As a black man teaching in a public charter school in Brooklyn, I have seen first-hand how beneficial it is for students of color to have someone who looks like them in the front of the classroom.
Now, new research is backing what so many of us know from personal experience. According to a study of 100,000 black students by the Institute of Labor Economics released this month, having at least one black teacher in third through fifth grades reduced a black student’s probability of dropping out of school by 29% and significantly increased their chance of aspiring to attend a four-year college. For very low-income black boys, the results were even greater — their chance of dropping out of school fell 39%.
