Jeannie Kim

Existing research on educational inequality has largely focused on how students who lack the cultural capital that function in schools, fall behind. Fewer studies have examined how teachers may be intentionally or unintentionally evaluating students based on these dominant cultural norms. If beliefs matter for teacher practices and those practices have significant impacts on student outcomes, it is important to consider the ways in which educational environments can influence teachers, in not only the expectations they set, but also in the ways in which they evaluate their students. Using restricted data from large national probability education surveys and multi-level methods of analyses, Kim’s current research explores and expands upon research that looks at the influence of school composition on teachers’ evaluations of student academic effort and student outcomes. Understanding how and in what ways school structures may be influencing teacher behaviors is an important factor to consider in understanding educational inequality.