Racial (Mis)Match in Middle School Mathematics Classrooms: Relational Interactions as a Racialized Mechanism

Abstract

While research has consistently shown the positive effects of having a teacher of the same race on various student outcomes, the literature has not examined how racial match affects the everyday interactions within classrooms. This research article by Dan Battey, Luis A. Leyva, Immanuel Williams, Victoria A. Belizario, Rachel Greco, and Roshni Shah addresses this underexplored area by documenting relational interactions in classrooms to find one mechanism that could be producing racialized effects on learning. Using a dataset from a study of twenty-five mathematics classrooms across predominantly white and black US middle schools, they examine the quality of relational interactions when teachers and students are racially matched and mismatched, as well as the effects on student achievement in mathematics. Their analysis shows how various dimensions of relational interactions significantly predict increases and decreases in achievement due to racial match.

Preparing educators who save lives: what can US schools of education do?

“…Reading and mathematics (Battey et al , 2018; Gershenson et al , 2016; Rosenbaum, 2020) were identified as weed-out subjects for black children as early as elementary grades. A widely spread statement alleges, “The prison industrial complex will look at the test scores of a city’s third grade population,” […] “if the test grades are low, they know that they’ll have to start building a prison” (Michele Noris as cited in Hudson, 2012, July 2).…”

Unicorns Are Real: A Narrative Synthesis of Black Men’s Career Trajectories in Special Education in the United States

“…Partee (2014) found evidence that teachers of color tended to be more dedicated to the overall success of students of color than White teachers. Teachers of color have been shown to hold more positive perceptions of the academic performance and behavior of students of color than White teachers (Lindsay & Hart, 2017;Wright, 2015), a pattern that holds in studies comparing Black teachers to non-Black teachers as well (Battey et al, 2018;Fish, 2017;Gershenson et al, 2018). Fish (2017) studied referrals for special education services among a diverse sample of teachers using vignettes of fictional case studies about Black students as well as Latino/a students whose English Learner status was manipulated.…”

“…Second, special education teachers play a direct role in evaluating students, designing and managing their IEPs, and determining the extent to which they are given access to general education classrooms (Girvan et al, 2017;Skiba et al, 2011). Third, with evidence that race is associated with teachers' expectations (Battey et al, 2018;Fish, 2017Fish, , 2019Gershenson et al, 2018) and that subjective diagnoses (e.g., learning disabilities; see Sleeter, 2018) are particularly likely to lead to Black boys' assignment to special education (Harry & Klinger, 2014;Skiba & Williams, 2014), recruitment of teachers who reflect the cultural background of their students for special education teaching jobs is highly important. Beyond rectifying Black students' disproportionate identification for special education services, the cultural competence of BMSETs could increase the effectiveness of the types of services and supports given to Black students receiving special education services.…”

The Author’s Reflections on <em>No B.S. (Bad Stats): Black People Need People Who Believe in Black People Enough Not to Believe Every Bad Thing They Hear about Black People</em>

“…Educators and policymakers need to know the pitfalls of education statistics and data because bad stats engender implicit biases and explicit racism. Earlier this year, a study found that White teachers were three times more negative with Black students (Battey et al 2018). A lot of teachers have negative perceptions of Black students because we continue to use the BS to shape the narrative and, ultimately, the fate of Black children who just need a good education.…”