A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom

Robert Fairlie, Florian Hoffmann and Philip Oreopoulos

No 17381, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Detailed administrative data from a large and diverse community college are used to examine if academic performance depends on whether students are the same race or ethnicity as their instructors. To identify racial interactions and address many threats to internal validity we estimate models that include both student and classroom fixed effects. Given the large sample sizes and computational complexity of the 2-way fixed effects model we rely on numerical algorithms that exploit the particular structure of the model's normal equations. Although we find no evidence of endogenous sorting, we further limit potential biases from sorting by focusing on students with restricted course enrollment options due to low registration priorities, students not getting first section choices, and on courses with no within-term or within-year racial variation in instructors. We find that the performance gap in terms of class dropout rates, pass rates, and grade performance between white and underrepresented minority students falls by 20-50 percent when taught by an underrepresented minority instructor. We also find these interactions affect longer term outcomes such as subsequent course selection, retention, and degree completion. Potential mechanisms for these positive interactions are examined.

JEL-codes: I20 I23 J24 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published as Fairlie, Robert W., Florian Hoffmann, and Philip Oreopoulos. "A community college instructor like me: Race and ethnicity interactions in the classroom" American Economic Review (forthcoming)

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Related works:
Journal Article: A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom (2014)
Working Paper: A community college instructor like me: Race and ethnicity interactions in the classroom (2014)
Working Paper: A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom (2011)
Working Paper: A Community College Instructor like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom (2011)
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