Do Teachers have in-group Bias about Student Caste and Socioeconomic Status in India?

Abstract

This article studies the extent of teacher’s in-group bias in occupational expectations and grading on the basis of a student’s caste and socioeconomic status. The article adopts an experimental approach and draws on data generated from 122 teachers from 19 schools in Delhi, India. The caste and socio-economic status of students were randomly assigned to a set of essays written by them such that the assigned characteristics were not related to essay quality. The results show that high caste teachers hold higher occupational expectations from their in-group category and are biased against the low caste category. For instance, high caste teachers assign 0.53 per cent or 0.019 points higher occupational expectations to high caste students and assign 5.6 per cent or 0.19 points lower occupational expectations to low caste students. The magnitude of coefficients is small but significant at 5 per cent level (P value<0.005). In terms of marks assigned, results show, that high caste teachers assign 2.36 points or 3.22 per cent higher marks when the assigned characteristics belong to a high caste; indicating in-group bias/favor for the same caste. The coefficient is positive and significant at 5 per cent level (P- value < 0.05). In contrast, high caste teachers are shown to be biased against low caste students as they assign 2.41 points or 3.41 per cent lower marks when the assigned characteristics is a low caste. Given the ultra-competitive nature of schooling in India and the importance of grades in determining access to higher education in India, even a point disadvantage is substantial.