The Black-White Gap in Noncognitive Skills among Elementary School Children

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Elder, Todd; Zhou, Yuqing
• 署名单位: Michigan State University; University of California System; University of California Los Angeles
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20180732
• 发表日期: 2021
• 页码: 105-132
• 关键词: test score gap; abilities

摘要

Using two nationally representative datasets, we find large differences between Black and White children in teacher-reported measures of noncognitive skills. We show that teacher reports understate true Black-White skill gaps because of reference bias: teachers appear to rate children relative to others in the same school, and Black students have lower-skilled classmates on average than do White students. We pursue three approaches to addressing these reference biases. Each approach nearly doubles the estimated Black-White gaps in noncognitive skills, to roughly 0.9 standard deviations in third grade.