Key Finding 2: Race and Teacher Representation
While Black parents rate their child’s school and personnel favorably, racial inequities are apparent. However, parents report more favorable schooling experiences when there are more Black teachers at the school.
Nearly half of Black parents felt as if schools did a very good job of making them feel welcomed at school and keeping them informed of their child’s progress. These are two important issues that are necessary to keep parents engaged and part of the learning process for their child. Overall, parents had a fairly high assessment of their child’s learning environment.
However, Figure 3 shows that when comparing parents’ assessments of their child’s school on various issues, topics related to race ranked among the bottom three issues in the “very good job” category. As one parent mentioned in the focus groups, “I would say what the schools are lacking is supporting African American kids.” Only 31% of African American parents felt schools were doing a very good job at treating students of all races fairly and providing lesson plans that address racial and social issues. In fact, among all learning environment topics assessed, Black parents felt schools fell the shortest on offering racial and social issue-related lesson plans.
Parents want students to feel that their child is treated fairly and culturally affirmed and seen in their texts and lesson plans. Research shows that African American history is not adequately reflected in the texts, and the impact is far-reaching.1Hughes-Hassel, S., & Cox, E. (2010). Inside board books: Representations of people of color. The Library Quarterly, 80(3): 211–230. King, L., Davis, C. & Brown, A. (2012). African American history, race and textbooks: an examination of the works of Harold O. Rugg and Carter G. Woodson.” Journal of Social Studies Research, 36(4),359-386. In fact, some textbooks reify racist notions in society and do not celebrate the extraordinary contributions of African Americans, while others dilute the institutions of slavery and systemic racism.2Gershon, L. (2015, October 20). “The Racism of History Textbooks.” JSTOR Daily. daily.jstor.org/racism-history-textbooks/.
| Digging Deeper |
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While 51% of Black parents and caregivers said that their school does a very good job at making them feel respected at school, the percentage increased by 9 percentage points for parents whose child attends schools with more African American teachers. |
When assessing the results in the city-level samples for Black parents, in both Atlanta and Indianapolis, logistic regression models predicted that the probability that their children’s school does a good job with having culturally relevant lesson plans is significantly higher when their children attended schools with more African American teachers compared to those with fewer African American teachers. In other words, the presence of Black teachers plays a key role in Black parents’ evaluation of culturally relevant lesson plans at their child’s school. While studies have shown the benefits of Black teachers in the classroom, we know less about how parents’ perceptions matter in this literature. This finding indicates that Black teachers play a critical role in ensuring students are exposed to lesson plans that are inclusive and linked to current social issues.
Similarly, Black teachers assist in building positive racial climates in schools. Logistic regression results substantiate these findings on the city-level in Indianapolis and Atlanta. The models predicted that the probability that Black parents agreed that their school treated all students fairly was higher for parents whose children attended schools where many or most teachers were Black, compared to schools with fewer Black teachers.
Figure 3 shows that only 36% of parents say their child’s school did a very good job dealing with discipline issues. Year after year, the data reify these results related to discipline among Black students.3Roch, C. H., & Edwards, J. (2017). Representative bureaucracy and school discipline: The influence of schools’ racial contexts. The American Review of Public Administration, 47(1), 58–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074015589126 For example, recent Office for Civil Rights data show that Black students represented 15% of student enrollment but 38% of students who received one or more out-of-school suspensions. African American preschool students are expelled from school at a rate more than twice their population size as well.4Office for Civil Rights. 2017. Civil Rights Data Collection.
Digging a bit deeper in the data, logistic regression models predicted that the probability that a Black parents’ child had been suspended from school was higher in schools that had few to no Black teachers compared to schools with more Black teachers.
In other words, for parents whose children attended schools where many or most teachers were Black, the probability that their child received exclusionary discipline (e.g., out-of-school suspensions) is almost three times lower than when their child attended schools with fewer Black teachers. This finding is significant because, while research has shown that Black teachers are associated with decreased discipline for Black students, we often do not hear the voices of Black parents in this literature.5Lindsay, C., & Hart, C. 2017. “Teacher race and school discipline.” Education Next, 17(1): 72–78. Research shows how Black teachers display positive discipline techniques compared to exclusionary practices with Black children. Research by Dr. Franita Ware would describe this as a pedagogy of care and
high expectations.
Figure 3 also shows that only 30% of parents (with children grade 6 or higher) felt schools did a very good job in providing information on how to apply and pay for college. One parent in the focus groups explained, “…I do think that more of an effort needs to be made to meet students where they are, because many parents are not college educated and have never attended college, and they may not understand the rewards of attending college.” While parents agree that obtaining a college degree is important, they still want tools to help their child in this process.
Again, it is important to note that overall, many Black parents said schools were doing a good to fair job compared to falling short.
Footnotes
“...I do think that more of an effort needs to be made to meet students where they are, because many parents are not college educated and have never attended college, and they may not understand the rewards of attending college.” — African American parent,
focus group participant 
