Systemic inequities in introductory physics courses: the impacts of learning assistants

TL;DR

This study investigates how Learning Assistant-supported courses influence equity in student performance across gender and racial/ethnic groups in introductory physics, finding overall performance improves but gaps remain unchanged.

Contribution

It provides the first hierarchical linear modeling analysis of LA support effects on equity gaps in physics education across diverse student groups.

Findings

LA support improves overall student performance

Performance gaps across groups increase from pre to post

LA support does not significantly reduce performance disparities

Abstract

Creating equitable performance outcomes among students is a focus of many instructors and researchers. One focus of this effort is examining disparities in physics student performance across genders, which is a well-established problem. Another less common focus is disparities across racial and ethnic groups, which may have received less attention due to low representation rates making it difficult to identify gaps in their performance. In this investigation we examined associations between Learning Assistant (LA) supported courses and improved equity in student performance. We built Hierarchical Linear Models of student performance to investigate how performance differed by gender and by race/ethnicity and how LAs may have moderated those differences. Data for the analysis came from pre-post concept inventories in introductory mechanics courses collected through the Learning About STEM Student Outcomes (LASSO) platform. Our models show that gaps in performance across genders and races/ethnicities were similar in size and increased from pre to post instruction. LA-support is meaningfully and reliably associated with improvement in overall student performance but not with shifts in within-course performance gaps.