A recent study suggests that students do better when their teaching assistant is of a similar race or ethnicity as them. However, the study must be conducted on a larger scale before it is accepted as a valid scientific fact.

Data collected by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that students who are of a similar cultural background as their TAs were more likely to engage with them in an academic setting, which improved the student’s overall performance in class.

The data suggests that in classes without multiple choice exams where the TA has access to the exam before hand, there is an improvement in academic performance for some students. Students who attend discussion sections and office hours are beneficiaries of this trend, and also likely of the same race as the TA, according to the study.

Data was also taken from a 2014-15 audit study which recorded the attendance of optional TA discussion sections and office hours.

This conclusion was formed on data collected from professors who taught an economics class during the study. The professors were given a survey about exam structure, including whether the exams were multiple choice or essay and if TAs had access to the exams before the examination date.

But the study was conducted on too small of a sample size to be seen as accurate. The data was collected from the Department of Economics of a public university in California, which is hardly representative of a national trend. Still, the study’s findings are worth investigating on a greater scale to see if the results warrant a broader discussion.

While it may be possible for students to feel more comfortable when they are able to relate to their TA based on shared race or ethnicity on an individual basis, Syracuse University and other institutions should not recognize these findings until the study is conducted on a larger scale.

SU should continue to assign students randomly to instructors who were hired based on skill, rather than potential cultural association with students.

Published on September 27, 2015 at 11:55 pm

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