TY  - JOUR
A1  - Westphal, Andrea
A1  - Becker, Michael
A1  - Vock, Miriam
A1  - Maaz, Kai
A1  - Neumann, Marko
A1  - McElvany, Nele
T1  - The link between teacher-assigned grades and classroom socioeconomic composition: The role of classroom behavior, motivation, and teacher characteristics
JF  - Contemporary educational psychology
N2  - Teacher judgments in terms of grades, proficiency assessments, and recommending placement in ability groups can have important consequences for a child’s future educational path. Whether or not students’ sociodemographic background characteristics are systematically related to teacher judgments has been a controversial topic of discussion. Using data from the TIMSS-Transition Study (N = 3285 fourth graders) administered across 13 German federal states in the 2006–2007 school year and survey data from parents and teachers, we investigated whether or not the average classroom socioeconomic status is reflected in teacher judgments and also examined possible underlying processes. We also probed the role of teachers’ own socioeconomic backgrounds (at the age of 16) in their later susceptibility to differentially judge students from different socioeconomic backgrounds and in differentially composed classrooms. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that, after controlling for differences in achievement (as indicated by standardized tests), teachers’ judgments were associated with the classrooms’ socioeconomic composition, and this finding could not be attributed to the average levels of motivation or behavior in the classroom. Teachers were similarly likely to exhibit such differential judgments regardless of their own socioeconomic background. These findings are discussed in the context of their implications for educational policy.
KW  - Teacher judgments
KW  - Grading
KW  - Classroom composition
KW  - Teacher background
KW  - Multilevel modeling
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2016.06.004
SN  - 0361-476X
SN  - 1090-2384
VL  - 46
SP  - 218
EP  - 227
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - San Diego
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Becker, Michael
A1  - Neumann, Marko
A1  - Tetzner, Julia
A1  - Böse, Susanne
A1  - Knoppick, Henrike
A1  - Maaz, Kai
A1  - Baumert, Jürgen
A1  - Lehmann, Rainer
T1  - Development? Effects of the transition into academically selective schools
JF  - The journal of educational psychology
N2  - The present study investigates school context effects on psychosocial characteristics (academic self-concept, peer relations, school satisfaction, and school anxiety) of high-achieving and gifted students. Students who did or did not make an early transition from elementary to secondary schools for high-achieving and gifted students in 5th grade in Berlin, Germany, are compared in their psychosocial development. The sample comprises 155 early-entry students who moved to an academically selective secondary school (Gymnasium) and 3,169 regular students who remained in elementary school until the end of 6th grade. Overall, a complex pattern of psychosocial development emerged for all students, with both positive and negative outcomes being observed. Specifically, the transition into academically selective learning environments seemed to come at some cost for psychosocial development. Propensity score matching analysis isolating the effects of selective school intake and the school context effect itself revealed negative contextual effects of early transition to Gymnasium on academic self-concept and school anxiety; additionally, the positive trend in peer relations observed among regular students was not discernible among early-entry students.
KW  - psychosocial development
KW  - transition
KW  - ability grouping
KW  - longitudinal design
KW  - propensity score matching
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035425
SN  - 0022-0663
SN  - 1939-2176
VL  - 106
IS  - 2
SP  - 555
EP  - 568
PB  - American Psychological Association
CY  - Washington
ER  -