Study finds that black teachers are critical element to reducing black student dropout rates

In Trump’s America, we have know-nothing conservatives like Betsy DeVos in charge of the Department of Education touting school choice as the way to save poor and minority kids from failing public schools. Of course, this is little more than political posturing—they really don’t care anything about poor kids, their success or public schools. In fact, we know that under the administration’s new proposed budget, there would be a $1.4 billion increase in programs that fund charter schools and school vouchers while simultaneously cutting $9 billion, or 13.5 percent, from the overall Department of Education’s budget. This means more federal money to private and for profit educational entities. And where exactly does the 13.5 percent get cut from? Presumably from our public schools—critically important institutions that serve a variety of functions for the most marginalized kids in our society. And as a new study shows, for black students, having just one black teacher can reduce the probability of dropping out of high school by double digits.

Having just one black teacher in third, fourth or fifth grade reduced low-income black boys' probability of dropping out of high school by 39 percent, the study found.

And by high school, African-American students, both boys and girls, who had one African-American teacher had much stronger expectations of going to college. Keep in mind, this effect was observed seven to ten years after the experience of having just one black teacher.

The study examines the long-term impact that having teachers of the same race had on over 100,000 black elementary school students in North Carolina. Not only were students with black teachers more likely to stay in school, they were also more likely to take college entrance exams.

[Researchers] found that not only did the black students assigned to black teachers graduate high school at higher rates, they also were more likely to take a college entrance exam. "The results line up strikingly well," [says Nicholas Papageorge of Johns Hopkins, one of the authors of the study] .

from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2o7KUc0