In a study of academic attribution patterns, teachers were asked to suggest causes for the successes and failures of students whose backgrounds had been manipulated to provide various combinations of social class (middle, lower), race (White, Asian American), and gender. It was found that teachers cited causes internal to the student more often…

While a review by S. Graham (1994) found no differences between blacks and whites on measures of need for achievement, this meta-analysis article found reliable and complex race differences. Overall, whites scored higher on measures of need for achievement, although differences nearly disappeared in studies after 1970. Possible explanations are…

A study in Columbia, Missouri, revealed that many teacher and student background characteristics correlated weakly but significantly with teachers' perceptions of the frequency of discipline infractions and the effectiveness of disciplinary techniques. The data (derived from school records and from a questionnaire to which 162 elementary teachers…

Surveyed elementary school teachers (N=162) to examine the relations between teacher perceptions of discipline, teacher education, teacher experience, student social class, student ethnicity, and student grade level. In general, more experienced and educated teachers preferred confronting students about misbehavior, while less educated teachers…

In 2 studies, the academic expectations of teachers (n=27 to 29 and n=30) for students differing by racial group, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), parental structure, and parenthood were studied. SES and teenage motherhood were the strongest predictors of lower expectations. Higher expectations were reported for middle-class students. (SLD)