Principal investigator: Adriano Valladão Pires Ribeiro
Article title: Teachers' Expectations and Racial Mismatch in Brazilian Public Schools
Author of the article: André Vieira
Location of the intervention: Brazil
Sample size: 53.841 classes
Main theme: Education
Type of intervention: Demographic differences
Primary variable of interest: Teachers' expectations
Evaluation method: Experimental Evaluation (RCT)
Policy Problem
Teachers' expectations regarding students' educational success can be related to various factors, such as academic performance, motivation, and socioeconomic background of the students, racial disparities between teachers and students, among other reasons. Data from the Prova Brasil allow us to study the relationship between the expectations of mathematics and Portuguese language teachers in the ninth grade of the public school system and the racial and gender characteristics among teachers and students.
Evaluation Context
When teachers systematically have higher or lower expectations of a particular group of students, then their expectations are biased. Since teachers' expectations can have a long-term impact on students' academic and job market outcomes, bias in their training can be a problem. In particular, when a bias associated with lower expectations of a minority group leads students from that group to reinforce negative attitudes and behaviors, perpetuating social inequalities.
Intervention Details
The expectations of ninth-grade teachers were collected through the 2013 Prova Brasil, a census-based assessment of public schools in the areas of mathematics and Portuguese language. As part of the assessment, teachers of these two subjects answered a questionnaire about their class, indicating, in three different questions, how many students they expected to complete elementary school, how many to complete high school, and how many to enter university. The answers could be few, slightly less than half, slightly more than half, or almost all students. These questions and their answers form the object of investigation.
Other student information used to investigate teacher expectations included proficiency in Portuguese and mathematics, educational trajectory, educational aspirations, sociodemographic characteristics, and socioeconomic level of families. Regarding teachers, data on their training, teaching experience, and the proportion of planned content actually taught were used. Finally, teachers and students also answered a questionnaire indicating what best describes them, with the options being white, brown, black, yellow, and indigenous. The brown and black options were classified as black.
Given that teachers' expectations were measured by the three questions about the maximum expected educational level of the class, all other variables had to be aggregated at the class level. When investigating whether the racial composition of teachers and students in classes explains differences in teachers' expectations, other factors must also be taken into account. These include students' behavior and academic performance, family environment, and socioeconomic characteristics, especially in environments of great inequality. Without considering these factors, racial differences could be attributed more importance than they actually have.
Exclusive
One way to analyze education is to recognize the existence of hierarchical levels in the structure of its elements; that is, at the first level we have the students, who are divided into classes; at the second level, they are part of schools; and at the third level, they integrate a school network. Therefore, a multilevel analysis was used, although, due to the way teachers' expectations were collected, only classrooms and state and municipal schools were considered. The investigation included observations of 53.841 classes and 18.923 schools, and each of the three teachers' predictions was studied separately. Finally, it is worth noting that measuring these two levels allows us to distinguish the importance of the institution in teachers' expectations, that is, the school effect attributed to teachers' predictions.
Results
First, it is noted that teachers' expectations decrease regarding the level of education; that is, more students are expected to complete elementary school than high school, and even fewer students are expected to enter university. The predictions are also higher for classes with a majority of non-Black students compared to classes with a majority of Black and mixed-race students. Furthermore, because most teachers are non-Black or mixed-race, Black students exhibit the greatest proportion of racial disparity in the classroom.
Multilevel analysis indicates that classes taught by female teachers with higher performance in mathematics and Portuguese language assessments, and who effectively teach the planned content, are associated with higher expectations. This association is even stronger when the expectation concerns university entrance. Furthermore, differences between schools explain, respectively, 31%, 35%, and 40% of teachers' expectations regarding the completion of elementary school, high school, and university entrance. Therefore, the presence of the school effect is evident, although the reasons for the institutional differences were not the focus of the study.
Finally, the results regarding the racial and gender profiles of the classes are presented. Black teachers, compared to non-Black teachers, have lower expectations for students to complete elementary school, but higher expectations for high school completion and university entry. When comparing the racial profile of teachers with that of students, it was found that Black teachers have higher expectations for classes with a Black majority when compared to non-Black teachers, even reversing the average result for elementary school. Regarding gender, the expectations of female teachers are higher, regardless of the racial profile of the class. When relating gender and race, the highest expectations are from female and Black teachers for classes with a female and Black majority.
Lessons in Public Policy
The expectations of Portuguese language and mathematics teachers in the public school system regarding their students are associated, albeit not causally, with racial and gender disparities between teachers and students. As noted above, the similarity in the racial profile of teachers and students may even reverse the lower expectations of teachers. The results presented therefore point to the existence of a bias in expectations due to the racial profile of students and teachers; public policies should, therefore, delve deeper into the question of how expectations are formed so that such bias can be eliminated. This is especially important when there is a relationship between teachers' expectations and students' long-term outcomes.
Reference
Vieira, André. “Teacher Expectations and Racial Mismatch in Brazilian Public Schools.” Cadernos de Pesquisa, v. 48, n. 168, p. 412-445, 2018.
