Behind the Headline: Leading By Example: Black Male Teachers Make Students ‘Feel Proud’

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Leading By Example: Black Male Teachers Make Students ‘Feel Proud’
Hechinger Institute | 12/15/15

Behind the Headline
The Race Connection
Education Next | Spring 2004

In the Hechinger Report, Katy Reckdahl writes about the Honoré Center for Undergraduate Achievement, a program at Southern University in New Orleans that gives full scholarships to young African American men “who show promise despite unremarkable transcripts” and then trains them to be teachers.

As Reckdahl notes, “the program’s founders believe that promising young men who grew up in tough circumstances are uniquely equipped to connect in classrooms with youth facing similar challenges.”

The article cites a study by Tom Dee that finds that African American students who are randomly assigned to classrooms with African American teachers make greater gains than African American students randomly assigned to white teachers.  That study appears in the Spring 2004 issue of Education Next.

Earlier this year, a study by Brian Kisida and Anna Egalite analyzed data from Florida and found that African American, white, and Asian students all benefited from being assigned to a teacher of the same race. They found that elementary-aged African American students and lower-performing students of all races particularly benefited from having a demographically-similar teacher.

—Education Next