For instance, her results suggest that having a more female peer group raises both male and female scores in reading and math. In Texas, black and Hispanic students tend to enter school with lower initial achievement. Hoxby finds that it does. Students who are exposed to unusually low achieving cohorts tend to score lower themselves. Interestingly enough, black students appear to be particularly affected by the achievement of other black students.
Hispanic students appear to be particularly affected by the achievement of other Hispanic students.
In fact, Hispanic students do better when in majority Hispanic cohorts, even though the additional Hispanic students tend to have lower initial achievement. It may be that in classes with more Hispanics, a student who is learning English is more likely to find a bilingual student who helps him out. Hoxby finds little evidence of a general asymmetry, though, such as low achievers gaining more by being with high achievers and that high achievers lose by being with low achievers.