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Racial Discrimination in Grading: Evidence from Brazil

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  • Fernando Botelho
  • Ricardo Madeira, Marcos A. Rangel

Abstract

We investigate whether racial discrimination taking the form of the biased assessment of students is prevalent within Brazilian schools. Robust evidence is drawn from unique data pertaining to middle-school students and educators. After holding constant performance in blindly scored tests of proficiency and behavioral traits, we find that teacher-assigned Mathematics grades suffer from cardinal and ordinal biases. We unveil strong indications that these effects result from incomplete information issues highlighted in models of statistical discrimination which are made particularly salient by social promotion schemes currently operational in our context.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernando Botelho & Ricardo Madeira, Marcos A. Rangel, 2015. "Racial Discrimination in Grading: Evidence from Brazil," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2015_04, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    • Handle: RePEc:spa:wpaper:2015wpecon4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lavy, Victor & Sand, Edith, 2015. "On The Origins of Gender Human Capital Gaps: Short and Long Term Consequences of Teachers’ Stereotypical Biases," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1085, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    2. Huong Thu Le & Ha Trong Nguyen, 2018. "The evolution of the gender test score gap through seventh grade: new insights from Australia using unconditional quantile regression and decomposition," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-42, December.
    3. Bellés Obrero, Cristina & Lombardi, María, 2019. "Teacher Performance Pay and Student Learning: Evidence from a Nationwide Program in Peru," IZA Discussion Papers 12600, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Ferman, Bruno & Fontes, Luiz Felipe, 2020. "Discriminating Behavior: Evidence from teachers’ grading bias," MPRA Paper 100400, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Nicoletti, Cheti & Sevilla, Almudena & Tonei, Valentina, 2022. "Gender stereotypes in the family," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118044, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Rangel, Marcos & Marotta, Luana & van der Werf, Cynthia & Duryea, Suzanne & Drouet Arias, Marcelo & Rodríguez Guillén, Lucina, 2024. "Barriers to Immigrant Assimilation: Evidence on Grading Bias in Ecuadorian High Schools," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13434, Inter-American Development Bank.
    7. 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).
    8. Alberto Alesina & Michela Carlana & Eliana La Ferrara & Paolo Pinotti, 2018. "Revealing Stereotypes: Evidence from Immigrants in Schools," NBER Working Papers 25333, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Tumen, Semih & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Wahba, Jackline, 2021. "Training Teachers for Diversity Awareness: Impact on School Attendance of Refugee Children," IZA Discussion Papers 14557, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Claudia Contreras, 2018. "Discriminación de género en las calificaciones de las escuelas públicas uruguayas," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0318, Department of Economics - dECON.
    11. Ferman, Bruno & Fontes, Luiz Felipe, 2022. "Assessing knowledge or classroom behavior? Evidence of teachers’ grading bias," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    12. Thomas van Huizen & Madelon Jacobs & Matthijs Oosterveen, 2024. "Teacher bias or measurement error?," Papers 2401.04200, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    13. Delaney, Judith M. & Devereux, Paul J., 2023. "Gender Differences in Teacher Judgement of Comparative Advantage," IZA Discussion Papers 16635, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Lavy, Victor & Sand, Edith, 2018. "On the origins of gender gaps in human capital: Short- and long-term consequences of teachers' biases," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 263-279.
    15. Joan Martinez, 2022. "The Long-Term Effects of Teachers' Gender Stereotypes," Papers 2212.08220, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2023.
    16. Rangel, Marcos A. & Shi, Ying, 2020. "First Impressions: The Case of Teacher Racial Bias," IZA Discussion Papers 13347, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Nicole Black & Sonja C. de New, 2020. "Short, Heavy and Underrated? Teacher Assessment Biases by Children's Body Size," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(5), pages 961-987, October.
    18. Thomas van Huizen, 2021. "Teacher bias or measurement error bias? Evidence from track recommendations," Working Papers 2113, Utrecht School of Economics.
    19. Lange, Andreas & Miniesy, Rania & Nicklisch, Andreas & Rabie, Dina & Bock, Olaf & Ross, Johannes, 2023. "Sharing norms and negotiations across cultures: Experimental interactions within and between Egypt and Germany," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 412-440.
    20. Cristina Bellés-Obrero & María Lombardi, 2020. "Teacher Performance Pay and Student Learning: Evidence from a Nationwide Program in Peru," Department of Economics Working Papers wp_gob_2020_04, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella.
    21. Marisa Bucheli & Claudia Contreras, 2018. "Discriminación de género en las calificaciones de las escuelas públicas uruguayas," Documentos de trabajo 2018008, Banco Central del Uruguay.
    22. Victor Lavy & Rigissa Megalokonomou, 2019. "Persistency in Teachers’ Grading Bias and Effects on Longer-Term Outcomes: University Admissions Exams and Choice of Field of Study," NBER Working Papers 26021, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    race; schooling; grading; standardized tests; statistical discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

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