Ethnicity, Teachers' Expectations, and the Academic Achievement Process in Canada

Author(s): Rodney A. Clifton

Source: Sociology of Education, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Oct., 1981), pp. 291-301
Published by: American Sociological Association
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2112570
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 ETHNICITY, TEACHERS' EXPECTATIONS, AND THE ACADEMIC
ACHIEVEMENT PROCESS IN CANADA*

RODNEY A. CLIFTON
University of Manitoba

Sociology of Education 1981, Vol. 54 (October):291-301

This research examines the extent to which differences in achievement between

German-speaking and French-speaking students are accountedfor by the expectations of their
teachers. A causal model incorporating both normative and cognitive expectations of teachers
is used. The results suggest that teachers base their expectations on the intellectual ability and
previous performance of students rather than upon their ethnicity or other ascribed
characteristics. Moreover, the data indicate that expectations affect the teachers' evaluation of
learning to a greater degree than they affect actual learning.

There has been considerable research
on the effects of teachers' expectations
upon the performances of their students
(Dusek, 1975; Braun, 1976; Cooper, 1979),
much of it stimulated by the publication of
Pygmalion in the Classroom (Rosenthal
and Jacobson, 1968). Researchers and
teachers have been concerned that the
performances of students may be lowered,
rather than raised, because expectations
for performances are low (Finn,
1972:387), especially if students are disad-
vantaged or come from minority groups.
Expectations of teachers may be influ-
enced by both ascribed characteristics of
students that are essentially irrelevant to
performances (ethnicity, physical attrac-
tiveness, sex, etc.) and achieved charac-
teristics that are relevant (intellectual
ability, previous performance, academic
aspirations, etc.). Teachers' expectations,
if based upon irrelevant ascribed charac-
teristics, may shape teacher-student in-
teractions and performances in such a way
that initial false definitions of the situation
may, over time, become true (Merton,
1957:423). A number of scholars (Rist,
1970; Carnoy, 1974; Bowles and Gintis,
1976) have argued that schools play a
major role in perpetuating the existing so-
cial stratification system, in part because
teachers assume that children with certain
ascribed characteristics can learn more
* I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers
for helpful comments and suggestions. Address cor-
respondence to Dr. Rodney A. Clifton, Depart-
ment of Educational Administration and Foun-
dations, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
Manitoba, R3T 2N2 Canada.
and faster than children with other as-
cribed characteristics.
The present study is an empirical in-
vestigation of the extent to which the
ethnicity of students shapes expectations
of their teachers and how both these vari-
ables affect students' achievement
(Dusek, 1975:680; Braun, 1976:191).
BACKGROUND
Within Canada, the examination of
stratification and mobility has
traditionally been related to class and
ethnicity. John Porter (1965) argues that
ethnicity has been a principle cause of
class structures, and there are a number of
ways that ethnicity could either hinder or
facilitate upward mobility. The most
common theme has been that ethnic sub-
cultures may shape the development of
abilities, aspirations, and motivation in
order to preserve culture-specific values
and attitudes. Children socialized within
ethnic subcultures have developed
abilities, aspirations, and motivation
which match certain occupational status
positions within society. In turn, the
shaping of abilities, aspirations, and moti-
vation within ethnic subcultures could set
limits on educational achievement which
could further limit occupational achieve-
ment (Breton and Rosenborough, 1968:4;
Blishen, 1970:120).
Empirical evidence (Porter 1965:90) in-
dicates overrepresentation of British,
Jewish, German, and other northern
European groups in the upper levels of the
occupational structure in Canadian soci-

291

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 292 CLIFTON

ety and underrepresentation of the main language at home and, as a result,

French, Italian, native Indian and Inuit were classified as English-speaking.
groups. More recent research on ethnic Third, the French-speaking and German-
immigrants in Toronto (Li, 1978) has il- speaking students were the two largest
lustrated that German and British adults ethnic groups represented in the data set.
have very similar educational and occu- Thus, there was an adequate number of
pational achievement. Additionally, it was students from both groups for analyses.
shown that occupational achievement was Even though ethnicity has been an im-
largely the result of educational achieve- portant factor in the analyses of the occu-
ment. Previous research on the data used pational stratification system in Canada, it
in the present study (King, 1968) showed has not generally been included in the
that German-speaking students main- analyses of inequalities in education nor in
tained very similar performances and re- the way in which education fits into the
tention rates to Dutch-, English-, occupational stratification system (Breton
Hungarian-, and Polish-speaking students. et al., 1975:83). From previous research it
The performances and retention rate for is expected that ethnicity would have im-
Yiddish-speaking students were substan- portant direct and indirecf effects upon
tially higher than all other groups while educational performances. Ethnicity is
the performances and retention rate for probably related to ability, aspirations,
French-speaking students were substan- and motivation and the educational sys-
tially lower than all other groups. The tem may simply sort students on these
differences between the ethnic groups criteria. Moreover, teachers may hold
were maintained even when size of com- differential expectations based upon
munity, father's and mother's education, ethnicity and these expectations may af-
father's occupation, and number of chil- fect the performances of students. The
dren in the family were controlled. main concern of this research is with the
For the present research, data on the relationships between ethnicity, teachers'
total population of students enrolled in expectations, and educational perfor-
Grade 9 (over 90,000 students) in the mances.
Province of Ontario were available. From
this data set, only French-speaking and
THE MODEL
German-speaking students were selected
for analysis. There are three reasons for In an extensive review of 345 studies,
selecting the students from these two Rosenthal and Rubin (1978) suggested that
ethnic groups. First, past research showed the expectations that experimenters have
that the German-speaking students were for the behavior of their subjects and the
very similar in performances and retention expectations that teachers have for the
to students who spoke other northern performance of their students are com-
European languages while the French- municated through both verbal and non-
speaking students had much lower per- verbal means. In most cases, when re-
formances and a much lower retention searchers or teachers expect certain levels
rate than students from other ethnic of performances from their subjects or
groups. This fits the notion that, in On- students they communicate these expec-
tario, the French-speaking citizens repre- tations in such a way that neither the re-
sent a "white siege culture" (Breton, Bur- searchers, teachers, subjects, nor stu-
net, Hartmann, Isajiw, and Lennards, dents know exactly how the information is
1975:88). Second, even though it may transferred (Rosenthal, 1976). Moreover,
seem logical to compare minority students the subjects and students often do not
(French, for example) with majority (En- know how or why they internalize the ex-
glish) students, the English-speaking stu- pectations in such a way that their behav-
dents were not selected because Cana- ior is affected.
dian Census data revealed that this group Brophy and Good (1970) and Rosenthal
represented a variety of ethnic/linguistic (1976) have postulated theoretical linkages
origins. That is, a number of students from which may help explain how expectations
other ethnic groups spoke English as their operate within classrooms. First, it is

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 ETHNICITY AND CANADIAN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT 293

postulated that a climate is established mances whereas cognitive expectations

within a classroom so that differential ex-
pectations for performances are estab-
lished and accepted by both the students
and the teachers. Second, certain students
begin to be treated differentially in ac-
cordance with the differential expecta-
tions held by the teachers. Third, in re-
sponse to differential treatment, each stu-
dent tends to exhibit behavior which com-
plements and reinforces the teachers' ex-
pectations. Finally, over a period of time,
the achievement levels of the students and
the social organization of the classroom
reflects, to some degree, differences in the
expectations of the teachers and the dif-
ferential expectations are exhibited in the
results of achievement tests.
Within classrooms it is possible to dis-
tinguish between two interrelated dimen-
sions of the educational enterprise. There
is an instructional dimension that pertains
to knowledge and skills and there is a so-
cial control dimension that pertains to the
management of social interaction (see
Parsons, 1959; Bidwell, 1972). Report
cards, which are issued to students and
their parents, and cumulative records,
which are consulted by teachers and other
professionals in the schools, convey
teachers' assessments of students on both
instruction and social control. Since both
dimensions are seen as being important, it
is logical to assume that teachers take
both of them into consideration in devel-
oping expectations for their students.
From this perspective, two types of ex-
pectations may be identified: normative
expectations and cognitive expectations
(Williams, 1976). Normative expectations
relate to normative or behavioral perfor-
relate to academic achievement. Norma-
tive expectations concern the manner in
which students are seen, by their
teachers, as meeting the behavioral stan-
dards of the classroom whereas cognitive
expectations concern the manner in which
students are seen as meeting the academic
standards of the classroom. These two
different types of expectations have been
identified in the literature on academic
and behavioral difficulties pupils en-
counter in school (Rubin and Balow,
1979). Nevertheless, only Williams (1976)
has integrated the two types of expecta-
tions into research on the manner in which
teachers mediate the relationships be-
tween the socioeconomic status and in-
tellectual abilities of students, on the one
hand, and their academic performances,
on the other.
These linkages, in terms of a causal
model, are illustrated in Figure 1. It is
noted that both normative and cognitive
expectations are assumed to cause three
different types of achievement: assigned
grades, standardized achievement in En-
glish, and standardized achievement in
mathematics.
Previous research has shown that
teachers' expectations have effects upon
standardized achievement tests (Brophy
and Good, 1974; Dusek, 1975; Braun,
1976; Cooper, 1979). However, even
though previous research has focused on
standardized achievement tests, it is hy-
pothesized that teachers' expectations,
particularly cognitive expectations, will
have a strong impact on teacher assigned
grades because teachers may either con-
sciously or unconsciously bias their grad-

6. Normative Expectations-

4. Assigned Grades _

1. Socioeconomic Status. - - . 8. Assigned Grades

2. Intellectual Ability _ _ 9. Standardized Achievement

(English)
3. Ethnicity - _ 10. Standardized Achievement
(Mathematics)

5. Academic Aspirations _ --

7. Cognitive Expectations _

Autumn 1959 Spring 1960 Autumn 1960 Spring 1961

Figure 1. The Theoretical Model

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 294 CLIFTON

ing of tests which they have constructed. effects are via normative and cognitive
Both teacher assigned grades and stan- expectations.
dardized achievement tests are included There is also substantial evidence that
as dependent variables. the sex of the pupils, affects various as-
West and Anderson (1976) have argued pects of the academic achievement pro-
that the literature supports the notion that cess (Richer, 1979). Moreover, within the
student achievement causes expectations teacher expectations literature there is
and expectations, in turn, cause achieve- specific evidence of differential influence
ment. In the present study, teacher as- attributed to the sex of pupils (Kehle,
signed grades are included at two points in 1974). For this reason, analyses for each
time: spring 1960 and spring 1961. As a sex are conducted.
result, it is hypothesized that grades as-
signed in the spring of 1960 affect both METHODOLOGY
normative and cognitive expectations in
Data
the autumn of 1960 and that all of these, in
turn, affect both assigned grades and Data were obtained from the Carnegie
standardized achievement in the spring of Human Resources Data Bank, a five-year
1961'.1 panel study of practically the total popu-
It is also probable that the academic lation of students (90,719) who were en-
aspirations of students play a major role rolled
in in the first year of high school,
mediating any relationships between Grade 9, in the Province of Ontario at the
ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and both beginning of the 1959-1960 academic
teachers' expectations and students' year. Students were classified on their re-
achievement (Williams, 1972). As a result, sponses to the question, "What is the main
this variable is incorporated into the language spoken in your home?" On this
model. basis, 79 percent of the students indicated
There is substantial evidence that both that they were from English-speaking
ethnicity and socioeconomic status affect homes, 5 percent indicated that they were
the expectations of teachers (Marwit, from French-speaking homes, 1 percent
Marwit, and Walker, 1978; Feldman and indicated that they were from German-
Orchowsky, 1979). The model presented speaking homes, and 15 percent indicated
here hypothesizes that these two vari- that they were from homes in which other
ables, as well as intellectual ability, not languages were spoken. The French-
only affect normative and cognitive ex- speaking and German-speaking students
pectations, but they also affect all of the were selected for this research because
other variables. That is, it is hypothesized both represented large homogeneous
that socioeconomic status, intellectual ethnic groups with the German-speaking
ability, and ethnicity have both direct and students generally outperforming the
indirect effects upon the achievement of French-speaking students. In total, 4,733
students. Part of the indirect effects are students spoke French and 1,045 students
via assigned grades in Grade 9 and aca- spoke German as their main language. Of
demic aspirations and part of the indirect these, 2,440 French-speaking students (52
percent) and 707 German-speaking stu-
dents
1 When the students entered Grade 10, in the (68 percent) completed Grade 10 in
autumn of 1960, the majority of their teachers al- the spring of 1961.2
ready knew them from the previous year. In Ontario,
high school teachers specialize in subject areas and 2 The other students dropped out of school, or
may teach students from Grade 9 to Grade 13. In thismoved to another province or country, with the
respect, over 85 percent of the students who did notmajority dropping out or moving during July and
drop out of school or move to another province or August. As noted previously, the retention rate for
country remained in the same school for both the the French-speaking students was the lowest of all
1959-1960 and 1960-1961 academic years. Also, the ethnic groups while the retention rate for the
teachers generally review the cumulative records of German-speaking students was about average (King,
their students who have recently transferred to the 1968). There were also slight differences between the
school. Thus, it is usual for teachers to have consid-
sexes: for the French-speaking students the retention
erable information about their students' previous rate for the females was slightly higher than the rate
performances.
for the males whereas for the German-speaking stu-

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 ETHNICITY AND CANADIAN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT 295
Variables
Complete descriptions of the question-
naires and tests that were administered to
the students can be found in Brehaut
(1964) and D'Oyley (1964). The following
ten variables are used in the present
study.
Socioeconomic Status (x1). To create
this variable three student-reported mea-
sures are summed: father's occupation, an
eight-category scale based on Blishen and
McRoberts (1976); father's and mother's
education, five-point scales ranging from
"no secondary schoorl to "university de-
gree" .
Intellectual Ability (X2). The students'
scores on the Canadian Academic Apti-
tude Test III (non-verbal reasoning) were
taken as the indicator of intellectual
ability.
Ethnicity (X3). This variable is created
from the respondents' answers to a ques-
tion about the major language that is spo-
ken in their homes. Students who spoke
French were coded as 1 and students who
spoke German were coded as 2.
Assigned Grades (X4, X8). In both Grade
9 and Grade 10 average grades were cal-
culated from the marks, for all relevant
subjects, which were assigned by the
teachers. Assigned grades were obtained
from the school records.
Academic Aspirations (X5). Subjects
were asked to respond to a question about
their own educational and work plans.
Seven responses were provided, ranging
from "leave school as soon as possible to
obtain a job" to "complete secondary
school and enter university".
Normative Expectations (X6). Teachers
in each school were asked to rate each
student's reliability as indicated by per-
formance on curricular and extra-
curricular duties, cooperation with
teachers and students, and industry in
school work. The teachers were requested
to meet as a group and give ratings which
would represent their combined judgment
for each student. For each item, a five-
dents the retention rate for the males was slightly
higher than the rate for the females. In view of the
differential retention rates, generalizations based
upon this analysis must be considered with great
caution.
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point scale which ranged from " much
below average" to "much above average"
was used. The three items were summed
to form the normative expectations scale.
Cognitive Expectations (X7). The
teachers were requested to provide a
similar rating on each student's chance of
completing Grade 13 successfully, the
final year of high school. It must be recog-
nized that for both normative and cogni-
tive expectations considerable between-
teacher differences may be obliterated by
averaging the responses of different
groups of teachers.
Standardized Achievement Tests (xg,
x10). Two tests are used: the CATE, an
English language achievement test and the
CATM, a standardized achievement test
in mathematics.
Advantages of the Data
This data set has four advantages for the
analysis of ethnicity, teachers' expecta-
tions, and academic achievement. First,
the data included a variable which can be
used to measure ethnicity rather accu-
rately.3 Second, the data were obtained
from the total population of students in
Grade 9 in the Province of Ontario during
the 1959-1960 academic year. Thus, gen-
eralizations may at least apply to this
province.4 Third, data were collected over
a number of years so that the variables
were measured at different periods during
the students' academic careers (see Figure
1). Fourth, in many studies only the link-
ages between the characteristics of pupils
and the expectations of teachers have
been examined, and often only in con-
trived or experimental situations (Dusek,
1975; Braun, 1976; Cooper, 1979). In the
present study these relationships are ex-
amined as they existed within actual
school settings rather than laboratory set-
tings (see Rosenthal and Rubin, 1978:
383).
I This was not true for more recent large-scale
research on related aspects of the education of
Canadian students (see Breton, 1972; Porter, Porter,
and Blishen, 1973).
4 Since the data were collected 20 years ago, it is
not known if the results are applicable at the present
time. Thus, until more recent longitudinal data are
collected on sufficiently large ethnic subsamples
these results must be regarded as tentative.
 296 CLIFTON

RESULTS cluded in the analysis. However, before

The relevant correlation coefficients, assigned grades and academic aspirations
means, and standard deviations are pre- in Grade 9 were incorporated, the effects
sented in Table 1. Ethnicity has positive of ethnicity were substantially higher.
correlations with most other variables. Specifically, the effects of ethnicity de-
Analyses of variance examining the re- creased by 48 percent for normative ex-
lationships between ethnicity and each of pectations and by 62 percent for cognitive
the other variables in the model revealed expectations.
that, except for the academic aspirations Quite different results are observed for
of females, the German students had sub- the female students (Panel B). When as-
stantially higher mean scores (p.S.0001) signed grades in Grade 9 and academic
than the French students. aspirations are included, the effects of
Both normative and cognitive expecta- ethnicity are not decreased as much as for
tions are very highly related to the three the males. That is, for normative expecta-
dependent variables, assigned grades and tions the effect of ethnicity decreased by 7
standardized achievement in both English percent and for cognitive expectations the
and mathematics. As expected, cognitive effect of ethnicity decreased by 9 percent.
expectations have higher correlations with Nevertheless, for both males and fe-
the three performance scores than with males past performances have the most
normative expectations, and both norma- powerful effects upon both normative and
tive and cognitive expectations have cognitive expectations of teachers while
higher correlations with teacher assigned the second most powerful effect on cogni-
grades than with the standardized tive expectations is from academic aspi-
achievement tests. rations. This means that what originally
To identify the direct and indirect ef- may have been interpreted as moderately
fects of the independent and intervening strong ethnic bias on the part of teachers,
variables upon the dependent variables a is, to a large degree, the effect of previous
path analysis was undertaken (see Dun- achievement and aspirations. If students
can, 1975; Heise, 1975). The path coeffi- have done well and have high aspirations
cients, path regressions, and R2 are re- then, other things being equal, their
ported in Table 2. Only coefficients re- teachers expect them to be responsible in
flecting the fully recursive model are pre-following the generally accepted norms
sented. and to complete high school. These find-
Beginning with normative and cognitive ings are congruent with Dreeben's (1968:
expectations it is observed that, for males 44) claim that, in schools "pupils learn to
(Panel A), the effects of ethnicity are small accept principles of conduct, or social
when all five exogenous variables are in- norms, and to act according to them."

Table 1. Correlations, Means and Standard Deviations for All Variables by Sexa

Standard
Means Deviations
XI X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9 XIO Males Females Males Females
XI .155 .133 .151 .290 .054 .177 .129 .194 .147 6.48 6.32 3.03 3.02
X2 .143 .235 .438 .189 .189 .298 .341 .392 .466 27.71 27.35 8.82 8.25
X3 .125 .192 .253 .115 .193 .206 .219 .333 .330 1.19 1.16 0.39 0.37
X4 .205 .395 .115 .294 .496 .570 .714 .561 .541 57.76 52.46 14.16 13.76
X5 .210 .128-.021 .274 .160 .343 .274 .344 .177 4.91 4.70 1.92 1.69
X6 .027 .179 .182 .408 .083 .642 .620 .340 .338 9.54 10.04 2.46 2.38
X7 .168 .309 .156 .611 .247 .564 .665 .550 .432 2.49 2.54 1.16 1.09
X8 .133 .268 .103 .661 .150 .502 .651 .523 .542 61.73 64.75 12.21 11.41
Xg .148 .410 .259 .515 .206 .301 .515 .499 .536 55.15 59.05 13.07 12.38
X1o .115 .410 .211 .474 .121 .305 .442 .459 .534 16.91 16.28 5.17 5.11
a Correlations for the males are above the diagonal.
1 = Socioeconomic Status, 2 = Intellectual Ability, 3 = Ethnicity, 4 = Assigned Grades (Grade 9),
5 = Academic Aspirations, 6 = Normative Expectations, 7 = Cognitive Expectations, 8 = Assigned Grades
(Grade 10), 9 = Standardized Achievement (English), 10 = Standardized Achievement (Mathematics).

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 ETHNICITY AND CANADIAN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT 297
Table 2. Path Coefficient, Path Regre$sions, and R2 by Sexa

Dependent Predetermined Variables

Variables XI x2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 R2
A. Males
X4 .070 .391 .152 .220
(.327) (.628) (5.50)
X5 .262 .137 .048 .107
(.166) (.030) (.234)
X6 --.031 -.045 .081 .493 .023 .253
(-.025) (-.013) (.505) (.086) (.030)
X7 .041 .035 .050 .484 .176 .365
(.016) (.005) (.148) (.040) (.107)
X8 - .003 .027 .003 .438 .017 .234 .251 .639
(-.013) (.037) (.095) (.377) (.109) (1.16) (2.63)
Xg .024 .122 .165 .284 .112 -.087 .331 .458
(.102) (.181) (5.52) (.262) (.763) (-.464) (3.72)
YIlO .024 .251 .160 .304 -.039 .018 .149 .401
(.042) (.147) (2.12) (.111) (-.104) (.037) (.659)
B. Females
X4 ..149 .369 .026 .179
(.677) (.614) (.960)
X5 .202 .112 -.067 .058
(.113) (.023) (-.309)
X6 --.073 .002 .143 .409 -.011 .191
(-.057) (.006) (.921) (.071) (-.016)
X7 .018 .063 .081 .550 .086 .392
(.007) (.008) (.238) (.044) (.055)
X8 .005 -.016 -.025 .420 -.059 .158 .328 .556
(.021) (-.022) (-.764) (.348) (-.396) (.756) (3.43)
Xg -.007 .196 .155 .244 .050 -.026 .285 .394
(-.029) (.293) (5.19) (.219) (.369) (-.136) (3.24)
XIO --.010 .232 .102 .248 -.022 .040 .188 .325
(-.017) (.144) (1.41) (.092) (-.068) (.085) (.880)
a Path regressions are in parentheses.
I = Socioeconomic Status, 2 = Intellectual Ability, 3 = Ethnicity, 4 = Assigned Grades (Grade 9),
5 = Academic Aspirations, 6 = Normative Expectations, 7 = Cognitive Expectations, 8 = Assigned Grades
(Grade 10), 9 = Standardized Achievement (English), 10 = Standardized Achievement (Mathematics).

It must be noted, however, that ethnic the effects of ethnicity on assigned grades
bias has not been completely eliminated are extremely small while ethnicity has
by including assigned grades and aca- moderate effects upon achievement in
demic aspirations in the analysis of both English and mathematics.
teachers' expectations. There are still sig- Also, except for cognitive expectations
nificant effects of ethnicity upon both for males, teachers' expectations have
cognitive and normative expectations. stronger effects upon assigned grades than
Moreover, it is not known to what extent upon standardized achievement in English
academic achievement and aspirations in and mathematics. This is understandable
Grade 9 were, in themselves, biased as a because the grades have been assigned by
result of ethnicity and the indirect effects the teachers while the achievement tests
this may have had upon the teachers' ex- have been evaluated independently of the
pectations in Grade 10. In any event, the teachers (see Cooper, 1979). Moreover,
results presented here indicate that when for both sexes and both standardized
socioeconomic status, intellectual ability, achievement measures, cognitive expec-
assigned grades, and academic aspirations tations have more powerful effects than
are equal, there are differences between normative expectations. Additionally,
the German and French students. For cognitive expectations have more sub-
both sexes, teachers have higher expecta- stantial effects upon achievement in En-
tions for the German students than for theglish than achievement in mathematics. At
French students. the same time, for both males and fe-
For both males and females in Grade 10, males, teachers' expectations have posi-

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 298 CLIFTON

tive and relatively strong effects upon as-
signed grades. For males, both normative
and cognitive expectations have almost
identical effects. For females, on the other
hand, cognitive expectations are more
than twice as powerful as normative ex-
pectations. This suggests that quite dif-
ferent processes occur when teachers as-
sign grades to males and females. For
males, grades are assigned equally on the
basis of normative and cognitive expecta-
tions while for females, grades are as-
signed to a greater degree on the basis of
cognitive expectations than on normative
expectations (cf. Maccoby and Jacklin,
1974:247-248).
The results, to this point, indicate some
important ethnic-by-sex interaction effects
upon both expectations and achievement.
Therefore, the effects of sex across the
ethnic groups are examined in more detail.
These comparisons are based upon metric
coefficients rather than standardized
coefficients (Kim and Mueller, 1976).
It is observed that for both normative
and cognitive expectations the effects of
ethnicity are stronger for females than forpectations upon all three achievement
males. Also, for assigned grades in Grade
10, the effects of ethnicity are stronger forport to common arguments suggesting
females than for males but the difference
is not as important as those noted above
because the coefficients are extremely
small. For standardized achievement in
English the effects of ethnicity are similar that the indirect effects of ethnicity are
for both sexes, while for standardized
achievement in mathematics the effects of
ethnicity are stronger for males than for
females. For assigned grades in Grade 10,
the effects of normative expectations are
stronger for males than for females while
the effects of cognitive expectations are
stronger for females than for males. How-
ever, for standardized achievement in En-
glish, the effects of both normative and
cognitive expectations are stronger for
males than for females, while for stan-
dardized achievement in mathematics the
effects of both normative and cognitive
expectations are stronger for females than
for males.
These results indicate that the relation- meritorious factors rather than ascribed
ships between ethnicity, teachers' expec-
tations, and each of the three performance
variables are conditional upon the sex of
the students. This illustrates the im-
portance of considering sex in under-
standing the academic achievement pro-
cess (see Maccoby and Jacklin, 1974;
Richer, 1979). In order to provide a closer
examination of these conditional relation-
ships, as well as to provide estimates of
the strength of the indirect effects of
ethnicity on performances, the direct and
indirect effects (Alwin and Hauser, 1975)
of the predetermined variables are pre-
sented in Table 3.
In this table, for both males and fe-
males, very little of the ethnic effects are
mediated through teachers' expectations.
Nevertheless, the indirect effects of
ethnicity are consistently stronger for fe-
males than for males, illustrating the con-
ditional relationship between ethnicity,
teachers' expectations, and the achieve-
ment variables. It is also noted that the
indirect effects are lower for both stan-
dardized achievement measures than for
assigned grades.
Also, this table illustrates that past
performances have, by far, the strongest
mediated effects through teachers' ex-
measures. Thus, the data offer little sup-
teachers' expectations have strong
mediating effects between the ascribed
characteristics of students and their
achievement. And, the evidence suggests
slightly stronger upon grades which have
been assigned by the teachers than upon
standardized achievement tests.
Nevertheless, the teachers' expecta-
tions, by themselves, do affect both as-
signed grades and standardized achieve-
ment measures. This finding has been
previously reported (Brophy and Good,
1974; Dusek, 1975; Cooper, 1979). But,
the present study extends past research by
showing that the mediated effects are from
past performance and intellectual ability
rather than from ethnicity or, for that
matter, from socioeconomic status. That
is, the data support the argument that
teachers base their expectations upon
factors. And, furthermore, it is the
meritorious factors of past performance
and intellectual ability, as mediated
through teachers' expectations, which af-

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 ETHNICITY AND CANADIAN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT 299

Table 3. Total, Indirect, and Direct Effects of the Predetermined Variables upon Assigned Grades and
Standardized Achievement

Dependent Predetermined Total Indirect Effects via Direct

Variables Variables Effects X4X5 X6X7 Effects
A. Males
X8 Xl .065 .065 .003 -.003
X2 .298 .273 - .002 .027
X3 ..140 .106 .031 .003
X4 .675 .237 .438
Xs .067 .050 .017
Xg XI .112 .072 .016 .024
X2 .318 .180 .016 .122
X3 .244 .069 .010 .165
X4 .401 .117 .284
X5 .168 .056 .112
XIO XI .054 .024 .006 .024
X2 .404 .149 .004 .251
X3 .227 .058 .009 .160
X4 .385 .081 .304
X5 - .012 .027 - .039

B. Females
X8 XI .092 .092 - .005 .005
X2 .247 .242 .021 -.016
X3 .044 .020 .049 - .025
X4 .665 .245 .420
X5 - .032 .027 - .059
Xg XI .073 .073 .007 -.007
X2 .365 .152 .017 .196
X3 .179 .005 .019 .155
X4 .390 .146 .244
X5 .075 .025 .050
X,0 X, .044 .054 .000 -.010
X2 .379 .135 .012 .232
X3 ..133 .010 .021 .102
X4 .367 .119 .248
X5 - .007 .015 - .022

1 = Socioeconomic Status, 2 = Intellectual Ability, 3 = Ethnicity, 4= Assigned Grades (Grade 9),

5 = Academic Aspirations, 6 = Normative Expectations, 7 = Cognitive Expectations, 8 = Assigned Grades
(Grade 10), 9 = Standardized Achievement (English), 10 = Standardized Achievement (Mathematics).

fect student achievement to the greatest in actual achievement. At a later period cf

degree.
CONCLUSION
The literature suggests that the expec-
tations of teachers serve to sustain pre-
existing achievement variations among
students (Cooper, 1979). Furthermore, it
has been suggested that, in Canada, edu-
cational institutions may be perpetuating,
in part, the vertical mosaic (Porter, 1965)
because teachers assume that children
from certain ethnic groups can learn more
and faster than children from other ethnic
groups. Moreover, it is argued that
teachers' expectations play a role in
translating the differences among students
in potential achievement into differences
time this may lead to greater variation in
achievement in both the educational in-
stitution and the occupational world.
The evidence presented here suggests
that teachers appear to engage in dis-
crimination based upon past performance
and intellectual ability to a much greater
degree than upon ethnicity or socioeco-
nomic status. The data also suggest that
teachers evaluate student achievement on
the basis of both normative and cognitive
expectations, whereas performance on
standardized achievement tests is influ-
enced mainly by cognitive expectations.
The fact that the evaluation of student
achievement is based upon both norma-
tive and cognitive criteria suggests that, to
some degree. ideas about meritocratic

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 300 CLIFTON
processes are not completely consistent
with what happens in schools (Dreeban,
1968). In a pure meritocratic system,
teachers would evaluate the academic
performance of students entirely upon
their cognitive expectations which, in
turn, would be based upon their past per-
formance and their intellectual ability.
Nevertheless, the effects of ethnicity, as
mediated through teachers' expectations,
are relatively small, and it is within this
context that meritocratic factors may not
be operating in schools.
The present data are limited to high
school students in Grades 9 and 10, and it
is possible that teachers' expectations had
much greater effects before the students
reached high school. That is, the linkages
between ethnicity, intellectual ability,
past performances, cognitive expecta-
tions, and standardized achievement ob-
served here may have been the result of
the expectations of teachers in previous
years. Perhaps ethnicity, via teachers' ex-
pectations, has cumulative effects upon
abilities, performances, and aspirations
throughout the students' academic careers
(see West and Anderson, 1976), and some
significant portion of the effects from
abilities, performances, and aspirations,
as measured in this research, is an indirect
effect that has previously resulted from
ethnicity. In fact, Rist (1970) suggests that
the indirect effects of ethnicity, through
teachers' expectations, are much greater
in the first few years of school.
From another perspective, the analyses
illustrate that ethnicity is quite strongly
related to intellectual ability, past perfor-
mances, academic aspirations, and stan-
dardized achievement in both English and
mathematics. This suggests that ethnicity
has important direct and indirect effects
upon educational performances as mea-
sured by standardized achievement tests,
hut the indirect effects are not, to any
great extent, the result of teachers' ex-
pectations. Rather, some of the effects are
directed through other factors which may
be to some degree endemic within the
subcultural backgrounds of the children.
That is, children may be socialized within
ethnic subcultures so that their abilities,
aspirations, and motivation are shaped to
fit into certain educational and occu-
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pational status positions within society
(Breton and Rosenborough, 1968:4;
Blishen, 1970:120). The differences in
achievement between the French- and
German-speaking students may reflect, to
some degree, differences in the subcul-
tural backgrounds which include abilities,
aspirations, and motivations.
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