Hispanic English learners perform better academically when they have Hispanic teachers who have a bilingual language certification, a new study found.
The study, led by Michael Gottfried, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, and published in the Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis journal in late September, builds on years of research linking student academic gains with whether they have teachers who match their racial/ethnic backgrounds.
Gottfried and fellow researchers wanted to explore why cultural and linguistic matches between teachers and students led to improved academic performance.
Past research has often found that Black teachers, in particular, offer a benefit to all students, no matter their racial/ethnic background, and there is some emerging research that shows Latino educators offer similar benefits, said Christopher J. Nellum, executive director of EdTrust-West, the California-focused office of the national research and advocacy group. (Nellum did not participate in Gottfried’s study.)
“We actually need to be taking a more nuanced look at who our educators are, because this [new study] is showing both a racial and ethnic matching phenomenon and a match around multilingualism, which I think is really powerful in this case, for Latino students,” Nellum said.
Study examined the role teacher training plays in student performance
Gottfried and the co-authors of the new study focused on data from the mid-2010s of a California school district where both the teacher and student population were largely either white or Hispanic.
They examined multiple scenarios, including Hispanic students with white teachers, Hispanic students with Hispanic teachers, Hispanic students with Hispanic teachers who also had a bilingual certification, as well as scenarios involving Hispanic English learners.
They found that Hispanic students taught by Hispanic teachers scored higher on standardized tests.
But the biggest gains in test scores, especially in math, were visible when Hispanic English learners were paired with Hispanic teachers who had a bilingual language certification. This certification means teachers can teach academic content in a language other than English (in the study’s case, Spanish).
While the study included scenarios where Hispanic English learners were paired with white teachers who had a bilingual certification, there wasn’t really an effect on student performance in such instances.
The specific combination of cultural competence and academic background is key, Gottfried said.
“This is saying that the needs of the student can be met by having a similarity,” he added. “But there also has to be some sort of academic qualification to that. The Hispanic teacher also needs to hold a language certification.”
“The training of our workforce does make a difference here,” Gottfried said.
In future studies, it might be useful to collect quantitative data on students’ experiences with teachers who match their racial/ethnic and linguistic background to better get at why such matching leads to improved academic performance, Gottfried said.
Policymakers can help address teacher diversity, preparation needs
Based on the study’s findings, Gottfried and Nellum spoke of the need for more teachers of color with specialized training, such as language certifications.
Gottfried suggested pipelines that connect potential students to teacher education programs, though he recognizes that building out such pathways can take decades of work. He also spoke of the need to get existing teachers who have some Spanish-language background to get bilingual certification.
Some local initiatives designed to grow teacher of color populations have, however, met legal action from the Trump administration, as in the case of a loan forgiveness program in Rhode Island. And the Trump administration has cut some federal grant programs aimed at training more teachers in how to work with English learners.
Still, experts like Nellum say state policymakers can get involved in prioritizing filling gaps in students’ access to qualified teachers of color, Nellum said.
While California has one of the largest English-learner populations in the country, the state ranks near the bottom in terms of students’ access to dual language programs, Nellum said. The state also has a major gap in terms of the number of teachers with bilingual certification.
“That’s a choice. That’s not just a missed opportunity, it’s a policy failure,” Nellum said.
“If states are committed and they want student attainment to improve, this isn’t something that we can ignore,” he added.
“This isn’t just about race. It’s not just about ethnicity or language. This is a workforce issue and it’s an economic issue, and I would argue it’s also a moral issue.”
