Model Minorities in the Classroom? Positive Evaluation Bias towards Asian Students and its Consequences

Ying Shi and Maria Zhu

No 253, Center for Policy Research Working Papers from Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Abstract: The fast-growing demographic group of Asian Americans is often perceived as a “model minority.” This paper establishes empirical evidence of this stereotype in the context of education and then analyzes its consequences. We show that teachers rate Asian students’ academic skills more favorably than observationally similar White students in the same class, even after accounting for test performance and behavior. This contrasts with teachers’ lower likelihood of favoring Black and Hispanic students. Notably, teachers respond to the presence of any Asian student in the classroom by exacerbating Black-White and Hispanic-White assessment gaps. This suggests that the “model minority” stereotype can negatively impact other minority groups de-spite its ostensibly positive connotation.

Keywords: Teacher Evaluation; Racial Bias; Asian Americans (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 72 pages
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-sea and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: “Model minorities” in the classroom? Positive evaluation bias towards Asian students and its consequences (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:max:cprwps:253

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