The article „Discrimination in track recommendation but not in grading: experimental evidence among primary school teachers in Hungary” has been published in European Sociological Review.

Available online here:

Dorottya Kisfalusi, Zoltán Hermann, Tamás Keller, Discrimination in track recommendation but not in grading: experimental evidence among primary school teachers in Hungary, European Sociological Review, 2024;, jcae044, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcae044

Abstract:

This study examines discrimination in teacher assessments and track recommendations against Roma minority students in Hungary. We conducted a pre-registered randomized experiment among 413 primary school teachers. Participating teachers evaluated six mathematics or literacy and grammar tests with fictitious, randomized student names and recommended a high school track. Our results show mixed evidence for discrimination against Roma students: teachers do not discriminate in test evaluations but do so in high school track recommendations, though this latter effect is small. We find that contextual factors play a substantial role in discrimination in track recommendations: teachers who receive tests with fewer Roma than non-Roma names discriminate against Roma students, whereas teachers who receive tests with more Roma names do not. In the latter case, non-Roma students receive similarly low track recommendations as Roma students in both experimental conditions. The results are consistent with stereotype-based theories of discrimination.