Beyond judgment bias: How students' ethnicity and academic profile consistency influence teachers' tracking judgments

Research on school tracking has provided evidence that students with immigrant
backgrounds are overrepresented in the lower school tracks. As teachers are the
main decision makers when it comes to tracking, we investigated whether teachers’
tracking judgments are biased by the immigrant backgrounds of the students and how
teachers’ tracking judgments are affected by inconsistencies in students’ academic
profiles. Drawing on dual process models of judgment formation, we conducted two
experimental studies to investigate teachers’ judgments. The results of both studies
showed less favorable teacher judgments of students with immigrant backgrounds
than of students without immigrant backgrounds. Students with inconsistent academic
profiles were also judged less favorably than students with consistent profiles.
Think aloud data indicated careful processing of all information both for students with
immigrant backgrounds and students with inconsistent profiles. Results are discussed
with regard to their underlyingmechanisms as well as with regard to their implications
for teacher training.