Poor Expectations : Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Stereotypes and Student Assessment
Do teachers’ stereotypes of social class bias their assessment of students? This study uses a lab-in-the-field experiment among primary school teachers to test whether they are biased against poor students. Teachers assessed a student in a video of...
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2021
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okr-10986-353052022-09-20T00:09:44Z Poor Expectations : Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Stereotypes and Student Assessment Farfan Bertran, Maria Gabriela Holla, Alaka Vakis, Renos TEACHER STEREOTYPING STEREOTYPES EDUCATION BIAS INEQUALITY STUDENT ASSESSMENT EDUCATION Do teachers’ stereotypes of social class bias their assessment of students? This study uses a lab-in-the-field experiment among primary school teachers to test whether they are biased against poor students. Teachers assessed a student in a video of an oral exam after watching one of two versions of an introductory video that portrayed the child’s home and playground. When the student in the exam video exhibited inconsistent performance, showing varying levels of scholastic aptitude and focus during the exam, teachers were far more likely to judge his scholastic aptitude as below grade-level if they had watched the introductory video portraying a poor background than if they had watched the introductory video portraying a middle-class background. The social class background portrayed in the introductory video did not affect teachers’ behavioral assessments of the student. When the student in the exam video was consistently high achieving, showing high levels of scholastic aptitude and focus throughout the exam, teachers who watched the introductory video depicting a poor background were more likely to assess the student as above grade-level than teachers who watched the video conveying a middle-class background. In this case, however, they had a more negative assessment of the child’s behavior when they thought he came from a poor background, deeming him to be less motivated and less emotionally mature than when the introductory video depicted a middle-class background. These findings suggest that stereotypes influence how teachers assess the scholastic aptitude and behavior of their students. 2021-03-25T14:16:43Z 2021-03-25T14:16:43Z 2021-03 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/930041616441079544/Poor-Expectations-Experimental-Evidence-on-Teachers-Stereotypes-and-Student-Assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35305 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9593 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper |
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institution |
Digital Repositories |
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World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
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World Bank |
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English |
topic |
TEACHER STEREOTYPING STEREOTYPES EDUCATION BIAS INEQUALITY STUDENT ASSESSMENT EDUCATION |
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TEACHER STEREOTYPING STEREOTYPES EDUCATION BIAS INEQUALITY STUDENT ASSESSMENT EDUCATION Farfan Bertran, Maria Gabriela Holla, Alaka Vakis, Renos Poor Expectations : Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Stereotypes and Student Assessment |
relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9593 |
description |
Do teachers’ stereotypes of social class
bias their assessment of students? This study uses a
lab-in-the-field experiment among primary school teachers to
test whether they are biased against poor students. Teachers
assessed a student in a video of an oral exam after watching
one of two versions of an introductory video that portrayed
the child’s home and playground. When the student in the
exam video exhibited inconsistent performance, showing
varying levels of scholastic aptitude and focus during the
exam, teachers were far more likely to judge his scholastic
aptitude as below grade-level if they had watched the
introductory video portraying a poor background than if they
had watched the introductory video portraying a middle-class
background. The social class background portrayed in the
introductory video did not affect teachers’ behavioral
assessments of the student. When the student in the exam
video was consistently high achieving, showing high levels
of scholastic aptitude and focus throughout the exam,
teachers who watched the introductory video depicting a poor
background were more likely to assess the student as above
grade-level than teachers who watched the video conveying a
middle-class background. In this case, however, they had a
more negative assessment of the child’s behavior when they
thought he came from a poor background, deeming him to be
less motivated and less emotionally mature than when the
introductory video depicted a middle-class background. These
findings suggest that stereotypes influence how teachers
assess the scholastic aptitude and behavior of their students. |
format |
Working Paper |
author |
Farfan Bertran, Maria Gabriela Holla, Alaka Vakis, Renos |
author_facet |
Farfan Bertran, Maria Gabriela Holla, Alaka Vakis, Renos |
author_sort |
Farfan Bertran, Maria Gabriela |
title |
Poor Expectations : Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Stereotypes and Student Assessment |
title_short |
Poor Expectations : Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Stereotypes and Student Assessment |
title_full |
Poor Expectations : Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Stereotypes and Student Assessment |
title_fullStr |
Poor Expectations : Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Stereotypes and Student Assessment |
title_full_unstemmed |
Poor Expectations : Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Stereotypes and Student Assessment |
title_sort |
poor expectations : experimental evidence on teachers' stereotypes and student assessment |
publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/930041616441079544/Poor-Expectations-Experimental-Evidence-on-Teachers-Stereotypes-and-Student-Assessment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35305 |
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