De Anza College students were the subject of a recently published five – year study by three economic professors on the relationship between a student’s ethnicity, that of their professor’s, and the student’s academic standing. The paper, A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom, found there was strong evidence to conclude that students, regardless of race, did better academically if paired with a professor of the same ethnic group. 

De Anza College was chosen as it is one of the largest community colleges in the nation, part of the largest community college system – the California Community College system which includes 110 colleges and educates 2.6 million students each year – and because it is one of the most diverse colleges in the United States. 

The study, from third quarter 2002 to second quarter 2007, was conducted by Robert Fairlie from the University of California Santa Cruz, Florian Hoffmann from the University of British Columbia, and Philip Oreopoulos from the University of Toronto. Their findings were published this month in the National Bureau of Economic Research, a journal famous for giving the start and end dates to all U.S. recessions. The study involved more than 30,000 students and is believed to be the the first of its kind. 

Findings concluded that Hispanic and black students, more than any other, improve their grades and pass rates and stay enrolled longer if their professors are of the same ethnic background.  Black students were the most likely to benefit from professors of similar ethnicity while whites were the least likely. Though the benefits of having professors of similar ethnicity were true for all ethnic groups, Asian and white students did equally well when their professors were of either white or Asian ethnicity. 

Additionally, to correct their findings for racially biased grading, the researchers expected to find a racial bias across all age groups, and, with great relief, found none. Researchers concluded that wide spread racial discrimination or preference grading was a non-issue as data showed that age groups older than 21.5 years had a diminished to non-existent benefits. Researchers concluded that rather than professors driving minority students to succeed, students drove themselves to succeed as “young students are likely to be susceptible to role-model effects, while older students are not.”

The limited scope of the research, one college in one state, may not have been lost on the researchers as they stopped just short of advising colleges to hire more minority professors writing, “a more detailed understanding… is needed before drawing recommendations for improving overall outcomes. The topic is ripe for further research.”

For more information, visit: http://nber.org/papers/w17381