The role of racial diversity at college campuses has been debated for over a half a century with limited quasi-experimental evidence from classrooms. To fill this void, I estimate the extent that classmate racial compositions affect Hispanic and African-American students at a large and over-subscribed California community college where they are minorities. I find that when minority students are exposed to a greater share of same race classmates, they are more likely to complete the class with a pass and are more likely to enroll in a same subject course the subsequent term. The findings are robust to first-time students with the lowest registration priority vs. all students and different combinations of fixed effects (e.g., student, class, and instructor race).
Underrepresented Minority Students in College: The Role of Classmates
Keywords
minority students, achievement gap, diversity
Education level
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/fmey-7j42
EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:
Oliver, Daniel. (). Underrepresented Minority Students in College: The Role of Classmates. (EdWorkingPaper: -673). Retrieved from
Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/fmey-7j42Related Resources from the EdExchange
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