Study: Black teachers more optimistic than white ones on black students' prospects

A new study finds black teachers are more likely than white teachers to expect academic success from black students, even when they’re assessing the same student.

“When a black teacher and a white teacher evaluate the same black student, the white teacher is about 30 percent less likely to predict the student will complete a four-year college degree,” a press release from Johns Hopkins University says. “White teachers are also almost 40 percent less likely to expect their black students will graduate high school.” The gap widens when non-black teachers predict a black male student’s success.