Accountability as a moderator of teachers' tracking decisions: Two experimental studies

In some European countries, teachers select
students for entry into different secondary school types
on the basis of students’ achievement level. In
Luxembourg, teachers join a council to select students.
PISA provided evidence that students with immigration
background and/or low socioeconomic status are
underrepresented in the highest school track. The
question arises whether teachers’ tracking decisions
are biased towards non-performance-related cues.
Dual process theories of judgment suggest
accountability to be a moderator of judgment
accuracy. Judgments of highly accountable teachers
should be less biased through non-performance-related
cues than those of teachers with low accountability. In
groups, diffusion of responsibility may occur, thereby
reducing accountability of the individual members. We
designed two experiments to investigate whether
teachers’ tracking decisions differ given different levels
of accountability. In both studies, teachers in the high
accountability condition did not rely on nonperformance-
related cues. Increasing accountability
for teachers’ decisions could reduce disadvantages of
immigration and low SES students.