Does Advisor-Advisee Relationship with Content Teacher Impact Student Learning? Causal Evidence from Chinese Middle Schools

• In Event: Explaining Student Outcomes: The Role of School Structures and Context

Abstract

In this study, I present empirical evidence on whether having advisor-advisee relationship with content teacher has meaningful impacts on student learning. The unique Chinese school setting, where advisory teachers also teach subject classes, creates a comparison condition between students being taught by advisors versus non-advisor teachers. Importantly, a national regulation of random assignment of teachers to students allows me to isolate advisor-advisee relationship from other confounding factors. Analyzing national longitudinal data of Chinese middle school students, I find that being taught by advisor improves student performance in math, confidence in learning Chinese, and both performance and confidence in English. In all, advisor-advisee relationship with content teacher has substantial causal impacts on multiple dimensions of academic outcomes of Chinese middle school students.

Author

• Congli Zhang, University of Oregon