Names, expectations, and the black-white test score gap
By: David N. Figlio.
Contributors: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series ;; working paper 11195; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) ;; working paper no. 11195.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Subjects: Discrimination in education -- United States.; Names, Personal -- Social aspects -- United States.; Test bias -- United States.; African American students -- Social conditions.; Discrimination in education -- Florida -- Case studies.
Genres: Case studies.
Description: "This paper investigates the question of whether teachers treat children differentially on the basis of factors other than observed ability, and whether this differential treatment in turn translates into differences in student outcomes.  I suggest that teachers may use a child's name as a signal of unobserved parental contributions to that child's education, and expect less from children with names that "sound" like they were given by uneducated parents.  These names, empirically, are given most frequently by blacks, but they are also given by white and Hispanic parents as well.  I utilize a detailed dataset from a large Florida school district to directly test the hypothesis that teachers and school administrators expect less on average of children with names associated with low socio-economic status, and these diminished expectations in turn lead to reduced student cognitive performance.  Comparing pairs of siblings, I find that teachers tend to treat children differently depending on their names, and that these same patterns apparently translate into large differences in test scores"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Also available in print.
Includes bibliographical references.
Title from PDF file as viewed on 3/15/2005.
System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.