The Black-White Gap in Noncognitive Skills among Elementary School Children

Todd Elder and Yuqing Zhou

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2021, vol. 13, issue 1, 105-32

Abstract: Using two nationally representative datasets, we find large differences between Black and White children in teacher-reported measures of noncognitive skills. We show that teacher reports understate true Black-White skill gaps because of reference bias: teachers appear to rate children relative to others in the same school, and Black students have lower-skilled classmates on average than do White students. We pursue three approaches to addressing these reference biases. Each approach nearly doubles the estimated Black-White gaps in noncognitive skills, to roughly 0.9 standard deviations in third grade.

JEL-codes: I21 I26 J13 J15 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1257/app.20180732

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