Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in the Labor Market for Child Care Teachers

This article examines racial and ethnic discrimination in the child care teacher hiring process. We construct a unique data set that combines a résumé audit study of center-based providers with a follow-up survey of those in the original audit sample. Fictitious résumés were randomly assigned White-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Educational researcher 2019-10, Vol.48 (7), p.394-406
Main Authors: Boyd-Swan, Casey, Herbst, Chris M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advantaged
Advertisements
African Americans
Child care
Child Care Centers
Child Caregivers
Children
Class Size
Community Characteristics
Early Childhood Teachers
Ethnic Groups
Ethnicity
Hispanic Americans
Interviews
Job Applicants
Labor Market
Polls & surveys
Racial Discrimination
Resumes (Personal)
Social Discrimination
State Regulation
Teacher Qualifications
Teacher Selection
Teachers
White people
Whites
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Summary:This article examines racial and ethnic discrimination in the child care teacher hiring process. We construct a unique data set that combines a résumé audit study of center-based providers with a follow-up survey of those in the original audit sample. Fictitious résumés were randomly assigned White-, Black-, and Hispanic-sounding names and submitted in response to real teacher job advertisements. The survey was then administered to capture the characteristics of children, teachers, and administrators within the center. These data reveal three key results. First, we find robust evidence of discrimination: Black and Hispanic applicants receive significantly fewer interview requests than observationally equivalent Whites. Second, our results are consistent with a model of customer discrimination: The racial and ethnic composition of the center’s customer base is correlated with the characteristics of job seekers receiving an interview. Finally, we show that states’ child care regulations mitigate the racial and ethnic gap in interview requests.
ISSN:0013-189X
1935-102X
DOI:10.3102/0013189X19867941