Beyond Test Scores: The Impact of Black Teacher Role Models on Rigorous Math Taking

Rigorous math has a positive impact on ultimate educational attainment and earnings, but black high school students enroll in advanced math classes at low rates. Curriculum choice is determined by prior academic achievement and expectations for future schooling, both of which can be influenced by role models. This article finds that increasing the percentage of math teachers who are black has a nontrivial, positive impact on the likelihood that a black geometry student will enroll in a subsequent rigorous math course. This race‐based role model effect occurs only for opposite‐sex student/teacher matches.