Teachers to Boys?—Scoring Bias, Stereotypes, and the Teacher Market in Rural Philippines: A Natural Experiment in Marinduque, MIMAROPA, Southern Luzon

This chapter examines teacher evaluation bias as a potential driver of reversed gender disparities in academic performance in rural Philippines. Leveraging a natural experimental design, we analyze a difference-in-differences (DID) estimand between “non-blind” report-card (RC) scores and “blind” standardized test (NAT) scores for the same students. Despite controlling for individual, household, and other school characteristics, boys consistently underperform in teacher-assigned scores—a discrepancy not observed in blind assessments. We identify two mechanisms: (i) implicit stereotypes favoring girls, and (ii) the tendency for teacher evaluations to capture diligence-related behaviors where boys may fall short. This gendered biasing effect on the scores is compounded by a highly gender-skewed teacher labor market, where female teachers dominate due to limited professional alternatives for educated women in underdeveloped local economies. Our findings suggest that evaluation bias is not merely pedagogical but rooted in broader institutional and labor market structures. The chapter concludes with implications for gender-equalizing education policy and the importance of integrating educational reforms with economic development strategies aimed at diversifying employment pathways, rather than attributing disparities solely to individual teacher consciousness.