2014/05/22 by Amine Ouazad · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Critical Race Theory in Education #Education Discipline and Inequality #School Choice and Performance
paper · pdf · doi:10.1162/edfp_a_00136
openalex publication_date 2014/05/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Do teachers assess same-race students more favorably? This paper uses nationally representative data on teacher assessments of student ability that can be compared with test scores to determine whether teachers give better assessments to same-race students. The data set follows students from kindergarten to grade 5, a period during which racial gaps in test scores increase rapidly. Teacher assessments comprise up to twenty items measuring specific skills. Using a unique within-student and within-teacher identification and while controlling for subject-specific test scores, I find that teachers do assess same-race students more favorably. Effects appear in kindergarten and persist thereafter. Robustness checks suggest that: student behavior does not explain this effect; same-race effects are evident in teacher assessments of most of the skills; grading “on the curve” should be associated with lower assessments; and measurement error in assessments or test scores does not significantly affect the estimates.