Every child deserves an excellent education, yet Minnesota’s graduation gap between Black and white students ranks among the worst in the United States.
What is the cumulative effect on a Black child, who after 6 years in elementary school, has seen only white teachers and administrators?
Research comparing the academic outcomes of elementary school-age Black boys, based on whether they had a Black male teacher or not, revealed strikingly divergent results.
Students who had a Black male teacher were 29% less likely to drop out of school in subsequent years, with this figure rising to 39% for very low-income Black students.
