Quality of Classroom Interactions and the Demographic Divide: Evidence From the Measures of Effective Teaching Study

Abstract

Using data from six urban school districts, we examine the relationship between the quality of interactions in the classroom (measured by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System [CLASS] framework) and the racial match or mismatch between teachers and the students in their classes. We find that White teachers have lower scores on the CLASS framework when they teach classes with higher densities of Black students. Furthermore, in classrooms with high densities of Black students, Black teachers receive higher scores than White teachers. This finding has important implications given the demographics of our nation’s public schools and the underrepresentation of Black teachers.