A study shows the difference just one black teacher can make to the lives of poor black students
“According to a new working paper published by the Institute of Labor Economics this week, having a single black teacher in elementary school dramatically reduces a black student’s probability of later dropping out of high school. Researchers looked at 100,000 young black students entering North Carolina public schools between 2001 and 2005, matching their high school performance with whether or not they had at least one black teacher between the ages of 8-11—in third, fourth, or fifth grade. They followed up with a similar examination of data on black students in Tennessee in the 1980s.”