The Status of Student Academic Performance Based on the Demographic Representation of Public Middle School Teachers and Students in the Commonwealth of Virginia

Abstract

The ethnic demographic composition of the United States is changing (NCES, 2014). The increase in diversity in the country, has changed the ethnic demographic composition in public schools. In the 1980s the United States saw an increase in minority educators in public schools (Ingersoll and May, 2016) that continued to rise over the next two decades. Currently, the percentage of minority students in public schools exceeds the percentage of White students. Specifically, in the Commonwealth of Virginia 49% of public school students are ethnic minorities (TDVEP, 2017). The increase in diversity in both students and teachers did not create proportional representation between the two groups. The hypothesis that a school division with a proportionate ethnic demographic representation of teachers and students will increase student academic performance can be measured by determining whether a disparity between licensed minority teachers and minority students exist. This study investigated the status of student academic performance based on the ethnic demographic representation of public middle school teachers and students in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The ethnicities of teachers and students in all comprehensive middle school students were collected and reported by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). The Reading and Mathematics Standards of Learning Pass rates data were also collected and reported by the VDOE. There were seven key findings collected from this study. The first finding was when reviewing for disproportionality of targeted subgroups, the teacher student ratio indicated an overrepresentation of White teachers to White students. The second finding was five of the eight middle schools with the highest Hispanic disproportionality rates when considering the ratio of Hispanic teachers to Hispanic students were in the Commonwealth of Virginia's, Superintendent's Region 4. Finding three indicates that Asian students, even in schools with high disproportionality rates, exceeded state benchmarks for SOL pass rates in Reading and Mathematics. Finding 4 revealed seven of the eight middle schools (88%) with the highest disproportionality rates for Black students had reading SOL pass rates below the state benchmark. Finding 5 indicates that when reviewing the number of schools with disproportionate representation for any of the subgroups, disproportional representation of Hispanic teachers to students was the most frequently identified. The sixth finding was When reviewing the number of schools with disproportionate representation for any of the subgroups, disproportional representation of Black teachers to students was the second most frequently identified. Finally, finding seven displays Hispanic students in all eight schools with the highest disproportionality rates of Hispanic teachers to Hispanic students fell below the state benchmarks in SOL pass rates.