Jessie Gilliland: EXPOSITORY ESSAY

Many assume that teachers hold race and ethnicity-based expectations for their students
academic performance. Still, other individuals believe that teachers do not hold lower
expectations for minority students. Some studies indicate that teachers have lower expectations
for African-American and Hispanic students in comparison to white students. According to
Jensen and Rosenfeld (1974), patterns for Latino/a children seem to be more familiar to those
for African-American children Teachers expectations very easily can become self-fulfilling
prophesies. I believe that the impact of teacher expectations in relation to minority students has
the ability to directly impact academic performance. Currently, as my campus, our
Hispanic/Latino students represent both 60% of our student population and our lowest
performing subgroup. The majority of our staff is white, with just a handful of Latino teachers. I
believe that teachers do not consciously expect less from their Hispanic students; however, they
may do so unconsciously. My prediction would be that if teachers have higher expectations for
their minority students, then academic performance would increase.
Living in Texas, with the influx of immigrants coming to our state, it is important that
teachers understand and expect the same from our minority students. We live in a country that is
a melting pot of different cultures and religions, and it is important that everyone has the
opportunity to go to school and have the same education. As much as we would like to fool
ourselves in thinking that teachers hold all their students at the same high level of education
research and studies have shown otherwise. A study that was conducted in New Zealand
surveyed a group of teachers from several different schools. They gave them a survey at the
beginning of the year and at the end of the year. This survey asked teachers to asked teachers to
make a decision about what they would think their students reading level would be by the end of
the year. This survey also asked about teachers judgments of their students. The data showed that

EXPOSITORY ESSAY

at the beginning of the year the teachers said they had the same expectations of all their students
and students test scores were about the same. After the survey was given at the end of the year
teachers expectations were different and the minority students academic performance dropped
(Rubie-Davies, Hattie & Hamilton, 2006).
There is no way for people to be completely unbiased, but it is important for people to be
aware of their personal beliefs about people. It is so important for teachers, especially, to be
aware of their own biases of students to help prevent lowering expectations for minority
students. In a study that was conducted by interviewing forty-eight African American high school
students the students all reported that they could tell whether or not the teacher cared about them
or if they were successful in class (Pringle, Lyons, & Booker, 2010). This shows that students
can pick up on how teachers view them and this can in turn have the students lack motivation in
school. The teachers in this high school most likely did not do this on purpose, but nonetheless
they affected the perception of those students and their academic performance.
In the two high schools from this study, one had a predominantly white population, while
the other high school had predominantly African American students, but both schools had few
ethnic minority teachers. Having few minority teachers working in schools can be a factor with
teacher expectations of students. If schools had more minority teachers it could help with teacher
expectations of minority students. Many of the forty-eight students surveyed believed that race
and ethnicity played a role in their teachers expectation of them (Pringle, Lyons, & Booker,
2010).
There was a study done in Germany where the majority of students were immigrants with
Turkish backgrounds and how teachers make judgments about academic achievement of students

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based on their ethnicity. In Germany they have students on a tracking system based on their
academic achievement level just like in the United States there are graduation plans for students
based on their academic achievements too many schools have minority students on the
vocational track opposed to being college bound (Glock & Krolak-Schwerdt, 2012). Though
immigrant students tend to have lower achievement levels they are at an even greater
disadvantage when it comes to teacher expectations of their academic performance just based on
teachers bias of this particular group and when their academic achievement is controlled with
tracks (Dauber et al., 1996). In this study teachers had a negative view of students on lower
tracks and the majority of students placed within these tracks were the Turkish minority
immigrants.
Although teachers do their best every day to make a difference in the lives of their
students sometimes a teachers bias can unconsciously affect a students academic performance.
Teachers need to be more aware and recognize their own bias of students to make sure that they
hold all their students at a high standard to help improve their academic achievement. Schools
need to also hire or recruit more minority teachers to help with those ethic biases.

EXPOSITORY ESSAY

References
Dauber, S. (1996). Tracking and Transitions through the Middle Grades: Channeling
Educational Trajectories. Sociology of Education, 69(4), 290-307. Retrieved January 25, 2015,
from ERIC (EBSCO).
Jensen, M., & Rosenfeld, L. (1973). Influence of mode of presentation, ethnicity, and
social class on teachers' evaluations of students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 540-547.
Retrieved January 25, 2015, from ERIC (EBSCO).
Pringle, B., Lyons, J., & Booker, K. (2010). Perceptions of Teacher Expectations by
African American High School Students. The Journal of Negro Education, 79(1), 33-40.
Retrieved January 25, 2015, from ERIC (EBSCO).
Rubie-Davies, C., Hattie, J., & Hamilton, R. (2006). Expecting The Best For Students:
Teacher Expectations And Academic Outcomes. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76,
429-444. Retrieved January 28, 2015, from ERIC (EBSCO).
Tenenbaum, H., & Ruck, M. (2007). Are Teachers' Expectations Different for Racial
Minority Than for European American Students? A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Educational
Psychology,99(2), 253-273. Retrieved January 25, 2015, from ERIC (EBSCO).