Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorder and Teachers’ Stereotypes – Effects on Teacher Judgments (Journal Article)

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Abstract: Teacher judgments about student achievement may be biased by factors that go beyond students’ actual achievement. Emotional and behavioral disorder (EBD), which is characterized by behavioral problems yet unimpaired general cognitive abilities, may be one such biasing characteristic on student level. Moreover, bias may depend on characteristics at teacher level, such as teachers’ individual stereotypes about students with EBD. We conducted an experimental study involving N = 102 in-service teachers in a simulated classroom. We examined whether the EBD label influences teachers’ judgments in terms of percentage of correct student responses, school grades, and secondary school recommendations. Furthermore, we examined whether teachers’ stereotypes regarding EBD (in terms of warmth and competence according to the stereotype content model) moderated this relationship. Regression analyses controlling for students’ actual achievement showed that EBD negatively affected the estimated percentage of correct answers, school grades, and secondary school recommendations. Additionally, a moderating effect of stereotypes was found: The probability of students with EBD receiving a recommendation for an academic-track school declined where teachers’ stereotype contents were cold and incompetent toward students with EBD. We discuss implications for further research, as well as school practice, such as the implementation of standardized tests for important educational decisions.