ABSTRACT
Several studies have recognized the need to increase minority teachers (Carnegie, 1986; Graham, 1987; AACTE, 1988; Eubanks, 1988; Merino and Quintanar, 1988). In general, this emphasis on increasing the number of minority teachers is centered on providing role models for students, both minority and majority, with little attention paid to the relationship between minority teachers and minority student achievement. Indeed, Rist (1970) suggests that minority teachers who have taken on the values and worldview of the white middle class have a deterimental effect on lower income, minority studentsrelegating them to the lowest reading group and the least amount of instruction. Thus, while the sense of democracy, equity, and fair play tell us that we ought to have more minority teachers with this increase in minority students, a more urgent sense of what is happening to minority students in the classroom should prompt us to more closely examine the kind of teaching that will be most effective for these students regardless of the ethnicity and cultural background of the teacher.
