A diverse workforce of teachers is important

A diverse workforce of teachers is important
 
A study published in Educational Researcher looked at whether students' perceptions of their teachers varied according to the teachers' ethnicity.
Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng and Peter F. Halpin analyzed data from the 2009-2010 school year of the Measure of Effective Teaching study, focusing on data from 1,680 teachers in 200 urban schools, along with more than 50,000 students in grades six to nine. The students were asked questions on seven measures relating to their experiences in the classroom, including whether their teacher treated students with respect, explained difficult concepts clearly, made classes interesting, and tried to understand students' feelings.

After controlling for student demographics and academic characteristics, work conditions, and teacher efficacy, results showed that students had more favorable perceptions of their black and Latino teachers than of their white teachers across all measures. For example, students reported that Latino and black teachers were clearer in their explanations than white teachers.

There was mixed evidence that perceptions of minority students depended on the ethnicity of their teacher. Black students were found to rate black teachers more favorably, however, the same was not found to be true for Latino students and Latino teachers. Asian-American students also had more favorable perceptions of black teachers.

Johns Hopkins University 

Research in Brief

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