Minority teachers are viewed more highly than White teachers by minority students as they serve as role models and are particularly sensitive to the cultural needs.

‘Students from perceived Black and Latino teachers more favorably than White teachers. Black students did have positive perceptions of Black teachers.’

The findings, published in the latest issue of Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association, underscore the importance of having a diverse workforce of teachers.




The demographic divide between teachers and students is of growing public concern. Racial and ethnic minority students make up the majority of students in public schools, especially in urban areas. In contrast, less than 20 percent of teachers are racial or ethnic minorities.
"An overwhelmingly White teacher force is working with a majority non-White student population," Cherng said.
People typically view the demographic divide through longstanding racial achievement gaps, and scholars have argued that teachers of color may work particularly well with students of color. This concept of race matching - where, for instance, Black students prefer or perform better with Black teachers - has been shown to boost student achievement.
In the new study, the researchers examined whether student perceptions of their teachers varied based on the teachers' race. Cherng and his coauthor Peter Halpin, assistant professor of applied statistics at NYU Steinhardt, analyzed data from the 2009-2010 school year of the Measure of Effective Teaching study. The researchers focused on data from 1,680 teachers in 200 urban schools, along with their more than 50,000 students in grades six through nine.
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The researchers found that students perceived Black and Latino teachers more favorably than White teachers. These patterns remained largely intact, particularly for Latino teachers, even after considering factors such as student performance, teacher working conditions, and other measures of teacher efficacy. Latino teachers were better perceived across all measures, while students perceived Black teachers (more than their White peers) to hold students to high academic standards and support their efforts, to help them organize content, and to explain ideas clearly and provide feedback.
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"Our findings underscore the importance of minority teacher recruitment and retention," Cherng added.
Source-Eurekalert