TY - JOUR T1 - School Principal Race, Teacher Racial Diversity, and Student Achievement JF - Journal of Human Resources JO - J Hum Resour DO - 10.3368/jhr.58.4.0218-9328R2 SP - 0218-9328R2 AU - Brendan Bartanen AU - Jason A. Grissom Y1 - 2021/02/10 UR - http://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2021/02/03/jhr.58.4.0218-9328R2.abstract N2 - Exploiting variation from principal and teacher transitions over long administrative data panels from Missouri and Tennessee, we estimate the effects of principal race on the racial composition of a school’s teachers. Evidence from the two states is strikingly similar. Principals increase the proportion of same-race teachers in the school by 1.9–2.3 percentage points, on average. Both increased hiring and increased retention of same-race teachers explain this compositional change. Further, leveraging longitudinal student-level data from Tennessee, we find that having a same-race principal improves math achievement but that this effect largely operates through avenues other than the racial composition of the teaching staff. ER -