Racial Diversity, Representative Bureaucracy, and Equity in Multiracial School Districts*

Rene R. Rocha and Daniel P. Hawes

Social Science Quarterly, 2009, vol. 90, issue 2, 326-344

Abstract: Objective. This study examines the conditions under which minorities will face policy inequity within the educational system. It turns to the theory of representative bureaucracy as one possible explanation, and extends the literature by considering whether African‐American students benefit from the presence of Latinos on teaching faculties and vice versa. This study also tests competing theories of how racial context influences minority educational policy outcomes. Methods. This study combines original survey data with data gathered by the U.S. Census to predict levels of academic grouping in U.S. school districts as reported by the Office of Civil Rights. Results. Minority teachers lower levels of discrimination among all minority students, not just co‐ethnics. Moreover, minority teachers do so consistently and with a substantive impact that occasionally rivals that of co‐ethnic teachers. The findings also suggest that greater levels of racial/ethnic diversity within a district are associated with lower levels of discrimination. Conclusion. Theories of race relations must move beyond black‐Anglo or Latino‐Anglo relations to consider how multiple racial/ethnic groups interact, and how such interactions affect the lives of minority groups differently.

Date: 2009
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00620.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:socsci:v:90:y:2009:i:2:p:326-344

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0038-4941

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science Quarterly is currently edited by Robert L. Lineberry

More articles in Social Science Quarterly from Southwestern Social Science Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().