Both/And: Students’ Academic Benefits of Sharing Race/Ethnicity and Language With Their Teachers

Empirically, research has shown that students from racial or ethnically minoritized backgrounds have higher educational outcomes when they have a teacher of the same demographic background. While numerous explanations for these results have been posited, few mechanisms have been explored. In this study, we address this important gap by examining when teachers share the same race and ethnicity as their students, as well as when English learner students have teachers with state-certified bilingual teaching authorization. To explore this, we use administrative data from a California school district largely composed of Hispanic and White students and teachers. Our findings suggest that Hispanic students have higher math scores (0.14 SD) and higher English language arts scores (0.07 SD). In math, we find that the effects are largest when Hispanic students have Hispanic teachers who also hold a bilingual teaching authorization from the state (0.37 SD). Implications for policy are discussed.