A recent study has disproved the widespread belief that teachers of the same race as their students will result in better instructional effectiveness due to shared cultural understanding, role modeling, and mentoring on behalf of the teacher. Published in the journal Early Childhood Research Quarterly, the study concluded that were “null effects of student-teacher racial or ethnic matching on academic achievement, social-emotional behavior, or executive functioning.”
In an article for USA Today, the authors of the study also conclude that “preliminary work finds that matching’s effects may be specific to whether teachers attended historically black colleges and universities, regardless of their ethnicity.” The effects of matching are also seen more on “subjective measures like classroom behavior than on objective measures of academic achievement,” a pointed response to widespread fixation on those subjective measures.
The study should not come as a surprise — verified teaching methods are what should be used to improve student outcomes, not race. For instance, the predominantly black and Hispanic Concourse Village Elementary School (CVES), in one of America’s poorest congressional districts in New York, scores well above the citywide average in English standardized exams. The school’s reading method repeatedly exposes students to the same readings and uses a five-phase reading method: read the text twice to get the gist; annotate and highlight; ask three questions to identify key details; ask three questions focused on author’s craft and motivations; summarize and draw conclusions about theme. CVES students’ exceptional performance and high ranking illuminate the relevance of how teachers teach, not who teachers are.
In the past, activists and school districts alike failed to recognize this. For instance, the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Minneapolis Public Schools agreed in 2022 that expected layoffs would require laying off white teachers before nonwhite teachers so that “the teachers in the district reflect the diversity of the labor market and the community served by the District.” In 2021, Oregon also debated a “first in, last out” layoff bill to address retaining educators of color over white educators. . . by amending laws that prioritize staff seniority.
Unfortunately, these appeals to “representation” are self-sabotaging: Studies show that teacher experience can decrease student absenteeism, provide mentorship for less- experienced teachers, and, yes, standardized test scores.
A new progressive narrative that teachers need to look like their students to better understand and help them sounds appealing at first, but identity politics sacrifices students and their futures. America’s schools need their students to thrive academically. Mastering solid teaching methods is the best way to do that. What kind of starting point rejects clear-cut evidence, prioritizing political ideology over scientific truths? And what message does that starting point send to our nation’s children?