Bias in the Air: A Nationwide Exploration of Teachers’ Implicit Racial Attitudes, Aggregate Bias, and Student Outcomes

Abstract

Theory suggests that teachers’ implicit racial attitudes affect their students, but large-scale evidence on U.S. teachers’ implicit biases and their correlates is lacking. Using nationwide data from Project Implicit, we found that teachers’ implicit White/Black biases (as measured by the implicit association test) vary by teacher gender and race. Teachers’ adjusted bias levels are lower in counties with larger shares of Black students. In the aggregate, counties in which teachers hold higher levels of implicit and explicit racial bias have larger adjusted White/Black test score inequalities and White/Black suspension disparities.

Bias, Fairness, and Validity in Graduate Admissions: A Psychometric Perspective

“…Even in graduate school, students experience discrimination and harassment (Williams & Writer, 2019). Educators themselves (who eventually provide recommendations) are often found to be implicitly biased against URM (Chin et al, 2020). Indeed, research shows that implicit bias exists in letters of recommendation (Houser & Lemmons, 2018a).…”

Beyond students: how teacher psychology shapes educational inequality

“…These biases predict group disparities in students' achievement and attainment [11][12][13][14][15][16]. Teachers' bias can predict worse outcomes for students belonging to the disfavored group [11,12], better outcomes for students belonging to the favored group [13], or both [14].…”

“…For example, students in New Zealand performed substantially better in math when their teacher implicitly favored their ethnic group [13] and Dutch teachers' implicit bias predicted the size of ethnic achievement gaps in their classes [15]. Additionally, test score and disciplinary disparities between Black and White students in the USA are larger in counties where teachers hold more implicit and explicit anti-Black/pro-White bias [16].…”

Delivering on the Promise of the Science of Reading for All Children

“…These findings should not be surprising. Teachers, like all people, hold implicit and explicit biases (Chin et al, 2020; Starck et al, 2020). Although this literature has been focused primarily on teachers, it is likely that these biases exist among all education stakeholders, including principals, parents and caregivers, policymakers, curriculum developers, and researchers.…”