Citation
Riegle-Crumb, C., & Humphries, M. (2012). Exploring bias in math teachers’ perceptions of students’ ability by gender and race/ethnicity. Gender & Society, 26(2), 290-322.
Highlights
- This study aimed to inform the literature on gender stereotypes in classrooms by studying whether teachers displayed bias by underestimating the ability of 10th-grade female and minority students in high school math classes, even after taking into account students’ grades and test scores.
- The study analyzed survey data from students and teachers across the United States who were part of the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, which followed 15,000 10th-grade students through college and into the labor force. The authors estimated multinomial logistic regression models to determine whether teachers were more likely to underestimate the academic ability of female, black, and Hispanic students compared to white male students, controlling for grade point average (GPA), test scores, and student, teacher, and school characteristics. Results were generated separately for students in low-level, average-level, and advanced-level high school math courses.
- The study found that in low-level and advanced-level math classes, teachers were less likely to say that the course was too easy for white female students as compared to white male students. In average-level math classes, teachers were both less likely to say that the course was too easy and more likely to say that it was too difficult for white female students, compared to white male students. These findings did not extend to minority female students nor to minority male students, who, after controlling for GPA and test scores, were just as likely to be rated by teachers as being in a course that was too easy or too difficult for them as white male students.
Reviewed by CLEAR
March 2016