Pupil Race and Elementary School Ability Grouping: Are Teachers Biased Against Black Children?

Abstract

This study investigates the claim that pupil race affects the reading grouping decisions of elementary school teachers, causing black children to be overrepresented in lower ability groups. Analyses were carried out of teachers’ remarks made while engaged in the process of grouping children, and of the racial composition of the groups they actually formed. Taken together, these analyses failed to uncover evidence of conscious or unconscious racial bias, though black pupils were much more likely to be placed in the lowest groups.