Working Paper: NBER ID: w11195
Authors: David N. Figlio
Abstract: This paper investigates the question of whether teachers treat children differentially on the basis of factors other than observed ability, and whether this differential treatment in turn translates into differences in student outcomes. I suggest that teachers may use a child's name as a signal of unobserved parental contributions to that child's education, and expect less from children with names that "sound" like they were given by uneducated parents. These names, empirically, are given most frequently by Blacks, but they are also given by White and Hispanic parents as well. I utilize a detailed dataset from a large Florida school district to directly test the hypothesis that teachers and school administrators expect less on average of children with names associated with low socio-economic status, and these diminished expectations in turn lead to reduced student cognitive performance. Comparing pairs of siblings, I find that teachers tend to treat children differently depending on their names, and that these same patterns apparently translate into large differences in test scores.
Keywords: teacher expectations; test scores; racial disparities; socioeconomic status; education
JEL Codes: I2
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Teachers' expectations based on name attributes (I24) | Student cognitive performance (D29) |
| Names associated with low SES (I32) | Teachers' expectations (I24) |
| Teachers' expectations (I24) | Referral to gifted programs (I24) |
| Names indicating low SES (I32) | Standardized test scores (C12) |
| Names indicating low SES (I32) | Grade promotion (J62) |
| Teachers' expectations (I24) | Black-white test score gap (I24) |