IMMIGRANT BIAS: DO IMMIGRANT TEACHERS PERCEIVE STUDENTS DIFFERENTLY AND AFFECT STUDENT'S SCHOLASTIC INTEREST?

Abstract

This paper explores the role of immigrant teachers in bridging the immigrant-native student achievement gap by studying immigrant teachers’ (viz-a-viz native teachers’) perceptions of students and immigrant teachers’ effect on students’ interest in subjects. Furthermore, this paper evaluates how the immigrant teacher effect varies by student nativity. A nationally representative dataset of 8th graders from the United States is used, which allows for a student-fixed effects approach. Results show that while immigrant teacher bias exists, it largely does not vary by student nativity. Immigrant teachers have a higher likelihood of perceiving a student as tardy and students have a higher likelihood of finding the subject taught by an immigrant teacher as not useful in the future. Immigrant teachers’ perception and effect on students’ scholastic interest mostly does not vary by student nativity. These results cast doubt on policymakers’ suggestion of recruiting more immigrant teachers to bridge immigrant-native student achievement gap.