IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp16899.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Extent and Consequences of Teacher Biases against Immigrants

Author

Listed:
  • Sahlström, Ellen

    (Aalto University)

  • Silliman, Mikko

    (Aalto University)

Abstract

We study the extent and consequences of biases against immigrants exhibited by high school teachers in Finland. Compared to native students, immigrant students receive 0.06 standard deviation units lower scores from teachers than from blind graders. This effect is almost entirely driven by grading penalties incurred by high-performing immigrant students and is largest in subjects where teachers have more discretion in grading. While teacher-assigned grades on the matriculation exam are not used for tertiary enrollment decisions, we show that immigrant students who attend schools with biased teachers are less likely to continue to higher education.

Suggested Citation

  • Sahlström, Ellen & Silliman, Mikko, 2024. "The Extent and Consequences of Teacher Biases against Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 16899, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16899
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp16899.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arcidiacono, Peter & Kinsler, Josh & Ransom, Tyler, 2022. "Asian American Discrimination in Harvard Admissions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    2. Raj Chetty & John N. Friedman & Jonah E. Rockoff, 2014. "Measuring the Impacts of Teachers I: Evaluating Bias in Teacher Value-Added Estimates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(9), pages 2593-2632, September.
    3. Briole, Simon & Gurgand, Marc & Maurin, Eric & McNally, Sandra & Ruiz-Valenzuela, Jenifer & Santín, Daniel, 2022. "The Making of Civic Virtues: A School-Based Experiment in Three Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 15141, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Fernando Botelho & Ricardo Madeira, Marcos A. Rangel, 2015. "Racial Discrimination in Grading: Evidence from Brazil," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2015_04, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    5. Henna Busk & Signe Jauhiainen, 2022. "The Careers of Immigrants in Finland: Empirical Evidence for Genders and Year of Immigration," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 2009-2030, December.
    6. Dee, Thomas S., 2004. "Are there civic returns to education?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1697-1720, August.
    7. David J. Deming & Justine S. Hastings & Thomas J. Kane & Douglas O. Staiger, 2014. "School Choice, School Quality, and Postsecondary Attainment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(3), pages 991-1013, March.
    8. Simon Burgess & Ellen Greaves, 2013. "Test Scores, Subjective Assessment, and Stereotyping of Ethnic Minorities," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(3), pages 535-576.
    9. J. Aislinn Bohren & Peter Hull & Alex Imas, 2022. "Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement," NBER Working Papers 29820, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Akhlaq Ahmad, 2020. "Do Equal Qualifications Yield Equal Rewards for Immigrants in the Labour Market?," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(5), pages 826-843, October.
    11. Manudeep Bhuller & Magne Mogstad & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2017. "Life-Cycle Earnings, Education Premiums, and Internal Rates of Return," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(4), pages 993-1030.
    12. Michela Carlana & Eliana La Ferrara & Paolo Pinotti, 2022. "Reply to: Comments on “Goals and Gaps: Educational Careers of Immigrant Children”," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(1), pages 43-46, January.
    13. Sule Alan & Enes Duysak & Elif Kubilay & Ipek Mumcu, 2023. "Social Exclusion and Ethnic Segregation in Schools: The Role of Teachers' Ethnic Prejudice," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(5), pages 1039-1054, September.
    14. Michela Carlana & Eliana La Ferrara & Paolo Pinotti, 2022. "Goals and Gaps: Educational Careers of Immigrant Children," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(1), pages 1-29, January.
    15. Michela Carlana, 2019. "Implicit Stereotypes: Evidence from Teachers’ Gender Bias," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(3), pages 1163-1224.
    16. Rebecca Diamond & Petra Persson, 2016. "The Long-term Consequences of Teacher Discretion in Grading of High-stakes Tests," NBER Working Papers 22207, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Raj Chetty & David J. Deming & John N. Friedman, 2023. "Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges," NBER Working Papers 31492, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Fernando Botelho & Ricardo A. Madeira & Marcos A. Rangel, 2015. "Racial Discrimination in Grading: Evidence from Brazil," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 37-52, October.
    19. Thomas S. Dee, 2005. "A Teacher Like Me: Does Race, Ethnicity, or Gender Matter?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(2), pages 158-165, May.
    20. Laura Ansala & Olof Åslund & Matti Sarvimäki, 2022. "Immigration history, entry jobs and the labor market integration of immigrants [Immigration in American economic history]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 581-604.
    21. Laura Ansala & Ulla Hämäläinen & Matti Sarvimäki, 2020. "Age at arrival, parents and neighborhoods: understanding the educational attainment of immigrants’ children [The economic situation of first and second-generation immigrants in France, Germany and ," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(2), pages 459-480.
    22. Joshua Angrist & Peter Hull & Parag A. Pathak & Christopher Walters, 2024. "Credible School Value-Added with Undersubscribed School Lotteries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(1), pages 1-19, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Silliman, Mikko & Willén, Alexander, 2024. "Worker Power, Immigrant Sorting, and Firm Dynamics," IZA Discussion Papers 17208, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicole Black & Sonja C. de New, 2020. "Short, Heavy and Underrated? Teacher Assessment Biases by Children's Body Size," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(5), pages 961-987, October.
    2. Cheti Nicoletti & Almudena Sevilla & Valentina Tonei, 2022. "Gender stereotypes in the family," CEP Discussion Papers dp1891, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Terrier, Camille, 2020. "Boys lag behind: How teachers’ gender biases affect student achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Rangel, Marcos & Marotta, Luana & van der Werf, Cynthia & Duryea, Suzanne & Drouet Arias, Marcelo & Rodríguez Guillén, Lucina, 2024. "Barriers to Immigrant Assimilation: Evidence on Grading Bias in Ecuadorian High Schools," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13434, Inter-American Development Bank.
    5. Leckie, G. & Maragkou, K., 2024. "Tracing the Origins of Gender Bias in Teacher Grades," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2457, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    6. Joan Martinez, 2022. "The Long-Term Effects of Teachers' Gender Stereotypes," Papers 2212.08220, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2023.
    7. Alberto Alesina & Michela Carlana & Eliana La Ferrara & Paolo Pinotti, 2024. "Revealing Stereotypes: Evidence from Immigrants in Schools," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(7), pages 1916-1948, July.
    8. Lavy, Victor & Sand, Edith, 2015. "On The Origins of Gender Human Capital Gaps: Short and Long Term Consequences of Teachers’ Stereotypical Biases," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1085, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    9. Ferman, Bruno & Fontes, Luiz Felipe, 2020. "Discriminating Behavior: Evidence from teachers’ grading bias," MPRA Paper 100400, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Thomas van Huizen & Madelon Jacobs & Matthijs Oosterveen, 2024. "Teacher bias or measurement error?," Papers 2401.04200, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    11. Rangel, Marcos A. & Shi, Ying, 2020. "First Impressions: The Case of Teacher Racial Bias," IZA Discussion Papers 13347, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Thomas van Huizen, 2021. "Teacher bias or measurement error bias? Evidence from track recommendations," Working Papers 2113, Utrecht School of Economics.
    13. Delaney, Judith M. & Devereux, Paul J., 2023. "Gender Differences in Teacher Judgement of Comparative Advantage," IZA Discussion Papers 16635, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Odermatt, Reto, 2022. "All I have to do is dream? The role of aspirations in intergenerational mobility and well-being," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    15. Bart H. H. Golsteyn & Cécile Magnée & Inge Wolf, 2024. "Did Migrant Children Benefit from a Delay in the Dutch Primary School Exit Test?," De Economist, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 141-166, September.
    16. Lavy, Victor & Sand, Edith, 2018. "On the origins of gender gaps in human capital: Short- and long-term consequences of teachers' biases," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 263-279.
    17. Victor Lavy & Rigissa Megalokonomou, 2019. "Persistency in Teachers’ Grading Bias and Effects on Longer-Term Outcomes: University Admissions Exams and Choice of Field of Study," NBER Working Papers 26021, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Tumen, Semih & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Wahba, Jackline, 2021. "Training Teachers for Diversity Awareness: Impact on School Attendance of Refugee Children," IZA Discussion Papers 14557, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Ferman, Bruno & Fontes, Luiz Felipe, 2022. "Assessing knowledge or classroom behavior? Evidence of teachers’ grading bias," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    20. Huong Thu Le & Ha Trong Nguyen, 2018. "The evolution of the gender test score gap through seventh grade: new insights from Australia using unconditional quantile regression and decomposition," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 7(1), pages 1-42, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    immigrants; discrimination; teachers; education policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16899. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.