IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cep/ceedps/0098.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Assessed by a Teacher Like Me: Race, Gender and Subjective Evaluations

Author

Abstract

The underrepresentation of minority teachers and male teachers remains an issue in US elementary education, and there is evidence that racial interactions partly shape student performance. However there is little work on discrimination within the classroom. Do teachers give better grades to children of their own race, ethnicity or gender? A US nationally representative longitudinal dataset that includes both test scores and teacher assessments offers a unique opportunity to answer this question. I look at the effect of being assessed by a same race or same gender teacher conditionally on test scores, child effects and teacher effects. This strategy controls for three confounding effects: (i) children of different races and genders may react differently in the classroom and during examinations (ii) teachers may capture skills that are not captured by test scores and (iii) tough teachers may be matched with specific races or genders. Results indicate that teachers give higher assessments to children of their own race, but not significantly higher assessments to children of their own gender. Also, this effect comes from the differential assessments given to non-hispanic black and hispanic children. White teachers give significantly lower assessments to non-hispanic black children and to hispanic children. Results are robust to various checks on endogenous mobility, measurement error and reverse causality. Moreover children's behavior is not a significant determinant of same race or same gender matching. Finally relative grading does not explain the main results of this paper.

Suggested Citation

  • Amine Ouazad, 2008. "Assessed by a Teacher Like Me: Race, Gender and Subjective Evaluations," CEE Discussion Papers 0098, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
  • Handle: RePEc:cep:ceedps:0098
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/cee/ceedp98.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jesse Rothstein, 2010. "Teacher Quality in Educational Production: Tracking, Decay, and Student Achievement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 175-214.
    2. Francis Kramarz & Stephen Machin & Amine Ouazad, 2008. "What Makes a Test Score ? The Respective Contributions of Pupils, Schools and Peers in Achievement in English Primary Education," Working Papers 2008-21, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    3. John M. Abowd & Francis Kramarz & David N. Margolis, 1999. "High Wage Workers and High Wage Firms," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 67(2), pages 251-334, March.
    4. James J. Heckman & Jora Stixrud & Sergio Urzua, 2006. "The Effects of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities on Labor Market Outcomes and Social Behavior," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(3), pages 411-482, July.
    5. Roland G. Fryer & Steven D. Levitt, 2013. "Testing for Racial Differences in the Mental Ability of Young Children," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(2), pages 981-1005, April.
    6. Thomas S. Dee, 2007. "Teachers and the Gender Gaps in Student Achievement," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(3).
    7. Clotfelter, Charles T. & Ladd, Helen F. & Vigdor, Jacob, 2005. "Who teaches whom? Race and the distribution of novice teachers," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 377-392, August.
    8. Victor Lavy, 2004. "Do Gender Stereotypes Reduce Girls' Human Capital Outcomes? Evidence from a Natural Experiment," NBER Working Papers 10678, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Thomas S. Dee, 2004. "Teachers, Race, and Student Achievement in a Randomized Experiment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 195-210, February.
    10. John M. Abowd & Robert H. Creecy & Francis Kramarz, 2002. "Computing Person and Firm Effects Using Linked Longitudinal Employer-Employee Data," Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Technical Papers 2002-06, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. Card, David & Sullivan, Daniel G, 1988. "Measuring the Effect of Subsidized Training Programs on Movements in and out of Employment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(3), pages 497-530, May.
    12. repec:pri:edures:25ers.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Roland G. Fryer & Steven D. Levitt, 2006. "The Black-White Test Score Gap Through Third Grade," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 8(2), pages 249-281.
    14. Phelps, Edmund S, 1972. "The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(4), pages 659-661, September.
    15. Coate, Stephen & Loury, Glenn C, 1993. "Will Affirmative-Action Policies Eliminate Negative Stereotypes?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1220-1240, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. C. Kirabo Jackson, 2013. "Match Quality, Worker Productivity, and Worker Mobility: Direct Evidence from Teachers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(4), pages 1096-1116, October.
    2. Eisenkopf, Gerald & Hessami, Zohal & Fischbacher, Urs & Ursprung, Heinrich W., 2015. "Academic performance and single-sex schooling: Evidence from a natural experiment in Switzerland," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 123-143.
    3. Richard Buddin & Gena Zamarro, 2008. "Teacher Quality, Teacher Licensure Tests, and Student Achievement," Working Papers 555, RAND Corporation.
    4. Gabin Langevin & David Masclet & Fabien Moizeau & Emmanuel Peterlé, 2013. "Educational Attainment, Wages and Employment of Second-Generation Immigrants in France," CIRANO Working Papers 2013s-33, CIRANO.
    5. van Ewijk, Reyn, 2011. "Same work, lower grade? Student ethnicity and teachers' subjective assessments," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1045-1058, October.
    6. Richard Buddin & Gema Zamarro, 2008. "Teacher Quality, Teacher Licensure Tests, and Student Achievement," Working Papers WR-555-IES, RAND Corporation.
    7. Buddin, Richard & Zamarro, Gema, 2009. "Teacher qualifications and student achievement in urban elementary schools," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 103-115, September.
    8. Richard Buddin & Gema Zamarro, 2009. "Teacher Effectiveness in Urban High Schools," Working Papers WR-693-IES, RAND Corporation.
    9. Di, Wenhua & Murdoch, James C., 2013. "The impact of the low income housing tax credit program on local schools," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 308-320.
    10. Richard Buddin & Gema Zamarro, 2009. "Teacher Effectiveness in Urban High Schools," Working Papers 693, RAND Corporation.
    11. Richard Buddin & Gema Zamarro, 2009. "Teacher Qualifications and Middle School Student Achievement," Working Papers WR-671-IES, RAND Corporation.
    12. Richard Buddin & Gema Zamarro, 2009. "Teacher Qualifications and Middle School Student Achievement," Working Papers 671, RAND Corporation.
    13. Coenen, J. & Van Klaveren, C., 2013. "Better test scores with a same-gender teacher?," Working Papers 47, Top Institute for Evidence Based Education Research.
    14. Wiswall, Matthew, 2013. "The dynamics of teacher quality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 61-78.
    15. Cho, Insook, 2012. "The effect of teacher–student gender matching: Evidence from OECD countries," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 54-67.
    16. Wenhua Di & James C. Murdoch, 2010. "The impact of LIHTC program on local schools," Working Papers 1006, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amine Ouazad, 2014. "Assessed by a Teacher Like Me: Race and Teacher Assessments," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 9(3), pages 334-372, July.
    2. Robert W. Fairlie & Florian Hoffmann & Philip Oreopoulos, 2014. "A Community College Instructor Like Me: Race and Ethnicity Interactions in the Classroom," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(8), pages 2567-2591, August.
    3. C. Kirabo Jackson, 2013. "Match Quality, Worker Productivity, and Worker Mobility: Direct Evidence from Teachers," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(4), pages 1096-1116, October.
    4. Holt, Stephen B. & Gershenson, Seth, 2015. "The Impact of Teacher Demographic Representation on Student Attendance and Suspensions," IZA Discussion Papers 9554, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. van Ewijk, Reyn, 2011. "Same work, lower grade? Student ethnicity and teachers' subjective assessments," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1045-1058, October.
    6. Ursina Schaede & Ville Mankki, 2022. "Quota vs Quality? Long-Term Gains from an Unusual Gender Quota," CESifo Working Paper Series 9811, CESifo.
    7. Thijssen, Maximiliaan W.P. & Rege, Mari & Solheim, Oddny J., 2022. "Teacher relationship skills and student learning," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    8. Ross Levine & Alexey Levkov & Yona Rubinstein, 2008. "Racial Discrimination and Competition," NBER Working Papers 14273, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Mittag, Nikolas, 2016. "A Simple Method to Estimate Large Fixed Effects Models Applied to Wage Determinants and Matching," IZA Discussion Papers 10447, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Samuel Bowles & Glenn C. Loury & Rajiv Sethi, 2014. "Group Inequality," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 129-152, February.
    11. Alain Trannoy, 2016. "Equality of Opportunity: A progress report," Revue d'économie politique, Dalloz, vol. 126(5), pages 621-651.
    12. Jesse Rothstein, 2010. "Teacher Quality in Educational Production: Tracking, Decay, and Student Achievement," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(1), pages 175-214.
    13. Thomas Breda & Son Thierry Ly, 2012. "Do professors really perpetuate the gender gap in science? Evidence from a natural experiment in a French higher education institution," Working Papers halshs-00677438, HAL.
    14. Koen Jochmans & Martin Weidner, 2019. "Fixed‐Effect Regressions on Network Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(5), pages 1543-1560, September.
    15. Pierre Lefebvre & Philip Merrigan & Matthieu Verstraete, 2008. "The Effects of School Quality and Family Functioning on Youth Math Scores: a Canadian Longitudinal Analysis," Cahiers de recherche 0822, CIRPEE.
    16. Mittag, Nikolas, 2012. "New methods to estimate models with large sets of fixed effects with an application to matched employer-employee data from Germany," FDZ Methodenreport 201201_en, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    17. repec:iab:iabfme:201201(en is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Mittag, Nikolas, 2019. "A simple method to estimate large fixed effects models applied to wage determinants," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    19. Bjorn Tyrefors Hinnerich & Erik H�glin & Magnus Johannesson, 2015. "Discrimination against students with foreign backgrounds: evidence from grading in Swedish public high schools," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 660-676, December.
    20. Gershenson, Seth & Holt, Stephen B. & Papageorge, Nicholas W., 2015. "Who Believes in Me? The Effect of Student-Teacher Demographic Match on Teacher Expectations," IZA Discussion Papers 9202, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Lindsay Fox, 2016. "Playing to Teachers’ Strengths: Using Multiple Measures of Teacher Effectiveness to Improve Teacher Assignments," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 11(1), pages 70-96, Winter.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    grading; discrimination; stereotype threat; race; gender;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • J82 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Labor Force Composition

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cep:ceedps:0098. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/cee-discussion-papers/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.