Teachers' Perceptions of Parents' Values Mediate the Relation Between Ethnicity and Ratings of Academic Skill

• In Event: 54.062 - Parents and Family Involvement in Early Childhood

Abstract

This study examined teachers’ perceptions of 214 ethnically diverse kindergarten and first graders and their families. We considered whether teachers’ perceptions of parents’ education-related values mediated the relation between children’s ethnicity and teachers’ perceptions of children’s reading and math skills. We found that teachers viewed Latino students’ math skills as better than African American and white students’, and they perceived fewer differences with Latino parents’ values. Teachers’ perceptions of differences with parents’ values partially mediated the association between ethnicity and perceptions of math skill, suggesting that positive views of Latino families’ values were related to more positive views of their children’s math ability. There were no differences in teachers’ perceptions of literacy skill.

Authors

• Elisa B. Garcia, Stanford University

• Deborah Stipek, Stanford University