Early Teacher Expectations Disproportionately Affect Poor Children's High School Performance

This research used prospective longitudinal data to examine the associations between first-grade teachers' over- and underestimation of their students' math abilities, basic reading abilities, and language skills and the students' high school academic performance, with special attenti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of educational psychology Vol. 105; no. 2; pp. 465 - 477
Main Author Sorhagen, Nicole S
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published American Psychological Association 01.05.2013
Subjects
Academic Ability
Academic Achievement
Achievement Gap
Arkansas
California
Context Effect
Elementary School Teachers
Expectation
Family Income
Grade 1
High School Students
Kansas
Language Skills
Longitudinal Studies
Low Income Groups
Massachusetts
Mathematics
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
Prediction
Reading Ability
Teacher Expectations of Students
Verbal Ability
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin
Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement
Woodcock Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability
North Carolina
Massachusetts
California
Kansas
Arkansas
Virginia
Washington
Wisconsin
Pennsylvania
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Summary:This research used prospective longitudinal data to examine the associations between first-grade teachers' over- and underestimation of their students' math abilities, basic reading abilities, and language skills and the students' high school academic performance, with special attention to the subject area and moderating effects of student demographic characteristics. Teachers' inaccurate expectations in first grade predicted students' math, reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, and verbal reasoning standardized test scores at age 15. Significant interactions between students' family income and teachers' misperceptions of students' math and language skills were found, such that teachers' over- and underestimation of abilities had a stronger impact on students from lower income families than on students from more affluent homes. In contrast, the effects of teachers' misperceptions of students' basic reading abilities on performance at age 15 did not differ by income. These results have implications for understanding the complexities of self-fulfilling prophecies and for understanding the achievement gap between students from disadvantaged and advantaged homes. (Contains 6 tables, 1 figure and 3 footnotes.)
ISSN:0022-0663
DOI:10.1037/a0031754