A Mediocrity Trap as Symbolic Violence: Re-examining Teachers’ Stereotype in Student Evaluation

• In Event: Beyond the Grade: Advancing Equity through Assessment Reform and Analytic Innovation

Abstract

Teachers’ performance stereotypes, as a form of symbolic violence, contribute to reinforcing the existing academic hierarchies by systematically biasing student evaluations. Through collecting data with a quasi-experimental design, this study found: (1) Mid-performing students faced significant downward bias when evaluated with real performance labels, while high performers were shielded. (2) Detailed rubrics reduced bias only when graders lacked prior performance information but exacerbated penalties for mid-performers when labels were disclosed. (3) Extended grading time marginally benefited high performers near academic thresholds. (4) Fabricated labels artificially inflated low- and mid-performer scores, indicating stereotypes’ arbitrary origins. However, students near the cutoff points who were mislabelled as underperformers tend to receive upward bias, indicating that objective merits might moderate this mechanism.

Authors

• Minda Tan, Shandong Normal University

• Liangliang Cai, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign