Teacher Expectations

Research on expectations indicates that the expectations held by teachers and administrators for their students influence teacher decision making and student academic achievement. Robert L. Green has cited considerable data showing that expectations significantly influence student achievement at every level, from elementary school through graduate school. Teachers can and do influence a student's academic success, and high expectations and a belief that all students can and will learn play a critical role in student success.

Raising school achievement is important for individuals and for society. College graduates, for example, on average earn more than high school graduates and more than twice that of individuals without a high school diploma. A more educated population in a society means lower criminal justice costs, lower health care costs, and increased economic growth. Incarceration represents lost opportunities for individuals and for society. Data from the 2004 edition of the U.S. Department of Justice Survey of Inmates strongly reinforce the notion of a relationship between incarceration and educational attainment, particularly among non-White offenders. For example, among the 21,623 inmates in state and federal prisons in 2004 who participated in the Department of Justice survey and provided information on race and ethnicity and level of educational attainment, far fewer than half the inmates who completed the survey said they had attained a high school or general education diploma. The rates of high school completion among American Indian, Black, and Hispanic inmates were particularly low.

Our expectations shape how we view others and how we expect them to behave or perform. In an educational system, student success is affected by teacher expectations, schoolwide expectations, and district-wide expectations. Teachers might have lower expectations for some students because of their dress, hairstyle, language, socioeconomic status, parents, or even their names. Schoolwide expectations are beliefs held by instructional and support staff about the learning ability of the total student body. District-wide expectations are beliefs held about an entire school system.

Expectations can be sustaining or nonsustaining. Sustaining expectations are beliefs that persist despite being presented with new evidence. For example, achieving students in low-income schools sometimes receive additional scrutiny because their high achievement contradicts the belief that they are not likely to succeed. Nonsustaining expectations are beliefs that are changed with evidence or new data. An example is low socioeconomic students who are above grade level in reading and math who are encouraged to achieve at even higher levels.

Researchers have found that teachers work harder to obtain good performances from students for whom they hold high expectations but accept poor performances from students for whom they hold low expectations. When teachers have high expectations for their students, they teach more effectively and enthusiastically and expect [Page 2127]their students to do well. Teachers are alarmed and surprised when these students do not perform well. Teachers who hold low expectations for their students are surprised when these students perform well.

Educational research dating back nearly 5 decades has established a clear and consistent relationship between poverty and student achievement. Although some progress has been made, large gaps in achievement along socioeconomic lines remain. Higher rates of poverty are associated with lower levels of student performance after other factors are held constant. But poverty, race, ethnicity, and gender should not be barriers to learning. The real barriers to learning are indifference, rejection, poor instruction, and low expectations for student success.

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