School Principal Race, Teacher Racial Diversity, and Student Achievement

Exploiting variation from principal and teacher transitions over long administrative data panels from Missouri and Tennessee, we estimate the effects of principal race on the racial composition of a school's teachers. Evidence from the two states is strikingly similar. Principals increase the p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of human resources 2023-03, Vol.58 (2), p.666-712
Main Authors: Bartanen, Brendan, Grissom, Jason A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement
Hiring
Race
School principals
Teachers
Teaching
Teaching methods
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Summary:Exploiting variation from principal and teacher transitions over long administrative data panels from Missouri and Tennessee, we estimate the effects of principal race on the racial composition of a school's teachers. Evidence from the two states is strikingly similar. Principals increase the proportion of same-race teachers in the school by 1.9–2.3 percentage points, on average. Both increased hiring and increased retention of same-race teachers explain this compositional change. Further, leveraging longitudinal student-level data from Tennessee, we find that having a same-race principal improves math achievement, but this effect largely operates through avenues other than the racial composition of the teaching staff.
ISSN:0022-166X
1548-8004
DOI:10.3368/jhr.58.4.0218-9328R2