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Students’ Perceptions of Teacher Biases: Experimental Economics in Schools

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  • Amine Ouazad
  • Lionel Page

Abstract

We put forward a new experimental economics design with monetary incentives to estimate students' perceptions of grading discrimination. We use this design in a large field experiment which involved 1,200 British students in grade 8 classrooms across 29 schools. In this design, students are given an endowment they can invest on a task where payoff depends on performance. The task is a written verbal test which is graded non anonymously by their teacher, in a random half of the classrooms, and graded anonymously by an external examiner in the other random half of the classrooms. We find significant evidence that students' choices reflect perceptions of biases in teachers' grading practices. Our results show systematic gender interaction effects: male students invest less with female teachers than with male teachers while female students invest more with male teachers than with female teachers. Interestingly, female students' perceptions are not in line with actual discrimination: Teachers tend to give better grades to students of their own gender. Results do not suggest that ethnicity and socioeconomic status play a role.

Suggested Citation

  • Amine Ouazad & Lionel Page, 2012. "Students’ Perceptions of Teacher Biases: Experimental Economics in Schools," CEE Discussion Papers 0133, Centre for the Economics of Education, LSE.
  • Handle: RePEc:cep:ceedps:0133
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    Cited by:

    1. Terrier, Camille, 2020. "Boys lag behind: How teachers’ gender biases affect student achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Noémi Berlin & Jean-Louis Tavani & Maud Beasançon, 2016. "An exploratory study of creativity, personality and schooling achievement," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 536-556, September.
    3. Puhani, Patrick A., 2018. "Do boys benefit from male teachers in elementary school? Evidence from administrative panel data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 340-354.
    4. Figlio, D. & Karbownik, K. & Salvanes, K.G., 2016. "Education Research and Administrative Data," Handbook of the Economics of Education,, Elsevier.
    5. Wei-Bin ZHANG, 2014. "Gender Discrimination, Education and Economic Growth in a Generalized Uzawa-Lucas Two-Sector Model," Timisoara Journal of Economics and Business, West University of Timisoara, Romania, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 7(1), pages 1-34.
    6. Camille Terrier, 2014. "Giving a Little Help to Girls? Evidence on Grade Discrimination and its Effect on Students Achievement," Working Papers hal-01080834, HAL.
    7. Lehr Brandon, 2016. "Information and Inflation: An Analysis of Grading Behavior," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(2), pages 755-783, April.
    8. Shi, Ying & Zhu, Maria, 2023. "“Model minorities” in the classroom? Positive evaluation bias towards Asian students and its consequences," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    9. 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.
    10. Karthik Muralidharan & Ketki Sheth, 2016. "Bridging Education Gender Gaps in Developing Countries: The Role of Female Teachers," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 51(2), pages 269-297.

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