TY  - JOUR
AB  - A growing body of research has highlighted the positive impact of Black teachers on the academic outcomes of Black students. This experimental study contributes to that literature by examining the relationship between teacher–student race matching and the likelihood of grade retention for third-grade Black students in Jackson, Mississippi. This study built on the historical legacy of Black educators as critical agents in advancing literacy and academic success within Black communities, dating back to the 19th-century Black literary societies, where freed Black individuals used literacy to advocate for abolition. Using Bayesian joint modeling, we analyzed retention patterns through administrative literacy data from Jackson Public Schools, in Jackson, Mississippi. This study demonstrates that same-race teacher matching is associated with Black boys receiving a 99.5% certain advantage in at least one of literacy and promotion, with a 96.1% certain advantage in literacy and a 94.3% advantage in promotion, offering a high-probability, zero-cost pathway to reducing racial disparities in student progression. Furthermore, findings of this study prompt the field to consider how structural representation can mitigate long-standing racial disparities in early literacy outcomes.
AU  - Moss, Phelton C.
AU  - Wooten, Jeffery
AU  - White, Ashley
PY  - 2026
ST  - Quantifying the Double Advantage: A Multilevel Bayesian Analysis of Same-Race (Black) Teacher Matching on Literacy and Promotion
TI  - Quantifying the Double Advantage: A Multilevel Bayesian Analysis of Same-Race (Black) Teacher Matching on Literacy and Promotion
UR  - http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai26-1505
ER  -