The power of expectations

A new brief from the Center for American Progress looks at the effect of teacher expectations, analyzing the National Center for Education Statistics' Education Longitudinal Study (ELS), which followed a nationally representative sample of 10th grade students from 2002 to 2012. The ELS is longitudinal, allowing researchers to link teacher expectations to individual student data collected up to 10 years later. The data indicate that all else equal, 10th graders with teachers who had higher expectations were three times more likely to graduate from college than students of teachers with lower expectations. The data also suggest consistently lower expectations for certain subgroups: Teachers predicted high-poverty students were 53 percent less likely to earn a college diploma than affluent peers; African-American students 47 percent less likely than white peers; and Hispanic students 42 percent less likely. The brief also found college-preparation programs to be significant predictors of college graduation rates. The brief reviews a large body of research indicating that expectations carry long-term impact and are more predictive than student motivation and student effort. The brief concludes by saying expectations must be raised; the Common Core standards can do this. At the same time, teacher instructional capacity must improve, and it's critical for teacher-preparation programs to communicate the importance of high expectations for all students, especially low-income students of color. More

Source:  Public Education News Blast

Published by LEAP

Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) is an education support organization that works as a collaborative partner in high-poverty communities.