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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Main Authors: Farfan Bertran, Maria Gabriela, Holla, Alaka, Vakis, Renos
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/930041616441079544/Poor-Expectations-Experimental-Evidence-on-Teachers-Stereotypes-and-Student-Assessment
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35305
id okr-10986-35305
recordtype oai_dc
spelling 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
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic TEACHER STEREOTYPING
STEREOTYPES
EDUCATION BIAS
INEQUALITY
STUDENT ASSESSMENT
EDUCATION
spellingShingle 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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