How Objective Are Teacher Judgments? Exploring Student Characteristics That Influence Teacher Judgments of Student Ability

• In Event: 35.081 - Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 35.081-23 - Teacher Attitudes and Instruction

Abstract

Teachers’ judgments of student achievement are increasingly used for high-stakes decision making. As a result, these judgments can critically influence students’ academic careers and self-concepts, so it is imperative that these judgments be as fair and reliable as possible. Using a large national database, we explored the relationship between psychometrically designed standardized achievement results and teacher judgments in reading, writing and mathematics, using hierarchical linear modeling. Our findings indicate that teacher judgments are systematically lower for already marginalized learners even after controlling for standardized achievement. Possible explanations such as school-level compositional effects did not explain these differences. These findings are concerning, and have critical implications for equity and social justice.

Authors

• Kane Meissel, The University of Auckland

• Frauke Meyer, The University of Auckland

• Christine Margaret Rubie-Davies, University of Auckland