The Extent of Bias in Grading
Leroy Andersland (lan004@uib.no)
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Leroy Andersland: University of Bergen, Department of Economics, Postal: Institutt for økonomi, Universitetet i Bergen, Postboks 7802, 5020 Bergen, Norway
No 10/17, Working Papers in Economics from University of Bergen, Department of Economics
Abstract:
Do biased perceptions and behaviors affect teachers’ assessment of students? To investigate this question, a number of studies use data on two different scores for the same individuals: one non-blind score based on classroom tests assessed by the student’s own teacher and one blind test score based on a national exam marked externally and anonymously. In the absence of bias in teachers’ assessments, it is argued, there should not be significant differences in the gaps in blind and non-blind scores between different groups. This article present a parsimonious econometric framework that distills out the assumptions necessary to identify group bias in teachers’ assessment from such a comparison of blind and non-blind scores. This framework lays the foundation for our empirical analysis, where data from the Norwegian school system are employed to estimate and interpret differences between nonblind and blind assessments. The results show that the relationship between the subject ability and non-blind results tends to be different from the relationship between subject ability and blind results. Evidence of this is found both when grades are recorded when teachers grade the same test and when they grade based on different assessments that are meant to test the same skill. The difference between non-blind and blind will therefore be a function of the skill tested. This leads to different estimates of the group bias when holding ability fixed.
Keywords: Discrimination; bias; human capital; test scores (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 D80 J15 J16 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2017-08-30
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)
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