Grading practices, gender bias and educational outcomes: evidence from Italy

Liberto, Adriana Di; Casula, Laura; Pau, Sara

doi:10.1080/09645292.2021.2004999

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Lavy (2008) (with data from Israel) and Terrier (2020) (with data from France), and somewhat smaller than the estimates based on Italian data inDi Liberto, Casula and Pau (2021). Our results on the role of migration background add to a highly diverse set of findings(Alesina et al 2018;Botelho, Madeira and Rangel 2015;Burgess and Greaves 2013;Gibbons and Chevalier 2008).…”

contrasting

confidence: 55%

“…Extensive research in the social sciences delves into the subject of teacher bias and implicitly adopts a conceptualization of bias akin to the model presented in the previous section (Lavy 2008;Lavy and Sand 2018;Lavy and Megalokonomou 2019;Botelho, Madeira and Rangel 2015;Terrier 2020;Di Liberto, Casula and Pau 2021;Gibbons and Chevalier 2008). Two findings stand out in this literature.…”

Section: Defining Teacher Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A large literature analyzes the sizable gaps in grades across socio-demographic markers such as gender and migration background (e.g., Coenen and Van Klaveren 2016;Andersen and Reimer 2019;Wenz and Hoenig 2020). One explanation put forward is teacher bias (Lavy and Megalokonomou 2019;Lavy 2008;Terrier 2020;Di Liberto, Casula and Pau 2021;Gibbons and Chevalier 2008). However, researchers have noted that determining whether teachers are biased is methodologically challenging Jennings 2012, p.2, Buchmann, DiPrete andMcDaniel 2008, p. 160).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Compensating Discrimination: Behavioral Evidence from Danish School Registers

Schuessler¹,

Sønderskov²

2023

Preprint

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We suggest that discriminatory practices may vary significantly across decision-makers, which allows for deeper insights into the mechanisms behind discrimination. We study this in the context of biased grading in schools. We develop a theory of teacher biases driven by heuristic beliefs stemming from concrete classroom experiences. Because teachers may also care about grade equality, such a mechanism can lead to either inequality-reinforcing or compensating biases in grading. Based on large-scale administrative data on Danish students, we find strong evidence for highly heterogeneous teacher biases---up to 45\% of teachers exhibit a bias that is of the opposite sign as the average bias. Furthermore, there is a robust and substantively large compensation effect. Teachers that experienced a visible demographic group (defined by gender or migration background) academically under-performing relative to a reference group show more positive bias towards that group than teachers where the same group over-performed. We find little evidence for alternative explanations of bias. To fully grasp discrimination, we must go beyond averages and consider the wide variety of biases shaped by individual experiences.

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contrasting

confidence: 55%

Section: Defining Teacher Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Compensating Discrimination: Behavioral Evidence from Danish School Registers

Schuessler¹,

Sønderskov²

2023

Preprint

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“…Numerous studies across various contexts and subjects (mostly mathematics and languages) have found that girls receive better grades than boys for the same standardised test performance (for Israel [ 43 ]; for Denmark [ 52 ]; for Spain [ 30 , 51 ]; for the US [ 10 , 25 ]; for Czechia [ 11 ]; for Germany [ 12 ]; for Italy [ 49 , 50 ]; for France [ 9 ]; for Switzerland [ 27 ]; for Greece [ 46 ]; for Portugal [ 47 ]; for New Zealand [ 35 ]). However, there are also studies that do not find such a bias (for Sweden [ 64 ]; for India [ 26 ]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, boys are often more disruptive, less self-disciplined, and less self-regulated than girls. This can result in lower grades [ 49 , 66 , 67 ] either through teacher perceptions and possible prejudice or by incorporating student behaviours in their grading schemes. Studies indicate that teachers give higher grades to students who are more well-adjusted and lower grades to students with more challenging behaviour [ 54 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does chubby can get lower grades than skinny Sophie? Using an intersectional approach to uncover grading bias in German secondary schools

Nennstiel,

Gilgen

2024

PLoS ONE

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We aim to uncover grading bias by gender, socio-economic status, ethnic/migration background as well as body weight in the German secondary school system. Following an intersectional approach, we test whether—controlling for ability—students receive different grades depending on (the specific combination of) ascriptive characteristics. Using data from the fourth starting cohort (SC4, 13.0.0, first survey in year 9 in 2010) of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) consisting of more than 14,000 ninth graders, we compute the predicted differences in grades for the different groups of students depending on whether they are a boy or a girl, whether they are obese/overweight or not, their socio-economic status (SES) and ethnic background. We rely on a grade equation approach, assuming that discrepancies between observed grades and achievement as measured in standardised tests are evidence of biased grading. We control for two different competence tests—the Domain General Cognitive Functions (DGCF) and a standardised domain-specific competence test—as objective measures of ability as well as secondary school track. Even after controlling for different personality and behavioural traits—the “big five”, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the Sick, Control, One, Fat and Food (SCOFF), health satisfaction and class retention—substantial differentials in grading across almost all factors and subjects remain. To account for the fact that many students may face bias on multiple grounds, we then compare the differences in predicted grades for groups with overlapping (dis)advantaging characteristics (e.g. low SES overweight Turkish boy vs a high SES non-overweight majority girl), while controlling for the objective ability measures. Significant differentials in grades are found in almost all cases, with the largest effect sizes for the subject German. We also compute models including all 2-way or 4-way interactions between the four axes of inequality and find the main effects largely unchanged. On the whole our findings are indicative of widespread additive intersectional effects of gender, social and ethnic origin as well as body weight on grading bias.

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Discrimination in grading: A scoping review of studies on teachers’ discrimination in school

Zanga,

De Gioannis

2023

Studies in Educational Evaluation

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Grading practices, gender bias and educational outcomes: evidence from Italy

Cited by 6 publications

References 64 publications

Compensating Discrimination: Behavioral Evidence from Danish School Registers

Compensating Discrimination: Behavioral Evidence from Danish School Registers

Does chubby can get lower grades than skinny Sophie? Using an intersectional approach to uncover grading bias in German secondary schools

Discrimination in grading: A scoping review of studies on teachers’ discrimination in school

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