Dive Brief:

• Researchers at the Yale Child Study Center studied preschool teachers, finding implicit racial biases provide a foundation for their responses to student behavior.

• NPR reports when teachers were told to monitor four students in video segments and identify those presenting challenging behaviors (even though there weren’t any), the teachers more often looked at the black students— and after the videos, 42% of teachers identified the black boy as the one who required the most attention (followed by 34% for the white boy, 13% for the white girl and 10% for the black girl).

• When teachers read vignettes about kids with stereotypical black or white names disrupting a class, white teachers rated black students’ bad behavior less harshly than the same behavior of white students, but when they got a back story about the child having a hard home life, they rated the behavior as more severe than that of their white peers. The same held true for cross-race assessments by black teachers, indicating teachers are more empathetic to students of their own race.

Dive Insight:

The idea that the school-to-prison pipeline starts in preschool isn’t new. The U.S. Department of Education released statistics this summer showing black children are 3.6 times more likely to be suspended from preschool than their white peers. The Yale study, however, provides compelling evidence of the implicit bias behind those preschool suspension rates that has been missing.

Administrators across the country should be seeking out professional development opportunities for teachers that focus on addressing implicit biases and limiting their impact on classroom decision-making. Most teachers could benefit from additional cultural awareness training. This study as well as other research also reveals the gendered biases teachers bring to the classroom. When teachers expect worse behavior from boys, they are more likely to punish it more severely, even when compared to similar behavior from girls. Both racial and gender biases must be addressed in schools to achieve a fair learning environment for all students.

Recommended Reading

NPR: Bias Isn't Just A Police Problem, It's A Preschool Problem 
The Huffington Post: Yes, Preschool Teachers Really Do Treat Black And White Children To... 
The Washington Post: Yale study suggests racial bias among preschool teachers