This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Erica Barris.

Got a minute?

The ways teachers view their students can influence how teachers teach, which affects how and what students learn.

Now a study finds that a teacher's racial biases come into play in different ways

for high achieving kids versus low performing ones.

There are actually students that are experiencing different perceptions

and that those different perceptions play into very specific stereotypes and ideas about capabilities.

Sociologist Yasmin Erizari of the University of Texas at Austin.

She published her findings in the journal Social Science Research.

Erizari used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study collected by the National Center for Education Statistics.

She compared the test scores of more than 10,000 first graders to how teachers rank their students in comparison to all other

first graders. Teachers made accurate ratings of average students regardless of race,

but when considering students of color teachers rated low performing black Asian and Latino students

more positively than they did their low performing white students and

teachers ranked high performing minority students lower than white students at the same level.

Interestingly, the race of the teacher was not a factor in the skewed evaluations based on the

race of the students.

On both ends of the spectrum, the teacher's predispositions could have detrimental effects on students,

either by insufficiently challenging gifted kids or not fully recognizing the needs of struggling young students.

Thanks for the minute.

For Scientific Americans 60 Second Science, I'm Erica Barris.

...