Cal State receives federal grant to prepare more Latinos to become teachers

October 11, 2017

By Mikhail Zinshteyn

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“There’s a growing body of research that shows the congruence between teachers and students on race, ethnicity and even gender appears to help students,” said Thomas S. Dee, a professor of education at Stanford and director of the Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis.

He said there are several factors that contribute to students performing better when taught by teachers of similar backgrounds. “Teachers may exhibit unconscious biases that influence student learning,” he said, meaning that white teachers may instinctively discipline or second-guess black and Latino students differently than white students. Dee also cited stereotype threat — the phenomenon of individuals performing poorly because they feel pressure to disprove the stereotypes about them — as another reason some students may do worse when taught by white teachers.

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