Study says hiring more minority teachers could be amazing for minority students

Study says hiring more minority teachers could be amazing for minority students

By Krystle Crossman

It is no secret that minority students have a harder time in public school than non-minority students. This is due to a multitude of factors such as the students having to deal with racism and stereotyping by teachers. Over 80 percent of public school teachers are white and many of them bring stereotypes to the classroom that affects the minority students greatly. They are pegged as bad kids before they even sit at a desk or are thought to be bad students before they even start to do work. One way to combat this issue according to a study conducted by researchers in Florida is to hire more minority teachers so that the students will have some-one that they can relate to.

The researchers combed through data from the Florida State school districts and came up with some interesting results. They looked through tests that were taken by the students in different schools and looked at their scores. They then looked at the race of the teacher that the students had and looked at the correlation between the scores and whether they were the same or different race as their teacher. It was found that Black and white students did better with reading when they had a teacher that was the same race as them. It was also found that Black, white and Asian students did better in math when taught by a teacher of the same race.

The need for more minority teachers is bigger now than ever before. The 2014-2015 school year was the first year in history that there were more minority students that were enrolled than non-minority students. But the diversity, or lack thereof, of the teachers remains the same. In high school it is more imperative that students are taught by teachers that are of the same race as them. The study also showed that non-minority students were not negatively affected by having a teacher that is a different race. This is a call for a more diverse teaching staff all across the country. The students are in need and it seems that the schools are having a hard time compensating for that need.