Research Report: Stereotyped at Seven? Biases inTeacher Judgments of Pupils' Ability and Attainment

Author: Tammy Campbell, University College London Institute of Education

Published by: Journal of Social Policy, July 2015

SUMMARY

At primary school level, teachers' assessments are the main way children's attainment levels are judged. Benefits to this approach include the fact such assessments provide a wider view of a child's abilities than a test and avoid the stress testing can place on children. However, past research has shown teachers' assessments of primary school children can be affected by bias. Tammy Campbell, from the University College London Institute of Education's department of quantitative social science, set out to discover whether factors such as family income level, gender, special educational needs (SEN), ethnicity and having English as an additional language could affect teachers' assessment of pupils' ability and attainment.

These factors were chosen as they have been shown to correspond with achievement gaps between children with these characteristics and their peers. Campbell wanted to see if teacher bias could account for some of those gaps.

She analysed information from up to 4,497 children who took part in the Millennium Cohort Study when they were seven in 2008 for this paper - Stereotyped at Seven? Biases in Teacher Judgments of Pupils' Ability and Attainment. She compared information from teachers' judgments of whether each pupil was above or below average in reading and maths, with the results of tests delivered to the children in their own homes as part of the survey.

Pupils with a higher cognitive test score tended to be judged to have a higher level of "ability and attainment" by their teacher. If there was no bias in teachers' reports, that association should hold true no matter what the pupil characteristics. For example, girls and boys with the same scores on the test should have equal probabilities of being judged "above average" at reading by their teacher.

However, the analysis found children from low-income families, boys, pupils with any recognised diagnosis of SEN and children who speak other languages in addition to English appeared less likely to be judged "above average" at reading by their teacher, despite gaining equivalent scores to their peers in the reading test. All non-white pupils appeared less likely to be judged "above average" at reading compared to white pupils.

In maths, there were fewer discrepancies, but boys were more likely than girls to be judged relatively highly. Meanwhile, Black Caribbean pupils were significantly less likely than their equivalently performing white counterparts to be judged "above average", alongside children from low-income families and those with recognised SEN.

Campbell says teachers' tendency to stereotype may arise in part from regulations and policies that target pupils with different characteristics, leading to these characteristics being at the forefront of teachers' minds and perhaps perpetuating the idea certain groups of pupils are fundamentally lacking. For example, she says the current focus on low-income families via the pupil premium may inadvertently contribute to a stereotype that poorer pupils are deficient in ability and potential.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

The author states that unless teachers' tendencies to overand under-assess pupils depending on their characteristics are addressed, this may continue to play some part in creating and perpetuating inequalities in achievement and attainment. She says her findings are not a criticism of teachers as all humans have a tendency to stereotype. However, the government or relevant body should develop interventions and strategies within teacher training and professional development, and attempt to avoid the reinforcement of stereotypes through policy and associated publicity.

FURTHER READING

Test Scores, Subjective Assessment and Stereotyping of Ethnic Minorities, Simon Burgess and Ellen Greaves, University of Bristol, September 2009. A paper investigating systematic differences between objective and subjective assessment measures.

Assessment of Mathematics and Reading Performance: An Examination of the Correspondence Between Direct Assessment of Student Performance and Teacher Report, Psychology in the Schools, February 2006. A US study looking at the extent to which teachers' perceptions of students' reading and mathematics skills corresponded to direct estimates of students' performance.

The Relationship Between Teacher Assessments and Pupil Attainments in Standard Test Tasks at Key Stage 2, 1996-98, British Educational Research Journal, 2001. An article exploring relationships between results for standard National Curriculum tests, teacher assessments, and pupil characteristics of gender, age, English as an additional language and SEN.