Do Students Benefit from Having Teachers Who Share Their Race or Ethnicity?

Egalite and Gottfried (2026) examine whether matching students with teachers who share their race or ethnicity improves educational outcomes, especially for students with disabilities and English learners. They draw on three studies using longitudinal student-level data from Massachusetts and a large California school district. They find that race matching reduced special education referrals by about 5%, including 7% for boys. Among students with disabilities, same-race teachers increased math scores by about 0.01 standard deviations. Hispanic students taught by Hispanic teachers scored 0.14 SD higher in math and 0.07 SD higher in English; math gains reached 0.37 SD with bilingual-certified Hispanic teachers.

Why This Article Was Selected for The Policy Scientist

Teacher representation matters broadly because teacher assignment can influence academic performance, attendance, discipline, expectations, and access to specialized services. The topic is particularly timely as schools seek to diversify their teaching workforces while serving increasingly heterogeneous student populations. Egalite and Gottfried have substantial prior research in this field, and this article usefully extends established work on student–teacher matching to students with disabilities and English learners. The longitudinal administrative data from Massachusetts and California are a major strength, although findings from two jurisdictions warrant cautious generalization. The article synthesizes three empirical studies rather than presenting a single new causal design; stronger causal inference or randomized designs would further clarify whether demographic matching itself produces the observed outcomes. Education Finance and Policy is a respected peer-reviewed journal specializing in rigorous education-policy research.

Full Citation and Link to Article

Egalite, A. J., & Gottfried, M. A. (2026). Expanding the case for student–teacher race/ethnicity matching: Implications for students with disabilities and English learners. Education Finance and Policy. https://direct.mit.edu/edfp/article/doi/10.1162/EDFP.a.464/137166/Expanding-the-Case-for-Student-Teacher-Race

Central Research Question

The article examines whether the documented benefits of matching students with teachers who share their racial or ethnic background extend to student populations that have received comparatively little attention in the teacher-representation literature. In particular, it considers students with disabilities and English learners. Rather than asking only whether student–teacher racial or ethnic matching affects conventional academic outcomes, the authors examine whether matching is related to special education referral, academic achievement, attendance, disciplinary outcomes, and graduation. They also consider whether racial or ethnic matching becomes more consequential when accompanied by linguistic alignment between teachers and students.

The article synthesizes evidence from three recent studies. Collectively, these studies ask whether teacher representation functions similarly for students with specialized educational or language needs as it does for the broader student population. The central issue is therefore not simply whether representation matters, but whether its effects vary according to students’ educational circumstances and whether multiple dimensions of teacher–student similarity can operate together.

Previous Literature

A substantial literature finds that students can benefit from assignment to teachers of the same race or ethnicity. Dee (2004), using experimental data, provided one of the earliest causal demonstrations that Black and White students experienced measurable achievement gains when assigned to same-race teachers. Subsequent research expanded the range of outcomes associated with demographic matching.

Grissom and Redding (2016) found that Black and Hispanic students were more likely to be referred to gifted programs when taught by teachers sharing their racial or ethnic background. Hart (2020) reported effects on Black students’ participation in advanced coursework. Lindsay and Hart (2017) and Shirrell et al. (2023) connected same-race teaching assignments with reductions in exclusionary discipline, while Holt and Gershenson (2019) and Gottfried et al. (2022) documented associations with improved attendance.

The long-term consequences may be particularly important. Gershenson et al. (2022) found that exposure to even one Black teacher during elementary school increased Black students’ probability of graduating from high school by approximately 9 percentage points and attending college by about 6 percentage points.

Several studies examine possible mechanisms. Gershenson et al. (2016) found differences in teacher expectations according to teacher–student demographic matching, while Egalite and Kisida (2018) documented differences in students’ perceptions of teacher support. Research by Bates and Glick (2013) and Ouazad (2014) similarly suggests that teacher perceptions and evaluations can vary with demographic similarity.

Far less research has examined students with disabilities or English learners separately. Hart and Lindsay (2024), for example, found that Black students, particularly boys, were less likely to be newly identified for special education when taught by Black teachers. Research by Loeb et al. (2014) and Master et al. (2016) also suggests that teacher effectiveness with English learners can depend partly on language skills, training, and experience.

Data

The article draws together three separate empirical studies rather than analyzing a single new dataset. Two use administrative education records from Massachusetts, while the third uses records from a California school district with a large Hispanic student population.

The first study examines seven years of longitudinal student-level data from Massachusetts covering 2011 through 2018. Students are followed across years to determine whether assignment to at least one same-race teacher is associated with their probability of receiving an initial referral for a special education evaluation.

The second study also uses Massachusetts administrative data but restricts attention to students with disabilities, operationalized as students with individualized education programs. Outcomes include standardized test performance, school attendance, suspensions, and graduation.

The third study uses administrative records from a California district. Its principal focus is Hispanic students and whether academic outcomes vary according to the racial or ethnic and linguistic characteristics of their teachers. The analysis distinguishes Hispanic teachers from other teachers and further identifies Hispanic teachers possessing bilingual authorization.

These administrative datasets are particularly useful because they link students, teachers, demographic characteristics, educational classifications, and outcomes over time. They also permit the analysis of relatively specific student subgroups that are often pooled into larger samples in previous research.

Methods

The article is primarily a synthesis of findings from three previously conducted studies, so it does not reproduce the complete statistical specifications of those underlying analyses. The studies employ longitudinal student-level administrative data to compare outcomes associated with different forms of student–teacher matching while accounting for observable and, in the underlying research designs, relevant sources of variation.

The first analysis compares special education referral rates for students exposed and not exposed to same-race teachers. The second estimates relationships between racial matching and multiple outcomes among students with individualized education programs. The third separates racial or ethnic matching from the combination of racial or ethnic and linguistic matching, permitting an assessment of whether bilingual authorization adds explanatory importance beyond shared ethnicity alone.

Because the article summarizes rather than fully reproduces the underlying empirical models, detailed information concerning model specifications, controls, fixed effects, robustness tests, and identification assumptions must be obtained from the three individual studies.

Findings/Size Effects

The first study finds that assignment to same-race teachers is associated with a modest reduction in special education referrals. Overall, matched students experienced a 5 percent reduction in referrals, equivalent to approximately 0.18 percentage points. The effect was larger for boys: their referral probability declined approximately 7 percent, or 0.34 percentage points. Students in large schools experienced an estimated 6 percent reduction, equivalent to about 0.21 percentage points.

The second study produces more limited effects. Most outcomes for students with disabilities show no statistically significant differences associated with racial matching. However, Black students with disabilities and low-income students with disabilities experienced mathematics gains of approximately 0.01 standard deviations when assigned to same-race teachers. Low-income students with disabilities also attended school slightly more often, with the increase amounting to less than one additional day per year. These achievement effects are smaller than estimates found for Black students in the general population, where previous studies have reported mathematics effects ranging from approximately 0.018 to 0.105 standard deviations. No consistent effects emerged for English language arts achievement or disciplinary outcomes.

The California study generates substantially larger estimates. Hispanic students taught by Hispanic teachers scored approximately 0.14 standard deviations higher in mathematics and 0.07 standard deviations higher in English language arts. The largest estimate appears when racial or ethnic matching is combined with linguistic alignment. Hispanic students taught by Hispanic teachers possessing bilingual certification experienced a mathematics advantage of approximately 0.37 standard deviations. Thus, language-related teacher qualifications appear to complement racial or ethnic matching rather than simply duplicate its association with achievement.

Conclusion

The evidence indicates that student–teacher racial and ethnic matching can matter beyond the general student population, although its effects vary considerably across groups and outcomes. For students with disabilities, the estimated academic and attendance effects are generally small and many outcomes show no significant differences. Matching is more consistently associated with reduced referrals for special education evaluation, particularly among boys and students in larger schools.

The results for Hispanic students demonstrate an additional dimension of representation. Shared race or ethnicity is associated with improved mathematics and English language arts performance, but the largest mathematics effect occurs when Hispanic students are taught by Hispanic teachers who also possess bilingual authorization. This pattern suggests that demographic and linguistic alignment may operate jointly.

More broadly, the three studies demonstrate that averaging effects across all students can obscure meaningful differences among subgroups. Teacher representation appears to operate differently depending on student needs, educational context, and teacher qualifications. The findings therefore extend the existing teacher-matching literature by showing that the effects of representation are heterogeneous and that language may represent an additional dimension of student–teacher matching deserving separate empirical attention.