Ethnic proportionality of teachers and students, and the link to school-level outcomes

Gorard, S.

Abstract

In England there are proportionately more White British teachers than White British pupils, and so a mismatch between the proportion of teachers and pupils of each ethnic minority group. This mismatch may reduce appropriate role models for some pupils, and has been linked to differences in school processes, and the behaviour and treatment of ethnic minority pupils. The evidence is weaker on any link between ethnic disproportionality and attainment. This paper uses school-level school workforce and pupil attainment data to assess this link. The results are presented as correlations between teacher/pupil characteristics and attainment scores at ages 11 and 16, and as regression models predicting attainment scores using teacher/pupil characteristics. There is no evidence here that ethnic (dis)proportionality is linked to discernible differences in pupil attainment, once relative poverty is taken into account. However, the data is linked at school rather than individual level, we cannot separate the attainment of pupils of different ethnic origins, and the ethnic classification for teachers is simply binary. We are working to overcome these data limitations, and hope to present future analyses based on individual data with more detailed ethnic groupings, to provide a more definitive result.

Citation

Gorard, S. (2023). Ethnic proportionality of teachers and students, and the link to school-level outcomes. Education Sciences, 13(8), Article 838. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080838

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 14, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Aug 17, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023-08
• Deposit Date: Aug 14, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 17, 2023
• Journal: Education Sciences
• Publisher: MDPI
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 8
• Article Number: 838
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13080838
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1716311
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/education