“Model minorities” in the classroom? Positive evaluation bias towards Asian students and its consequences

The fast-growing demographic group of Asian Americans is often perceived as a “model minority.” This paper establishes empirical evidence of this stereotype in the education context and then analyzes its consequences. We show that teachers rate Asian students’ academic performance more favorably than observationally similar White students. This contrasts with teachers’ lower likelihood of favoring Black and Hispanic students, even after accounting for performance and behavior. Notably, the presence of any Asian student in the classroom exacerbates Black-White and Hispanic-White assessment gaps. This suggests that the “model minority” stereotype can negatively impact other minority groups despite its ostensibly positive connotation.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Journal of Public Economics

• Publication date

  2023-04-01

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104838
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• First Impressions: The Case of Teacher Racial Bias

  2020cited by this paper
• Asian American Discrimination in Harvard Admissions

  2020cited by this paper
• Persistency in Teachers’ Grading Bias and Effects on Longer-Term Outcomes: University Admissions Exams and Choice of Field of Study

  2019cited by this paper
• Do School Counselors Exhibit Bias in Recommending Students for Advanced Coursework?

  2019cited by this paper
• On the origins of gender gaps in human capital: Short- and long-term consequences of teachers' biases

  2018cited by this paper
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecies in the Classroom

  2017cited by this paper
• Teacher Expectations Matter

  2016cited by this paper
• Are teacher assessments biased? – evidence from Sweden

  2016influential reference
• Upward Mobility and Discrimination: The Case of Asian Americans

  2016cited by this paper
• Can Tracking Raise the Test Scores of High-Ability Minority Students?.

  2016cited by this paper
• The Asian American Achievement Paradox

  2015cited by this paper
• Racial Discrimination in Grading: Evidence from Brazil

  2015cited by this paper
• Descriptive Statistics for Modern Test Score Distributions

  2015cited by this paper
• TAs Like Me: Racial Interactions between Graduate Teaching Assistants and Undergraduates

  2015cited by this paper
• Explaining Asian Americans’ academic advantage over whites

  2014cited by this paper
• Assessed by a Teacher Like Me: Race and Teacher Assessments

  2014cited by this paper
• Stereotypes

  2014cited by this paper
• Students' perceptions of teacher biases : experimental economics in schools

  2013cited by this paper
• The insidious (and ironic) effects of positive stereotypes

  2013cited by this paper
• The Color of Success

  2013cited by this paper
• Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice? Teacher Perceptions of Black Girls in the Classroom

  2012cited by this paper
• The Economic Status of Asian Americans Before and After the Civil Rights Act

  2012cited by this paper
• The "model minority myth": Internalized racialism of positive stereotypes as correlates of psychological distress, and attitudes toward help-seeking

  2011cited by this paper
• The Effect of Classmate Characteristics on Post- Secondary Outcomes: Evidence from the Add Health^

  2011cited by this paper
• Under Pressure? The Effect of Peers on Outcomes of Young Adults

  2010cited by this paper
• Studying is lame when he got game: racial stereotypes and the discouragement of Black student-athletes from schoolwork

  2010cited by this paper
• Socioeconomic Attainments of Asian Americans

  2009influential reference
• Test Scores, Subjective Assessment and Stereotyping of Ethnic Minorities

  2009cited by this paper
• Gender Wage Disparities among the Highly Educated

  2008cited by this paper
• Do gender stereotypes reduce girls' or boys' human capital outcomes? Evidence from a natural experiment

  2008cited by this paper
• Harming the Best: How Schools Affect the Black-White Achievement Gap. NBER Working Paper No. 14211.

  2008cited by this paper
• Are Native-born Asian Americans Less Likely To Be Managers? Further Evidence on the Glass-ceiling Hypothesis

  2006cited by this paper
• Teacher Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Knowns and Unknowns, Resolved and Unresolved Controversies

  2005cited by this paper
• Asian Americans in the Labor Market: Public Policy Issues

  2005influential reference
• A demographic portrait of Asian Americans

  2005cited by this paper
• The effects of race and problem type on teachers' assessments of student behavior.

  2003cited by this paper
• Minority Students in Special and Gifted Education.

  2002cited by this paper
• When Positive Stereotypes Threaten Intellectual Performance: The Psychological Hazards of “Model Minority” Status

  2000cited by this paper
• Race and Gender Wage Gaps in the Market for Recent College Graduates

  1998cited by this paper
• Great Expectations: The Negative Consequences of Falling Short1

  1998cited by this paper
• Factors Contributing to the Academic Excellence of American Jewish and Asian Students.

  1995cited by this paper
• Asian Americans as Model Minorities? A Look at Their Academic Performance

  1995cited by this paper
• Bilingualism and Testing: A Special Case of Bias

  1994cited by this paper
• Discrimination at the Top: American‐Born Asian and White Men

  1992cited by this paper
• An Analysis of the Earnings and Employment of Asian-American Men

  1983influential reference
• Subjective Probability: A Judgment of Representativeness

  1972cited by this paper
• Pygmalion in the classroom

  1968cited by this paper

• Caste identity and teachers’ biased expectations: Evidence from Bihar, India

  2026cites this paper
• In the Middle of Somewhere: Cultural Identity and Conflicts of Korean Heritage Speakers in the United States

  2025cites this paper
• Teacher Bias and Evaluation Differences in Test Scores: Different Methods for Different Questions

  2025cites this paper
• Critical and Reflective Intercultural Communication Education: Practising Interculturality Through Visual Art

  2025cites this paper
• The Impact of Parental Involvement on the GPA of South Asian American Highschool Students in New Jersey

  2025cites this paper
• How Mythical Is the Model Minority Stereotype? Asian American Variations in Socioeconomic Achievement

  2025cites this paper
• New evidence on the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in leadership positions

  2024cites this paper
• The Extent and Consequences of Teacher Biases Against Immigrants

  2024cites this paper
• Integrating Minorities in the Classroom: The Role of Students, Parents, and Teachers

  2024cites this paper
• Differences in Teachers’ Assessments of Students by English Learner Status

  2024cites this paper
• The Asian American assimilation paradox

  2023cites this paper
• SURFACE at Syracuse University SURFACE at Syracuse University

  year unknowncites this paper
• Tracing the Origins of Gender Bias in Teacher Grading ∗

  year unknowncites this paper