New research published by the Upjohn Institute finds that non-black teachers have significantly lower educational expectations for black students than black teachers do when evaluating the same students. This is concerning, as teachers’ expectations likely shape student outcomes and systematic biases in teachers’ expectations for student success might contribute to persistent socio-demographic gaps in educational achievement and attainment.
The important point about this study is that it asks two teachers, one black and one non-black, to explain their expectations for individual student achievement for the same student at the same point in time. This method eliminates many of the complicating variables when attempting to isolate the role of race. However, the researchers add an important caveat about this research:
These results are not meant to, nor should they, demonize or implicate teachers. Biases in expectations are generally unintentional and are an artifact of how humans categorize complex information.Rather, we hope to start a dialogue between educators, policymakers, parents, researchers, and other stakeholders about the possible causes and consequences of systematic biases in teachers’ expectations for student achievement and attainment. Our findings highlight the need to better understand how teachers form expectations, what types of interventions can reduce or eliminate biases in teacher expectations, and perhaps most importantly, how such expectations and biases affect the long-run student outcomes of ultimate import. Correlations between teachers’ expectations and student outcomes are well documented, but whether or not this relationship is causal remains unclear; it is a question that our research group is currently working on.
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