The Effects of Teacher Match on Students’ Academic Perceptions and Attitudes

Abstract

Using student survey data from six U.S. school districts, we estimate how assignment to a demographically similar teacher affects student reports of personal effort, happiness in class, feeling cared for and motivated by their teacher, the quality of student-teacher communication, and college aspirations. Relying on a classroom fixed-effects strategy, we show that students assigned to a teacher with similar demographic characteristics experience positive benefits in terms of these academic perceptions and attitudes. The most consistent benefits are among gender matches, and the largest benefits are demonstrated by the combination of gender and racial/ethnic matches. The effects of gender matches are largely consistent across elementary and middle school, while the most consistent effects from race matches occur in middle school.

The Effect of Teacher–Child Race/Ethnicity Matching and Classroom Diversity on Children's Socioemotional and Academic Skills

“…Teacher–child match is also related to positive student reports of their teachers. Results from a secondary analysis of the MET study found that children assigned to racially/ethnically matched teachers reported greater positive perceptions and attitudes about their happiness in class, and feelings of being cared for and motivated by their teacher (Egalite & Kisida, ). These studies suggest teacher and child race/ethnicity may matter in the classroom by influencing how teachers perceive children and vice versa (Egalite & Kisida, ); and that racial/ethnic alignment between children and their teachers may provide culturally relevant role models for children and engender warmer learning environments (Blake et al., ; Cherng & Halpin, ).…”

STEM Is Not a Monolith: A Preliminary Analysis of Variations in STEM Disciplinary Cultures and Implications for Change

“…For example, there are considerably more women faculty in the life sciences as compared with the physical sciences or engineering (National Academy of Sciences, 2007). At the same time, research shows that, when instructors and students are aligned according to a variety of demographic characteristics such as gender and race, it improves student outcomes (Dee, 2004) and experiences (Egalite and Kisida, 2018). When students have instructors who are more "like them," this provides them with instructors who can more easily serve a role models and who also are more likely to understand the particular racialized or gendered experiences of the students.…”

Principal and Teacher Preparation to Support the Needs of Diverse Students: National Findings from the American Educator Panels

“…The mismatch between the races of teachers and their students has real consequences for students, as numerous studies have found consistent benefits of racial congruence, including fewer absences and suspensions, lower dropout rates, higher academic achievement, and a higher probability of placement in gifted programming (Goldhaber and Hansen, 2010;Grissom and Redding, 2016;Joshi, Doan, and Springer, 2018). Racial match between teachers and students also leads to positive student perceptions of teachers (Egalite and Kisida, 2017) and significant long-term gains in educational attainment (Gershenson et al, 2017).…”