Are Children of Immigrants Graded Less Generously by their Teachers than Natives, and Why? Evidence from Student Population Data in Italy

Abstract

This article investigates whether teachers grade students with a migration background (SMBs) less generously than native students with comparable academic skills, and it examines the sources of such migrants’ under evaluation. We use population data from two whole cohorts of pupils enrolled in Italian primary and lower-secondary school. Using subject-specific standardized test scores as a yardstick, we found that SMBs were graded less generously by teachers than were natives with comparable ability, in both reading and mathematics. Applying the Blinder-Oaxaca method to assess which factors can account for SMBs’ disadvantage, we found that the most relevant factors are language spoken at home and family socio-economic resources, but that some students’ attitudes towards school also matter, especially in lower secondary school. However, observable characteristics are far from accounting for all the teacher grading bias against SMBs, suggesting that unobserved factors and implicit discrimination processes could be at work as well.