Ethnicity plays a crucial role in educational inequalities, with ethnic minority students often lagging behind their majority peers in academic achievement and educational attainment. One contributing factor to these disparities is ethnic bias in teacher assessments and track recommendations. In many educational systems, teacher-assigned grades influence track placement decisions, either directly or indirectly, by shaping students’ educational choices. Observational studies have documented ethnic biases in grading and track recommendations, even when accounting for students’ performance. However, these studies may suffer from omitted variable bias, as unobserved differences in motivation, aspirations, or effort could explain ethnic disparities. Experimental studies help address this limitation by holding student performance constant while manipulating ethnic cues.
This study examines discrimination among in-service teachers in Hungary using experimental data from 413 teachers. Each teacher evaluated six mathematics or literacy and grammar tests randomly assigned with fictitious student names. Teachers were asked to grade tests and provided track recommendations based on the test performance. The findings present mixed evidence of discrimination: while teachers did not assign lower test scores to Roma students, they were more likely to recommend lower secondary school tracks for Roma students compared to non-Roma students with identical performance. Although the estimated effect size in track recommendations is small, it is consistent with previous experimental studies on teacher discrimination. The effect size in this study ranges from -0.057 to -0.086 standard deviations, aligning with findings from similar research in other countries.
Notably, contextual factors influenced teacher behavior: teachers who evaluated tests with a higher proportion of Roma names were more likely to recommend the non-academic secondary track for non-Roma students than those who evaluated tests with fewer Roma names. Discrimination against non-Roma (majority) students in a context with a high proportion of Roma students is a novel finding in the literature, especially since track recommendations for Roma (minority) students remained relatively consistent across experimental conditions. These results suggest that the ethnic composition of the evaluated student group shapes teachers’ perceptions, potentially triggering assumptions about segregated schooling environments. Additionally, the findings highlight important methodological considerations for future research, indicating that discrimination experiments are sensitive to contextual factors such as the composition of names presented to participants.
The study carries significant policy implications. Given that track recommendations play a decisive role in students’ educational trajectories, even small biases in teacher recommendations can reinforce existing inequalities. In Hungary’s highly stratified education system, where track placement strongly influences future educational and labor market outcomes, addressing these biases is essential. Raising teachers’ awareness of their potential biases and promoting structured, objective evaluation criteria could help mitigate discrimination and foster a more equitable education system.
Dorottya Kisfalusi, Zoltán Hermann, Tamás Keller:
Discrimination in track recommendation but not in grading: experimental evidence among primary school teachers in Hungary,
European Sociological Review, 2024;, jcae044,
https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcae044
