Working Paper: NBER ID: w21568
Authors: Lester Lusher; Doug Campbell; Scott Carrell
Abstract: Over the past 40 years, higher education institutions in the U.S. have experienced a dramatic shift in the racial composition of students enrolled in both undergraduate and graduate programs. Using administrative data from a large, diverse university in California, we identify the extent to which the academic outcomes of undergraduates are affected by the race/ethnicity of their graduate student teaching assistants (TAs). To overcome selection issues in course taking, we exploit the timing of TA assignments, which occur after students enroll in a course, and we estimate models with both class and student fixed effects. Results show a positive and significant increase in course grades when students are assigned TAs of a similar race/ethnicity. These effects are largest in classes where TAs are given advanced copies of exams and when exams had no multiple choice questions. We also find that assignment to similar race TAs positively affect both section and office hour attendance, suggesting that TA-student match quality and role model effects are the primary drivers of the results.
Keywords: Teaching Assistants; Racial Interactions; Higher Education; Academic Outcomes
JEL Codes: I20; I23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| TA race (R59) | undergraduate academic outcomes (A22) |
| similar race TA (J15) | course grades (A23) |
| similar race TA (J15) | section attendance (Y20) |
| similar race TA (J15) | office hour attendance (J22) |
| critical thinking skills (G53) | academic success (I24) |
| TA race (R59) | match quality and role model effects (C52) |