integration of teachers of colour and minority teachers. Addressing this gap involves understanding their unique needs and challenges within various political, social and educational contexts. There is a need for further comparative research on this topic to enhance knowledge and contribute to developing varied models for preparing, recruiting and retaining teachers of colour, thereby improving diversity in schools and supporting the success of minority students. Future policy design and implementation at both the district and school levels should focus on the training, recruitment, mentoring and retention of minority teachers. This includes identifying positive ecological dynamics at both district and school levels that support the integration of minority teachers and teachers of colour. In today‘s era of digital literacy and artificial intelligence (AI), we recommend researching the applicability, usage and impact of AI programs in enhancing equitable hiring processes. This research should explore how AI can be used to detect early warning signs of exclusion or marginalisation that may contribute to turnover among minority teachers, and how it can facilitate supportive interventions.
... The current teacher pool comprises mostly white women [167,168]. The findings support a need for a shift in the demographics of the teaching profession to better align with scholarship about the importance of teacher match [145,146,169]. Schools and districts intent on enhancing the math classroom experience for Black students should focus their recruitment efforts on hiring and retaining highly qualified Black math teachers. ...
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Drawing on Martin’s Multilevel Framework for Analyzing Mathematics Socialization and Identity Among African Americans this study explores the mechanisms that influence Black students’ decision-making processes related to math course taking in high school. Three years of student transcript data for 1561 Black seniors in a Southern California school district were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses in STATA. The findings reveal factors that impact students’ ability and desire to complete a fourth year of math in high school, interconnected with institutional, structural, identity, and parental factors. One such finding is that accelerated 8th-grade math placement significantly increases the likelihood that a student would enroll in upper-level math coursework, such as “Beyond IM3” courses in high school. The researcher also investigated the influence of the concentration of Black math teachers in a school on the likelihood of a Black student enrolling in a Beyond IM3 math course. The results of this study contribute to an understanding of the limited racial diversity in STEM fields, highlighting the role of math as a major deterrent for Black students’ interest and persistence in STEM. The findings suggest the need for policy and curriculum changes to promote equitable access to advanced math coursework for Black students, especially in the 8th grade. This study also emphasizes the need to address the structural and institutional factors that influence Black students’ decision-making processes related to math course taking in high school.
... The findings diverge from those in previous studies, which have concluded that sharing the same ethnic background as students contributes to diminishing ethnic disparities in education. These studies concluded that the general ethnic match between teachers and students contributes to creating a sense of belonging and promoting the school performance of language minority students (Egalite et al., 2015;Glock & Schuchart, 2020). Although many teachers share an ethnic minority background with their students, they lack sufficient beliefs, knowledge, and strategies for responding to linguistic diversity in education. ...
Article
While previous research has emphasised the crucial role of multilingualism in supporting language minority students’ schooling experiences, little is known about the perspectives of teachers from minoritised backgrounds regarding their encounters with and responses to linguistic diversity in education. This article employs in-depth interviews to investigate ethnic minority teachers’ perceptions regarding minority language use in their multicultural and multilingual educational settings in southwest China. Thematic analysis was applied to identify the main themes across the narratives from 12 ethnic minority teacher participants. The findings show that teachers believed ethnic minority language use contributes to teaching ethnic minority students and interacting with ethnic minority parents. However, teachers held a deficit thinking of minority languages when it came to improving students’ Chinese proficiency and school success. Moreover, teachers believed their ethnic minority status does not necessarily play a role in teaching. Instead, sharing the same languages with ethnic minority students could benefit teaching, which is different from the prior studies concluding that sharing the same ethnic background as the students contributes to the reduction of ethnic disparities in education.
... Teachers of color have a positive effect on the academic achievement of students of color (Bryan & Ford, 2014;Gershenson et al., 2021;Goings & Bianco, 2016), lower incidence of discriminatory discipline and tracking with students of color (Grissom et al., 2015;Hart & Lindsay, 2024;Lindsay & Hart, 2017;Meier, 1984;Redding, 2019;Roch et al., 2010), and are important role models for all students (Cherng & Halpin, 2016;Egalite & Kisida, 2018;Kohli, 2021). Similarly, research on Latinx teachers parallels the overall research regarding the benefits of teachers of color on students (Bartlett & Garcia, 2011;Bristol & Martin-Fernandez, 2019; Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence [CREDE], 2001;Egalite et al., 2015). Valenzuela (2016) highlights the need for and importance of recruiting and retaining Latinx teachers as they are more prone to work in schools that have staffing challenges and have longer tenures than their White counterparts in the same schools. ...
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Developing critical consciousness, the awareness and action against marginalizing and oppressive forces, is a way for future teachers to identify and actively work against the inequities reproduced through traditional schooling. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine how Latinx high school students enrolled in Pathways2Teaching, a grow your own (GYO) teaching program in urban settings in multiple states, express critical consciousness development as they explore the field of education. This study builds upon existing research calling for a more diverse teacher workforce and analyzes how developing critical consciousness can be an effective way for students to conceptualize teaching as an act of social justice. Findings illuminate how a justice focused GYO program has the potential to develop critical motivation, consciousness of racism, inequality, agency and motivation for making a difference in their communities. The implications of this study can be used to inform and support the program design for other grow your own programs.
... Studying Black history has been shown to boost learning motivation and elevate achievement by addressing low self-esteem issues (Irving, 2000;Kempf and Dei, 2020). Furthermore, research highlights that having Black teachers can reduce alienation and expulsion rates among Black students, while increasing their self-esteem and university attendance rates (Egalite et al., 2015;Lindsay and Hart, 2017;Gershenson et al., 2018). The programme's design is based on participatory action research conducted by the University of Alberta, involving over 200 Black parents, community leaders and service providers. ...
... Many parents who come to the U.S. as refugees feel uncomfortable to be active in their children's school(s) (Cureton and Aguinaldo 2023). However, shared racial-ethnic identity assists in making parents feel more comfortable with school staff (Cureton and Aguinaldo 2023;Dee 2004;Egalite et al. 2015;Kleen et al. 2019). Additionally, research has shown that teachers from migrant backgrounds tend to have similar teaching styles, expectations, and practices as the educators that many students from refugee backgrounds are accustomed to expect (Dee and Penner 2017). ...
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This qualitative research project seeks to examine the obstacles faced by educators who come to the U.S. as refugees. The three participants in this study are from Iraq, Sudan, and Turkey. While there are similarities between them, there are also differences in terms of race, sex, and religion. While this work examines practical barriers, such as those related to credentialing, it also considers how these educators negotiate their identity in the workplace. Using labeling theory, the impact of the category of refugee and how that label impacts work life is interrogated. Partially as a result of the labels associated with being a refugee, findings indicate that, for educators from refugee backgrounds, there are significant barriers to credentialing, their knowledge and experience from outside of the U.S. is rarely taken seriously in many workplace environments, and, consequently, a lack of confidence can easily develop. Despite all of this, educators from refugee backgrounds often have extensive experience in education and can more easily connect to diverse student populations and their families. Suggestions for how best to expand the hiring of educators from refugee backgrounds are provided, as well as implications for future research.
... Since HEIs are acknowledged as playing a broader societal role than merely conveying content knowledge (Waghid & Davids, 2022), they are deemed to be well-positioned to foster the integration of students into higher education settings through cultivating communities that exemplify values, serve as role models, embody ethics, demonstrate actions, and promote agency (Obiagu, 2023) are all factors critical to student success. Therefore, deliberate and intentional mechanisms for integration are required to support the socialisation of the underrepresented student populations participating in accounting programmes (Egalite et al., 2015)In the following section, I discuss how socialisation is intrinsically linked to identity, a sense of belonging, and student success. ...
... Teachers are also less able to arouse students' motivation to learn. Teachers still ignore many other things that influence the achievement of learning effectiveness (Egalite et al., 2015;Scheerens, 2015). ...
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One of the factors that influences students' learning motivation is the use of appropriate learning media by teachers because media is a tool to convey the message of the material being taught. This research aims to analyze the effects of using multimedia in the learning process in elementary schools. This research uses quantitative methods with a classroom action research approach. Data sources were taken using questionnaires and oral tests from twenty-one students from one of the elementary schools in Indonesia. All data were analyzed using SPSS 18 software with descriptive analysis (percent). Overall statistical analysis shows that the use of the model Picture and Picture in social learning has shown encouraging results. This fact can be seen from the increase in students' pre-test and post-test scores which were carried out through two learning cycles. Even students show positive learning attitudes such as being happy, enthusiastic, and always active in learning. Therefore, pictures and pictures are one of the alternatives that teachers can use as a solution for social learning which has been considered boring and students get bored quickly.
... More specifically, refugee students assigned to a teacher of their own race, ethnicity, legal or religious identity benefit from a better learning environment and stronger relationships with teachers. Further work has found that student-teacher demographic similarity is related to gains in student achievement (Egalite et al., 2015); more favorable teacher perceptions of student engagement, performance, and ability (Gershenson et al., 2016;Ouazad, 2014); reductions in student absences and suspensions (Holt & Gershenson, 2015); a lower probability of students dropping out of high school (Gershenson et al., 2017); and students feeling more cared for by teachers. ...
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Schools have been deemed as influential institutions for refugee youth. However, refugee students face many challenges adjusting to the US educational system. Drawing on the student engagement framework and situative knowledge, this study highlights the importance of schools to support students to take an active role in their learning, enabling them to shape their own experiences and the social and academic outcomes they want to achieve. Therefore, this study employs a phenomenological approach to examine refugee students’ experiences with schools and the facilitators and barriers for their engagement. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 refugee students who resettled to a Midwest City. Facilitators included a welcoming environment cultivated by educators and shared co-racial and ethnic similarities between school staff and refugee students. Barriers included a lack of English language acquisition, discrimination from educators and students, and unfamiliarity with school-based norms. Recommendations are offered on how to support refugee students to be more engaged within school contexts.
... (2011); Egalite et al. (2015)). Next, we integrated the avatars into the Vizard VR platform (Worldviz), connected them with GPT4 via the OpenAI API, and equipped them with text-tospeech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT) capabilities via the Microsoft Azure API. ...
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Interactions with artificial intelligence (AI) based agents can positively influence human behavior and judgment. However, studies to date focus on text-based conversational agents (CA) with limited embodiment, restricting our understanding of how social influence principles, such as similarity, apply to AI agents (i.e., artificial social influence). We address this gap by leveraging the latest advances in AI (language models) and combining them with immersive virtual reality (VR). Specifically, we built VR-ECAs, or embodied conversational agents that can naturally converse with humans about health-related topics in a virtual environment. Then we manipulated human-agent similarity via gender matching and examined its effects on biobehavioral (i.e., gaze), social (e.g., agent likeability), and behavioral outcomes (i.e., healthy snack selection). We found that discussing health with opposite-gender agents enhanced gaze duration and the likelihood of healthy snack selection. In addition, female participants liked the VR-ECAs more than their male counterparts, regardless of the gender of the VR-ECAs. Finally, participants experienced greater presence while conversing with VR-embodied agents than chatting with text-only agents. Overall, our findings highlight embodiment as a crucial factor in how AI influences human behavior, and our paradigm enables new experimental research at the intersection of social influence, human-AI communication, and immersive virtual reality (VR).
... He shows that assignment to own-race teachers significantly increases Math and reading achievement of both black and white students. Fairlie et al. (2014) and Egalite et al. (2015) confirm ethnicity and race-matching effects using large administrative data for US high schools and community colleges. More recently, Seah (2018) investigates the effect of immigrant teachers on 8th graders in the US and finds no adverse effect of immigrant teachers on the achievement of (native) students. ...
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International migration increases classroom diversity around the world, but little is known about the effect of foreign-origin teachers on students’ academic achievement. This study investigates whether foreign-origin teachers causally affect their students’ academic performance. Exploiting within-student variation in assignment to teachers in Germany, I find that teachers who are immigrants or descendants of immigrants significantly increase the reading comprehension of their students in secondary school, but do not affect their math skills. This study is the first to investigate bilingualism as a potential mechanism and shows that the effect on reading comprehension is driven by bilingual foreign-origin teachers. Given their own experience in language learning, they seem exceptionally well-equipped to teach languages. This study contributes to the scant evidence on the causal relationship between teachers’ foreign origin and students’ academic achievement in light of a large and persistent achievement gap between native and foreign-origin students.
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This chapter discusses the alignments of Black girls' experiences in K-12 and Black women leaders in international education. Qualitative storytelling, in conjunction with literature, case studies, and other scenarios, contextualizes the continuum from the classroom to being an international education leader from the lenses of misogynoir, intersectionality, and pet to threat. The authors center these stories to amplify and humanize the challenges that Black girls and Black women international education leaders face, the impacts, and recommendations for education leaders and human capital practitioners to invoke meaningful change, informing healthier working and learning environments.
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Purpose: This comparative case study focused on high schools in California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia using the lens of Culturally Responsive School Leadership to investigate the actions of school leaders in implementing detracking and asks How do school leaders’ actions regarding detracking fit into the larger framework of Culturally Responsive School Leadership? Research Methods: This study uses a qualitative comparative case study method involving interviews with leadership team members at detracking high schools. Findings: Leaders in all the schools explicitly demonstrated creating inclusive spaces, embracing community assets, and enacting culturally responsive instructional leaders. Leaders at three of the schools explicitly celebrated students’ identities. Leaders at two of the schools suggested they engage in critical self-reflecting aimed at combating biases against minoritized students but did not explicitly mention this self-reflection. Implications for Researchers and Practitioners: Though emergent in nature, these findings add to our collective knowledge about practices in detracking schools that may be beneficial elsewhere and being to fill in gaps in our knowledge about specific detracking conditions over which school leaders have control. These findings also demonstrate a need for researchers, professors of leadership education, and policy makers to support school leaders in becoming culturally responsive and sustaining the practices at the heart of CRSL. Applying this framework allows for a rigorous discussion of leaders’ specific actions along with avenues of detailed consideration for researchers, educators of future school leaders, and policy makers in a coherent manner to create and sustain schools that can serve all children well.
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This paper reviews and synthesizes the extant work on promising practices in recruiting and hiring diverse college faculty in an equitable, inclusive process. First, I discuss the substantial demographic mismatch between faculty, the general working-age population, and undergraduate students. I then discuss the evidence that representational faculty diversity benefits students. I then integrate the literature on promising practices in inclusive faculty recruitment to recommend four strategies: better position advertisements, ongoing, proactive recruitment, thoughtful committee assignment and training, and a more deliberate, deliberative process. I offer multiple tactics within each strategy and urge institutions to adopt and prioritize whatever mix of these and other strategies/tactics makes the most sense for them.
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Observed achievement gaps and underlying opportunity gaps persist in schools in America, despite attempts to fix the problem. This persistence is due, in part, to the fact that there is no single silver bullet of an intervention that addresses the inequities in every school and district. The equity audit process this chapter discusses works by amplifying stakeholder voices to first identify inequitable practices of a given context, then matches interventions and best practices to those identified problem areas, and, finally, creates space for a review process with engaged stakeholders. The proposed methodology includes triangulating data from surveys, focus groups, policy document analysis, and available datasets. While the proposed process considers room for supplemental and nuanced inquiry, the author proposes key areas of investigation. Once data has been collected on these areas, the work continues by implementing best practices and continuing a system of evaluation and refinement.
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Purpose This study investigates the progress of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act 2003, and its associated Chartered Accountancy Profession Sector Code. In doing so, we explore why B-BBEE affirmative action has not yet achieved the Code's representational intentions, including systemic subtleties inhibiting this success. Design/methodology/approach Using semi-structured interviews, we explore the lived experiences of Black aspirant Chartered Accountants (CAs) undertaking articles in global audit firms. The experiences are thematically analysed, embracing a comprehensive theoretical approach that encompasses professional and social closure, as well as boundary work, to adequately understand why affirmative transformational endeavours persistently face uphill tasks. The utilisation of multifaceted theorisation is deemed essential for a more nuanced portrayal of the intricacies inherent in the CA profession in South Africa. Findings The narratives presented by Black aspiring CAs unveil a complex web of exclusionary practices entrenched in institutionalised historical, professional, and social contexts. The multifaceted nature of closures, symbolised by racial, cultural, and linguistic factors, significantly impacts the experiences of Black trainees. The findings furthermore show that deliberate intervention beyond compliance with the Government’s framework is necessary for meaningful transformation. Practical implications The paper brings to the fore the current lived experiences of underrepresented Black CAs in global auditing firms. In doing so, these firms are empowered with incremental knowledge of the prevailing challenges and can thus make tangible improvements towards authentic transformation. Additionally, the results help in tracking the advancements made through affirmative action, acting as a feedback loop for future developments in transformation policy. Originality/value Contributing to the critical accounting literature, our study extends scholarship on the barriers faced by CAs and the limitations in their capacity to challenge these obstacles within global audit firms. We offer practical policy-focused recommendations that, if implemented, can address the complex socio-political realities obstructing the success of affirmative action. By sharing first-hand accounts, our study aims to empower auditing firms and other related stakeholders with actionable insights, enabling them to improve genuine inclusivity and foster equitable representation in the accounting profession.
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Disciplinary action towards racially minoritized students compared to their White peers is disproportionate and these actions often result from teachers’ lived experiences, socialized perceptions, or a homogenous teaching workforce consisting of predominantly White middle-class women with limited social interactions with minoritized communities. We used in-depth semi-structured interviews to explore nine elementary teachers’ perceptions of the relationship between race, culture, and behaviors, and their attributions for racially minoritized students’ challenging behaviors. Findings suggest that teachers often attributed minoritized students’ family circumstances, home environment, and race or culture as contributors to problem behaviors.
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Hispanic students at HSIs need to be able to see faculty that look like them to feel a sense of belonging and to trust they will be culturally and linguistically understood. This chapter explores the historical challenges Latina faculty in higher education have faced, their past experiences, their attempts to cope and survive in a system that has placed many challenges to their success, and how strategic support and mentoring can be implemented and institutionalized to raise the number of Latinas in higher education. Strategic mentoring for Latinas can foster their agency and sense of belonging. The goal is to recruit, retain, and support more Latinas for faculty positions in higher education through creative partnerships with school districts and specifically designed degree pathways and for them to gain tenure at their universities.
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We used structure equation models to examine the career intent of special education teachers serving students with emotional and behavior disorders (EBD). Known factors of special educator attrition, including race and characteristic of students served, were considered in analyzing career intent. A total of 841 special education teachers across the United States completed the survey. Results showed that, although nuanced, teachers serving students with EBD had lower intent to stay in the profession over teachers serving students in other disability categories. Intent was higher for special education teachers of color serving students with EBD, particularly when certain supports (e.g., administrator support, time support, mentor support) were prominent. Implications for specialized supports and practices to retain teachers serving students with EBD are discussed.
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The “Like Me: Diversifying the Educator Workforce” program was developed at Lourdes University to address the disparate proportion of teachers of color in local classrooms as compared to the students of color. To gauge the impact of “Like Me” recruitment efforts, faculty at Lourdes University conducted a qualitative study eliciting information about how students applied to the program, factors that influenced their decision-making, and reasons behind their selection of education as a career. The findings underlined the strong influence that trusted adults play in the recruitment process. Additionally, financial support was an important factor in facilitating enrollment in the program.
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This study investigates the overrepresentation of Black students in special education by looking at the association of race and related variables with referral, identification, and placement. Analyses were performed on a statewide sample of students and teachers to investigate relationships between student, teacher and school demographics, and special education identification and placement. The results find (1) black students assigned to black teachers are less likely to be identified for special services, (2) black students are less likely to be in inclusive placements with increases in white student enrollment, and (3) black students are more likely to be identified for special services and placed in more restrictive settings.
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Menempuh dan memperoleh pendidikan yang layak menjadi hak utama bagi setiap peserta didik, tanpa terkecuali anak berkebutuhan khusus (ABK). Dengan kondisi ini, mereka sangat membutuhkan pendidikan serta pelayanan khusus dalam menempuh pendidikan dengan bantuan guru di Sekolah Luar Biasa (SLB). Kompleks dan tingginya beban kerja sebagai guru yang mengajar di SLB akan berdampak pada perilaku prososial guru. Perilaku prososial guru di SLB didefinisikan sebagai suatu tindakan yang sifatnya sukarela yang bertujuan untuk membantu siswa. Jika guru SLB memiliki tingkat perilaku prososial yang tinggi, tentu akan membantu produktivitas dan jalannya kegiatan di SLB. Efikasi diri dan kegigihan menjadi faktor yang berkontribusi terhadap tinggi rendahnya perilaku prososial yang dimunculkan oleh guru di SLB. Tujuan dilakukannya penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui peran efikasi diri dan kegigihan terhadap perilaku prososial guru di SLB. Jumlah sampel dalam penelitian ini sebanyak 67 orang. Teknik sampling yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah probability sampling. Teknik probability sampling yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini ialah cluster sampling. Analisis data penelitian ini menggunakan teknik regresi berganda dan didapatkan nilai signifikansi sebesar 0,000 dan nilai koefisien determinasi sebesar 0,657. Nilai tersebut menunjukkan bahwa efikasi diri dan kegigihan berperan terhadap perilaku prososial sebesar 65,7%. Koefisien beta terstandarisasi dari kedua variabel bebas menunjukkan nilai positif yang berarti efikasi diri dan kegigihan berkorelasi positif terhadap perilaku prososial. Hal tersebut menunjukkan bahwa efikasi diri dan kegigihan secara bersama-sama berperan pada tingkat perilaku prososial guru di SLB.
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This cross‐national European comparison examined gender representation and stereotypes in mathematics and language textbooks from Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Romania. The results showed that female characters were numerically underrepresented. Female characters were also less often a main character or individually portrayed compared to male characters, but not proportionally to the overall lower number of female characters. Characters in occupational roles were less often female than male, whereas among characters with gender non‐conform characteristics, these were more often female than male in some textbooks. There was no sexual diversity among characters. The differences in gender representation are found within each country, but gender differences were smaller in more gender‐egalitarian countries. If textbooks are to offer the same learning benefits to both boys and girls, students should be equally represented in a diversity of roles and occupations.
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This introduction to the special issue of Multicultural Learning and Teaching —written by the issue’s guest editor—frames the topic of diversifying the educator workforce using the concept of representative bureaucracy. The introduction grounds readers in the history of this highly politicized issue and offers a framework for engaging with the work. The introduction also situates the journal issue’s subsequent articles within this context.
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The course Medical Physiology and Biochemistry (PHSL 2004A) constitutes a mandatory component of the second-year curriculum for students enrolled in the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBCh) and Bachelor of Health Science (BHSc) programmes within the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand. Throughout the pre-COVID-19 pandemic period spanning from 2013 to 2020, the pass rates of students in the PHSL 2004A course have consistently evoked no apprehension or noteworthy concern within the purview of the School of Physiology. However, a marked drop was observed in students’ pass rates in the 2020 cohort that sat the course’s assessments in 2021. Our study determined if students’ programme affiliation, residence status (on-campus or off-campus), admission category, and race affected PHSL 2004A pass rates in 2021. Data from 380 students (218 MBBCh; 162 BHSc) in the 2020 cohort was analysed. An independent sample t-test showed that MBBCh programme students (M = 60.76, SD = 17.21) had higher mean score of 12.70, 95% CI [9.404, 15.990] than BHSc counterparts (M = 47.98, SD = 14.34), 95% CI [9.490, 15.902], t (374), = 7.58, p = < .001, two-tailed, d = .79; demonstrating greater performance. Chi-square test of association showed that students’ residential status did not impact students’ pass rate (χ ² = 2.111, df = 1, N = 376, p < 0.146) albeit 72% of off-campus compared to 65% on-campus students passed the course. Admission category significantly impacted performance: MBBCh and BHSc students admitted in the top 40 category had high mean scores compared to counterparts in admitted in the top rural category and top BC category, respectively. The performance of students in PHSL 2004A was influenced by factors such as programmes affiliation and admission category, whereas residential status did not exhibit a significant impact on academic achievement in the course. However, it is deduced that beyond the influence of admission category and programme affiliation, the transition from conventional face-to-face pedagogical methods to virtual online modalities due to the exigencies of the COVID-19 pandemic may have adversely affected student performance. This negative impact is likely attributable to insufficient readiness and preparation among both learners and educators for the novel instructional approach.
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We are a team of experienced teacher educators working with various licensure programs: teaching English to speakers of other languages, literacy, primary, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In the summer of 2020, as faculty in a college of education in an urban area in upper Midwest, we participated in a grassroots faculty-led initiative around interrogating teaching and learning structures in pursuit of equity and social justice. Following that initiative, we have embarked on a project to increase the recruitment and retention of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) teachers. The team project is cross-institutional and consists of faculty, staff, and leaders from an urban university, a large urban school district, and the local community college. Using improvement science and an equity literacy framework, we explore ways to strengthen our interconnected pipeline to recruit, train, employ, and support BIPOC teachers. With the spirit of collaboration and shared beliefs, we aim to dismantle unjust and inequitable practices and create racially just and sustainable communities for BIPOC students and teachers. This article will share how we operationalize the three pillars of our project (collaboration, shared beliefs, and sustainability) to diversify our teacher preparation programs and increase representation within the teaching community.
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This article examines the role urban high schools play in influencing students’ postsecondary plans. While postsecondary aspirations and attendance have become more universal experiences over time for low-income students in the United States, the kinds of high schools they attend are increasingly heterogeneous in their missions and orientations to college. We know little about how variation among high schools maps onto differences in how students are supported or advised on their postsecondary plans. Drawing on 73 in-depth interviews with high school seniors, counselors, and principals in Philadelphia, I find that school structures tend to compound differences among students related to how they think about the value of college, consider which postsecondary programs fit them best, and seek out guidance from adults. I contrast the strategies of socioeconomically diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged schools on four dimensions: curriculum, counseling, staff and peer networks, and orientation to work. Diverse schools foster exploratory adolescence, orienting students towards open-ended and long-term educational goals. Disadvantaged schools promote expedited adulthood, an approach that prioritizes pragmatic over academic training in hopes of accelerating students’ paths to economic stability and self-sufficiency. These results point to the lasting effects of school segregation and sorting mechanisms that shape students’ long-term educational and career trajectories.
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An equity audit is a data-driven approach to identify and mitigate inequitable student achievement outcomes. Equity audits are a tool K–12 teachers and administrators use to incorporate data into decision-making, identify achievement gaps, and prompt remedial action. The working hypothesis behind equity audits is the existence of a subset of students who could meet high academic standards and produce exceptional work but are prevented from doing so by current resource allocation and andragogic (i.e., adult education) practice. This learning strategy presents a simple, four-step process to address inequitable student outcomes: find a goal, gather data, uncover root causes, and enact change. Data Availability: Contact the authors. JEL Classifications: I23; O42.
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Objective The goal of the present study was to examine teachers’ perceptions of neuropsychological reports broadly and their preparedness to support the educational needs of students with chronic health conditions. Method Teachers were selected from across the United States using stratified random sampling. 280 teachers (76.2% female; 58.4% public school; 53.9% rural setting) completed an anonymous electronic survey via Qualtrics. Results Half of the teachers were familiar with neuropsychology and previously read a neuropsychological report, which the majority found useful with a preference toward shorter reports. Most found listed recommendations to be appropriate, but half of teachers identified limited resources as a barrier to implementation. Teachers reported limited education, training, and comfort for providing accommodations to children with chronic health conditions, which was significantly lower for cancer, congenital heart disease, and sickle cell disease. Older teachers, more years of experience, and special education teachers demonstrated significantly higher levels of education, training, and comfort. Frequency of implementing accommodations was significantly negatively correlated with perceived burden and positively correlated with perceived benefit across most accommodations. Teachers reported a preference for single-page handouts and speaking directly to neuropsychologists about the specific learning needs of students with chronic health conditions. Conclusions Results highlight areas for future research and intervention regarding teacher’s preparedness for working with children with chronic health groups and opportunities to improve communication between neuropsychologists and teachers to ultimately improve access to educational supports and overall quality of life of students with chronic health conditions.
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There is a growing need for a more diverse teacher workforce in the United States to close the racial and ethnic gap between students and teachers. Due to the significant gap in the literature and the practical relevance of the topic, we propose a conceptual framework to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to address inequities in recruiting, hiring, and retention of Teachers of Color (ToCs) in K-12 education. The model aims to increase access, opportunity, and support for ToCs across their careers using data-driven AI systems. It assists human decision-makers who play the central role in recruitment, hiring, and retention processes.
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A host of recent literature suggests benefits to Black children of being matched to same-race teachers. We extend this literature to explore whether being matched to a Black teacher is related to Black students’ likelihood of being identified for two types of discretionary educational services in the following academic year: gifted education and special education. While we do not find that access to Black teachers affects students’ likelihood of gifted identification, Black students matched to Black teachers are less likely to be identified for special education. The results are strongest for Black boys, particularly those who are also economically disadvantaged and are strongest for disabilities with more discretion in identification.
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While two-thirds of Black principals are female, the extant research on Black female principals is almost entirely qualitative. Using data from the 2017–2018 National Teacher and Principal Survey (n = 7,170 with 450 Black female principals) and the 2011–2012 Schools and Staffing Survey (n = 7,510, with 360 Black female principals), we quantitatively examine the career paths, reported influence, and reported time use of Black female principals compared to other principals. Black female principals are relatively less likely than Black male principals to have experience as athletic coaches, and less likely to have non-education management experience. Relative to non-Black female principals, Black female principals are less likely to have experience as curriculum directors. Relative to other principals, Black female principals generally report having comparable influence over their schools, while spending somewhat more time on parent interactions, suggestive of roles representing minority parents. We discuss implications and directions for future research.
Article
We employed a mixed‐methods design to identify intervention elements that may improve relational inclusion in classrooms through equity‐framed and culturally‐attuned teacher−student relationship interventions. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 29 (26 female) school mental health professionals and 19 parents (mostly mothers) of racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse students. Using a convergent mixed‐methods design, we first analyzed the individual data points and then integrated the quantitative and qualitative data in the interpretation and discussion of the results. Our findings showed that, for school mental health professionals, the quantitative data largely complemented the qualitative results, which represented four themes: School−family partnerships, critical consciousness, educator preparation, and transformational social‐emotional learning. Parents of minoritized students identified unique elements, including microaggressions, color evasion, recognition of bias, storytelling, and systemic change as important for the development of culturally‐attuned interventions. The two groups had parallel and contrasting recommendations about elements that may contribute to improved classroom relational inclusion for minoritized students. Results illustrate how merging professional and parent perspectives could contribute to the development of teacher−student relationship interventions that appropriately address issues of equity and culture in ways that are meaningful to end users and other stakeholders.
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This chapter examines the teaching and learning experiences of the instructor and students engaged in a cultural proficiency doctoral-level course. The author uses autoethnography to provide the readers with insight into the author's fears, frustrations, and overall approach to creating an environment conducive to fearless conversations. Careful attention is also given to student perceptions of the course content. The author offers practical suggestions for fearless teaching and encourages professors to be authentic, vulnerable, and bold as they work to develop inclusive classrooms where all voices are valued.
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The Cooperative Extension System plays a critical role in the tripartite mission of the land-grant university system – serving as a means of disseminating research findings generated in universities and research centers for the direct benefit of people of the community in which it is embedded. Rooted in agricultural education and initially focused on supporting well-being among residents of rural communities, Extension has evolved to address the needs among the country’s changing demographic. In this chapter, we will provide an overview of demographic changes that have had important implications for Extension programming; describe examples of federal, state, and regional initiatives that address new challenges and meet the needs of a rapidly diversifying audience base; as well as highlight current gaps and areas that need further attention. We end the chapter by proposing future directions in Extension programming to better address the needs of diverse populations.
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Using nationally representative data, this study empirically grounds the debate over minority teacher shortages by examining trends in recruitment, employment and retention of minority teachers. The study’s findings reveal that a gap continues to persist between the percentage of minority students and the percentage of minority teachers in U.S. schools, but contrary to widespread belief this gap is not due to a failure to recruit new minority teachers. The data show that efforts over recent decades to recruit more minority teachers, and place them in disadvantaged schools, have been very successful. But, these efforts have also been undermined because minority teachers have lower retention — largely because of poor working conditions in their schools. The research presented in this report was co-sponsored by CPRE and the Center for Educational Research in the Interest of Underserved Students at the University of California-Santa Cruz.
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This article presents findings from an ongoing study of urban teachers' efforts to embrace mathematics reform with student populations that are culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse (CLSD). We investigate the teacher's role in providing accessible and valuable mathematical learning opportunities to diverse students. Through narrative vignettes of practice and analyses of the personal and intellectual resources teachers draw on in CLSD contexts, we examine the challenges and possibilities two third-grade teachers face as they attempt such reform. One teacher's strengths were in making cultural connections with her students; the other's strengths were in pursuing complex and meaningful mathematics with her students. Building on our analysis, we offer a framework for examining the work of attending to mathematical and cultural issues simultaneously. Our findings suggest that such work is complex; however, teachers are seldom supported in their efforts to integrate these two perspectives. Our aim is to examine the dimensions of culturally relevant mathematics teaching and explore where the fields of mathematics and bilingual-bicultural education need to speak to one another.
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Research on representative bureaucracy has failed to deal with whether or not representative bureaucracies produce minority gains at the expense of nonminorities. Using a pooled time-series analysis of 350 school districts over six years, this study examines the relationship between representative bureaucracy and organizational outputs for minorities and nonminorities. Far from finding that representative bureaucracy produces minority gains at the expense of nonminorities, this study finds both minority and nonminority students perform better in the presence of a representative bureaucracy. This finding suggests an alternative hypothesis to guide research: that representative bureaucracies are more effective than their nonrepresentative counterparts.
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This article explores how teachers perceived and interacted with white students in a predominately racial/ethnic minority school in Texas. On the basis of ethnographic data, the author found that different teachers expressed different views of the family and class backgrounds of white students in this setting, which ranged from “middle class” to “trailer trash.” These views of social class stemmed from how teachers interpreted the whiteness of students in this predominately minority context and influenced how they reacted to these students academically. An interesting finding was that the black teachers and the white teachers had different perceptions of these white students. The black teachers typically saw the white students as middle class and good students, whereas the white teachers tended to view the students as low income and unremarkable students. The results of this study clarify the processes of teachers' perceptions and white advantage.
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The limited presence of talented African Americans in the teaching profession has been and continues to be a serious problem confronting the education profession and the African-American community in the United States. This review summarizes what is known from the research literature. It explores the reasons that African-American teachers are important as well as overall demographic, entry, and retention trends and the distinctive factors that influence the limited presence of African-American teachers. Finally, a suggested research agenda is presented.
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A general theory of domain identification is used to describe achievement barriers still faced by women in advanced quantitative areas and by African Americans in school. The theory assumes that sustained school success requires identification with school and its subdomains; that societal pressures on these groups (e.g., economic disadvantage, gender roles) can frustrate this identification; and that in school domains where these groups are negatively stereotyped, those who have become domain identified face the further barrier of stereotype threat, the threat that others' judgments or their own actions will negatively stereotype them in the domain. Research shows that this threat dramatically depresses the standardized test performance of women and African Americans who are in the academic vanguard of their groups (offering a new interpretation of group differences in standardized test performance), that it causes disidentification with school, and that practices that reduce this threat can reduce these negative effects.
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This study examined the effects of single-sex and coeducational schooling on the gender gap in educational achievement to age 25. Data were drawn from the Christchurch Health and Development Study, a longitudinal study of a birth cohort of 1265 individuals born in 1977 in Christchurch, New Zealand. After adjustment for a series of covariates related to school choice, there were significant differences between single-sex and coeducational schools in the size and direction of the gender gap. At coeducational schools, there was a statistically significant gap favouring females, while at single-sex schools there was a non-significant gap favour- ing males. This pattern was apparent for educational achievement both at high school and in tertiary education. These results indicate that single-sex schooling may mitigate male disadvantages in educational achievement.
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By examining a gifted magnet of an urban California high school as a racial project, this study contributes to our understanding of racial formation. The study analyzes the organizational and representational practices of this voluntary desegregation tool—a partial-site magnet program for “gifted” students—and its impact on students inside and outside the program. In doing so, the study reveals how, in contrast to its stated mission, this form of voluntary desegregation actually constitutes a form of resegregation. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this research reveals a series of practices that have produced exclusionary access to the gifted program, limited the interaction between magnet and non-magnet students, and instituted an apparently color-blind discourse of the gifted as in need of protection, all contributing to a widespread though complex and contradictory notion of whiteness as giftedness. Such notions run counter to the original intent of the desegregation ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. Revealing the processes by which a desegregation instrument facilitates such contradictory outcomes provides critical insights into the dynamic nature of racial formation.
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The treatment of African American students and Caucasian American students in middle schools by Caucasian American female teachers during 32 hr of instruction in integrated classrooms was investigated. Data revealed that African American students as a group were not treated as favorably by their teachers as were Caucasian American students. Teachers interacted more positively with American Caucasian students according to nearly all 16 dependent variables of a modified version of the Brophy-Good Dyadic Coding System. Caucasian American boys, relative to all other students, received the most favorable treatment and initiated the most student-teacher contact. Conversely, African American boys, among all the groups studied, received the least favorable treatment from their teachers.
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Stages of ethnic identity development were assessed through in-depth interviews with 91 Asian-American, Black, Hispanic, and White tenth-grade students, all American born, from integrated urban high schools. Subjects were also given questionnaire measures of ego identity and psychological adjustment. On the basis of the interviews, minority subjects were coded as being in one of three identity stages; White subjects could not be reliably coded. Among the minorities, about one-half of the subjects had not explored their ethnicity (diffusion/foreclosure); about one-quarter were involved in exploration (moratorium); and about one-quarter had explored and were committed to an ethnic identity (ethnic identity achieved). Ethnic-identity-achieved subjects had the highest scores on an independent measure of ego identity and on psychological adjustment. The process of identity development was similar across the three minority groups, but the particular issues faced by each group were different.
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In this article, we present for the first rime systematic evidence that the percentage of minority faculty has a significant positive relationship with overall college matriculation rates in urban school districts across the nation. Although there is little discussion in the education literature of how minority teachers might influence achievement by students of all races, there is a widespread assumption that minority teachers improve the performance of minority students. Our data support this assumption, but they also suggest an important caveat. We will explain why this finding could mean that systemic school district behaviors cause the higher rates of college attendance, while the ethnic makeup of faculty acts as a proxy for these behaviors. This finding has important policy implications, as focusing only on the role-modeling hypothesis might lead to incomplete or incorrect reform remedies for urban school districts.
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Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), the authors find that the match between teachers' race, gender, and ethnicity and those of their students had little association with how much the students learned, but in several instances it seems to have been a significant determinant of teachers' subjective evaluations of their students. For example, test scores of white female students in mathematics and science did not increase more rapidly when the teacher was a white woman than when the teacher was a white man, but white female teachers evaluated their white female students more highly than did white male teachers.
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The priority attached to inner city student desegregation has often become diminished with the onset of mandatory faculty desegregation. Consequently, students tend to be substantially more segregated than teachers in urban schools. Moreover, faculties in predominately minority schools typically have higher turnover and less experience than faculties in other schools. In the largest district initially placed under court-ordered faculty desegregation, we examined how these circumstances may have influenced academic attainment among elementary students. Achievement among black students was negatively related to the extent to which their teachers were racially isolated. Also, achievement was lower for black students assigned teachers who were involuntarily transferred for faculty desegregation purposes. The achievement of black, Hispanic, and white students was positively associated with teaching experience and negatively related to faculty turnover. These findings suggest that poorly planned desegregation policies can have undesirable consequences.
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Teacher supply and demand issues are of critical importance as our society enters the 21st century. Over the next decade, there will be an increasing demand for new teachers––about two million––due in part to a dramatic increase in enrollments and high attrition rates as an aging teacher workforce becomes eligible for retirement. Where these teachers will come from and where they will teach is important to understand as our society faces increasing racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity. Amid this diversity is a continuing concern that some racial-ethnic groups are disproportionately placed at risk. Thus, this article focuses on the supply and demand patterns of minority teachers, with special attention to teachers of students in high-risk districts. We analyze data on teachers from Texas between 1979 and 1996. We provide a variety of descriptive results––both univariate and multivariate––showing that while Texas has been successful in attracting minority teachers, it has a long way to go in attaining the goal of the Texas State Board of Education: to have a teacher workforce that reflects the racial-ethnic composition of the state.
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The limited presence of talented African Americans in the teaching profession has been and continues to be a serious problem confronting the education profession and the African-American community in the United States. This review summarizes what is known from the research literature. It explores the reasons that African-American teachers are important as well as overall demographic, entry, and retention trends and the distinctive factors that influence the limited presence of African-American teachers. Finally, a suggested research agenda is presented.
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Demographic changes in the United States have led to challenges for public organizations that are tasked to serve shifting target populations. Many arguments exist for including greater numbers of ethnic minorities among an organization's personnel, under the guise that greater ethnic representation will result in greater competitiveness in the market or effectiveness in governance. This article tests this proposition empirically, using data from the public education policy setting. Results show that representativeness along ethnic lines leads to gains for the organization as a whole, but some segments of the target population appear to respond more positively to representativeness than others.
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Many states have implemented high-stakes testing since the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Yet the question remains whether high-stakes tests effectively measure student proficiency. This report describes a study that compared results on high-stakes tests with results on other standardized tests not used for accountability purposes and thus considered low-stakes tests. Data for the comparisons were gathered from test scores from 5,587 schools in 9 school systems in 8 states. Scores were compared on each test given in the same subject in the same school year. When possible, the results of high-stakes and low-stakes tests given at the same grade levels were also compared. For all the school systems examined in the study, high correlations between score levels on high-stakes and low-stakes tests were found. Also found were some high correlations for year-to-year gains in scores on high-stakes and low-stakes tests. But the correlations of score gains were not as consistently high, and in some places were quite low. The report concludes that stakes of the tests do not distort information about the general level at which students are performing. (Contains 10 tables and 23 references.) (WFA)
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This paper tests a cultural resources/social interaction model of gatekeeping by school teachers using data for seventh- and eighth-grade students in a city school district. Where previous investigations of "cultural capital" have focused on the rewards accruing to highbrow music and arts activities, we examine the informal academic standards by which teachers reward more general skills, habits, and styles. The result is a recursive causal model including the following blocks of variables: (a) student and teacher background characteristics, (b) student basic skills, absenteeism, and teacher judgments of student work habits, disruptiveness, and appearance; (c) coursework mastery; and (d) course grades. This model fits the data quite well, and almost completely accounts for the course-grade differentials observed for gender, ethnicity, and poverty groups. The most important predictor variable is the teacher's judgment of student work habits, followed by cognitive performance on both basic skills and coursework mastery. The results suggest that the standard (Wisconsin) status attainment model be modified to include cultural/social-interactional-based measures of individual and gatekeeper behaviors and perceptions.
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One potential method to increase the success of female graduate students in economics is to encourage mentoring relationships between these students and female faculty members, via increased hiring of female faculty, or having female faculty serve as dissertation chairs for female students. This paper examines whether either of these strategies results in more successful outcomes for female graduate students, using survey information on female graduate students and faculties of Ph.D.-producing economics departments. The empirical evidence provides virtually no support for the hypothesis that initial job placements for female graduate students are improved by adding female faculty members, or by having a female dissertation chair. However, female faculty members appear to reduce time spent in graduate school by female students.
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Within the education literature, a controversy exists with respect to the issue of matching student and teacher race in an effort to improve student performance. Ehrenberg et al. (1995) finds very little support for this issue, while more recently Dee (2004) finds that there are significant educational gains when students are assigned to an own-race teacher. Dee's result is found after confirming that there was no association between assignment of an own-race teacher and student characteristics, i.e., sorting of students did not transpire. We extend Dee's work by including the effects of student innate ability and teacher gender on student achievement. Our findings indicate that once these two variables are taken into consideration, sorting of students does transpire, and matching students and teachers of similar race has no statistically significant affect on student achievement.
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We used a random-assignment experiment in Los Angeles Unified School District to evaluate various non-experimental methods for estimating teacher effects on student test scores. Having estimated teacher effects during a pre-experimental period, we used these estimates to predict student achievement following random assignment of teachers to classrooms. While all of the teacher effect estimates we considered were significant predictors of student achievement under random assignment, those that controlled for prior student test scores yielded unbiased predictions and those that further controlled for mean classroom characteristics yielded the best prediction accuracy. In both the experimental and non-experimental data, we found that teacher effects faded out by roughly 50 percent per year in the two years following teacher assignment.
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We study dominant strategy implementation in a variant of the canonical public good provision model, as proposed by Borgers and Postl (2009). In this set up, we fully characterize the set of budget-balanced dominant strategy deterministric mechanisms, which are simple threshold rules. For probabilistic mechanisms that are continuously differentiable we provide a necessary and sufficient condition for dominant strategy implementation. When allowing for discontinuities in the mechanism, our necessary condition remains valid, but additional requirements must be met in order to ensure sufficiency.
Desegregation: The illusion of black progress Mapping state proficiency standards onto the NAEP Scales: Variation and change in state standards for reading and mathematics
  • A V Adair
  • Bandeira
  • V Mello
Adair, A. V. (1984). Desegregation: The illusion of black progress. Lanham, MD: University Press of America. Bandeira de Mello, V. (2011). Mapping state proficiency standards onto the NAEP Scales: Variation and change in state standards for reading and mathematics, 2005–2009 (NCES 2011-458). National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington DC: Government Printing Office.
Social class, race, and teacher expectations
  • R M Baron
  • D Tom
  • H M Cooper
Baron, R. M., Tom, D., & Cooper, H. M. (1985). Social class, race, and teacher expectations. In J. Dusek (Ed.), Teacher expectancies (pp. 251-270). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.