THE IMPACTS OF STUDENT-TEACHER RELATIONSHIPS AND RACE-MATCH MODERATION ON ABSENTEEISM : A FOUR WAVE LONGITUDINAL DATA STUDY

This study examines how affective (student-teacher relationships) and sociological factors (race) interact in educational settings to shape differential educational experiences for diverse subgroups. Studying these factors in isolation only partially explains the mechanisms that drive outcomes for students, especially those belonging to traditionally marginalized communities. Specifically, this study explores the influence of positive and negative student-teacher relationships on chronic absenteeism for early graders, and whether these associations differ for students who are and are not of the same race as their teacher. This study has the unique advantage of using the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: Kindergarten Class of 2011 (ECLSK:2011) panel data (N=16,980) collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The availability of ECLSK:2011, with currently available data from five waves of data collection, enables the robust analysis presented in this study. First, this study finds that good relationships have a negative association with chronic absenteeism and bad relationships have a positive association with chronic absenteeism. Second, this study finds that all teachers perceive their relationships to be less positive and more negative with Black students than with White students. Further, White teachers perceive their relationships with Black students to be less positive and more negative than with White students, implying that the racial identity of Black students influences their relationships with their teachers. And lastly, the study finds that Black students assigned to White teachers are more likely than White students assigned to White teachers to be chronically absent. This is confirmation of the adverse racial mismatch effect on absenteeism for Black students. Further, the effect of conflict on the likelihood of chronic absenteeism for the White student – White teacher group is positive, while the effect of conflict on the Black student – White teacher is negative. That is, while conflict positively predicts absenteeism for White students assigned to White teachers, higher conflict predicts a lower likelihood of absenteeism for Black students assigned to White teachers. The findings imply that classroom interactions and teacher perceptions affect the behaviors of students and potentially their parents. Further, this study suggests while the effect the poor relationships is negative for students in general, the effect of conflict is reversed for Black students with White teachers, which is unanticipated and needs more examination. Perhaps, White parents and Black parents are responding differently to student-teacher relationships formed in school. Ultimately, these findings elevate the role of affective factors in education research, highlighting the importance of cultivating positive student-teacher relationships in classrooms across varying school contexts and racial lines toward improving student outcomes.