Who believes in me? The effect of student–teacher demographic match on teacher expectations

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn is a local and virtual international research center and a place of communication between science, politics and business. IZA is an independent nonprofit organization supported by Deutsche Post Foundation. The center is associated with the University of Bonn and offers a stimulating research environment through its international network, workshops and conferences, data service, project support, research visits and doctoral program. IZA engages in (i) original and internationally competitive research in all fields of labor economics, (ii) development of policy concepts, and (iii) dissemination of research results and concepts to the interested public. Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E SIZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author. Teachers are an important source of information for traditionally disadvantaged students. However, little is known about how teachers form expectations and whether their expectations are systematically biased. We investigate whether student-teacher demographic mismatch affects high school teachers' expectations for students' educational attainment. Using a student fixed effects strategy that exploits expectations data from two teachers per student, we find that non-black teachers of black students have significantly lower expectations than do black teachers. These effects are larger for black male students and math teachers. Our findings add to a growing literature on the role of limited information in perpetuating educational attainment gaps.JEL Classification: I24, D84, J15, J16

Trust and Discipline: Adolescents’ Institutional and Teacher Trust Predict Classroom Behavioral Engagement following Teacher Discipline

“…Research suggests that a trusting student-teacher relationship is built upon the teacher's consistent warmth and clear expectations, as well the student's high-quality engagement in the classroom (for reviews, see Gregory & Korth, 2016;Sabol & Pianta, 2012;Wang & Degol, 2016). Further support for the interpersonal nature of teacher-student relationships comes from research documenting variability in teachers' relationships with individual students (Gershenson, Holt, & Papageorge, 2016;Gregory & Thompson, 2010). In a seminal study by Gregory and Thompson (2010), adolescents indicated how fair each of their teachers were (e.g., "This teacher treats you more harshly than other students who do better than you in class"), and teachers reported on each adolescent's cooperative behavior in class.…”

The Impact of Demographic Representation on Absences and Suspensions

“…Indeed, research finds evidence of effects of student–teacher demographic mismatch on teacher behaviors in a variety of contexts. For example, black secondary school teachers have higher expectations for black students’ educational attainment than do white teachers (Gershenson, Holt, & Papageorge, ). Demographically matched teachers also have more frequent positive individual interactions with students (Casteel, ; Meier, Stewart, & England, ).…”

“…For instance, teachers may more actively support students of the same race. This may be through higher subjective assessments of ability and educational potential (Gershenson et al, ; Meier & Stewart, ; Ouazad, ) or higher effort on the part of teachers (Keiser et al, ; Meier & Stewart, ). Alternatively, absenteeism may be caused by parental and student discomfort with other‐race teachers through symbolic effects of demographic representation.…”

Black Teachers’ Retention and Transfer Patterns in North Carolina: How Do Patterns Vary by Teacher Effectiveness, Subject, and School Conditions?

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