College students who are of the same race or ethnicity as their teaching assistants earn higher grades at statistically significant levels, and the findings are consistent across racial and ethnic groups, according to a study released this week.
The study, “TAs Like Me: Racial Interactions Between Graduate Teaching Assistants and Undergraduates,” was released by the National Bureau of Economic Research and examined grading patterns and student and teaching assistant demographics at a large, diverse university in California, which was not identified.
“From our model we predict a statistically significant 7.7 percent of a standard deviation increase in course grade when students are matched to TAs who are all of a similar race as themselves,” the study said.
