Measuring systematic gaps in teacher judgement: A new approach

Oliver Cassagneau-Francis (), Lindsey Macmillan, Richard Murphy and Gill Wyness
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Oliver Cassagneau-Francis: UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities
Lindsey Macmillan: UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities
Richard Murphy: Department of Economics, University of Texas at Austin
Gill Wyness: UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities

No 25-12, CEPEO Working Paper Series from UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities

Abstract: We propose a new approach to test for systematic biases in teacher evaluations. We exploit a setting where teachers were required to assign students both grades and rankings within each grade. Comparing students immediately adjacent to grade boundaries, we apply a local randomization approach to estimate imbalance in student characteristics. Our findings reveal systematic bias favoring higher income and female students. These grading decisions carry real consequences: students just above the grade threshold are significantly more likely to attend university. Our approach can be applied whenever there is a system with many thresholds and subjective rankings.

Keywords: Teacher bias; Gender; Stereotypes; Proportions; Test Optional (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C10 C25 I23 I24 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2025-10, Revised 2025-10
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https://repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeow/cepeowp25-12.pdf Initial version, 2025 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucl:cepeow:25-12

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