Teacher Diversity and Student Success

Why Racial Representation Matters in the Classroom

by Seth Gershenson, Michael Hansen and Constance A. Lindsay

216 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

Paperback
9781682535806
Published: March 2021

$34.00

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Hardcover
9781682535813
Published: March 2021

$60.00

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Description
Authors
Praise

Teacher Diversity and Student Success makes a powerful case for diversifying the teaching force as an important policy lever for closing achievement gaps and moving schools closer to equity goals.

Written by three leading scholars, the book provides nuanced solutions on how to diversify the teaching force, increase student exposures to same-race teachers, and improve teacher training for a culturally diverse student body. They argue that teacher diversity should be seen as one element of teacher quality, and policies focused on improving teacher quality should take race explicitly into consideration.

The authors also address the historic and contemporary factors that have kept people of color out of teaching and highlight emerging research showing the significant, long-lasting impact of same-race teacher exposures, particularly for Black and Latino students.

This timely book is a call to action for building teacher diversity to ensure student success.

Seth Gershenson is an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University and a research fellow of the IZA Institute of Labor Economics.

Michael Hansen is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy.

Constance A. Lindsay is an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"For those who are interested in understanding why teacher diversity is important, how it came to be a contemporary education issue, and what are some potential solutions to improve it, I encourage you to add the book to your slate." —Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

"Teacher Diversity and Success promotes policy responses for closing the racial and ethnic gaps in education and summarizes the policy ideas and goals into concrete, actionable steps for school, district, state, and federal policy makers." — Journal of Economonic Literature

"Teacher Diversity and Student Success makes the case of why racial representation is essential to equitable and equity-minded teaching as well as the teaching profession overall. This social justice and equity-minded text is a timely, critical, and powerful tool for all who aim to increase teacher racial representation in the quest for educational equity. This is a must-have resource for all public school districts, educator preparation programs, policymakers, legislatures, and others who truly want to see justice and equity-oriented change in education. " — Teachers College Record