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

Arbeitspapier

Teachers are an important source of information for traditionally disadvantaged students. However, little is known about how teachers form expectations and whether they 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 nonblack 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.

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• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Upjohn Institute Working Paper ; No. 15-231

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Education and Inequality ; Expectations; Speculations ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
• Subject: Educational Attainment ; Expectations ; Stigmatization ; Mismatch

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gershenson, Seth ; Holt, Stephen B. ; Papageorge, Nicholas
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
• (where): Kalamazoo, MI
• (when): 2015

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.17848/wp15-231
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/126263