TY  - JOUR
AB  - 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.
AU  - Quinn, David M.
DA  - June 2020
DO  - 10.26300/zfnx-k252
PY  - 2020
ST  - Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Racial Bias in Student Evaluation: The Role of Grading Scales
T2  - EdWorkingPapers.com
TI  - Experimental Evidence on Teachers' Racial Bias in Student Evaluation: The Role of Grading Scales
UR  - https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai20-241
ER  -