Eddy, C. M., & Easton-Brooks, D. (2011). Ethnic matching, school placement, and mathematics achievement of african american students from kindergarten through fifth grade. Urban Education, 46(6), 1280-1299.

Educators, administrators, and policymakers focus much attention on closing the achievement gap, and various approaches have been suggested. The present study focuses on one approach being suggested: student-teacher ethnic matching. The study focused on the long-term contributions of African American ethnic matching to mathematical test scores of 1,200 African American students from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Kindergarten — fifth data set. Employing a two-level growth model, this study of impact from student-teacher ethnic matching revealed that a student having at least one teacher who ethnically matched themselves between kindergarten and fifth grade had a significant impact on mathematics achievement.

Full article can be found here: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042085911413149