A new study has found that students of color, including Asian American students, were less likely to be suspended if they had teachers of the same race.
The study was conducted by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and George Washington University. The findings were published by the Brookings Institution.
Researchers wondered if matching students with teachers of the same ethno-racial group would have an impact on suspension rates. They examined 10 years of student and teacher data (2007-2017) from the New York City public school system, which is the country’s largest public school system.
Black, Latino and Asian American students in grades 4-8 all showed negative associations between exposure to same-race teachers and suspensions. This means students of color who had teachers from the same ethno-racial group were less likely to get suspended.
The study found that there were larger impacts for Latino and Asian American boys than there were for girls.
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The researchers believe the NYC public school system suspension rate would drop by 3 percent if the schools increased the number of Black, Latino and Asian American teachers by one standard deviation. There would be 230 fewer suspensions for Asian American students, 1,600 fewer suspensions for Latino students and 1,800 fewer suspensions for Black students.
In addition to diversifying the teacher pool, the study also recommended that schools focus on “(re)designing induction and ongoing professional learning for white teachers regarding discipline practices for students of color.”
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