Immigration and Teachers’ Bias towards Foreign Students

Event Date: 30 March 2021

Speaker: Maria De Paola, University of Calabria

Time: 4.00-5.00pm

Abstract: We analyse the role of changes in the geographic concentration of immigrants in shaping teachers’ assessment of students’ performance. By using data on the universe of Italian students attending the 5th grade, we adopt an IV estimation strategy and find that - controlling for students’ performance in blindly-scored tests of proficiency – immigrants’ concentration in the local population negatively affects the way immigrant students are evaluated by their teachers in non-blindly-graded tests compared to native peers. Very similar results are found for 2nd graders, who interacted with teachers for a shorter period compared to 5th graders, suggesting that the effect we find is not due to statistical discrimination. We also show that the effect is mainly driven by schools located in smaller and less educated communities. In addition, older and less qualified teachers tend to be more biased.
 

Zoom Link
https://strath.zoom.us/j/96056987335
Meeting ID: 960 5698 7335
Password: seminar

Published: 31 March 2021