@EdWorkingPaper{ai20-241,
title = "Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Racial Bias in Student Evaluation: The Role of Grading Scales",
author = "David M. Quinn",
institution = "Annenberg Institute at Brown University",
number = "241",
year = "2020",
month = "June",
URL = "http://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai20-241",
abstract = {A vast research literature documents racial bias in teachers’ evaluations of students.  Theory suggests bias may be larger on grading scales with vague or overly-general criteria versus scales with clearly-specified criteria, raising the possibility that well-designed grading policies may mitigate bias.  This study offers relevant evidence through a randomized web-based experiment with 1,549 teachers.  On a vague grade-level evaluation scale, teachers rated a student writing sample lower when it was randomly signaled to have a Black author, versus a White author.  However, there was no evidence of racial bias when teachers used a rubric with more clearly-defined evaluation criteria.  Contrary to expectation, I found no evidence that the magnitude of grading bias depends on teachers’ implicit or explicit racial attitudes. },
}