Discrimination in Grading

Numerous studies have documented what is known as the Pygmalion effect, in which students perform better or worse simply because teachers expect them to do so (see, for example, Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968). In the modern education system, such expectations are set not just by teachers but by a range of evaluators, many of whom have no direct contact with the student, such as admissions officers or the anonymous graders of national and standardized exams. Of particular concern is whether the resulting experiences of students differ systematically based on observable characteristics, like minority status and gender. Such discrimination could have long-lasting effects, by reinforcing erroneous beliefs of inferiority (Steele and Aronson 1998; Hoff and Pandey 2006), and discouraging children from making human capital investments (Mechtenberg 2009; Tajfel 1970; Arrow 1972; Coate and Loury 1993). Additionally, since such external evaluations are often used to determine access to academic opportunities like competitive schools and higher education, such discrimination could directly block access to these important resources. Unlike teaching, however, external evaluations take place away from the classroom, making it feasible to restrict the information available to evaluators. Teachers can often deduce the race of a student from physical characteristics observed in the Discrimination in Grading