US math teachers view student performance differently based on race and gender

Teachers hold different views on why girls are good at math than they do for boys. Maskot via Getty Images by Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, University of Southern California; Ian Thacker, The University of Texas at San Antonio, and Joseph Cimpian, New York University Teachers report thinking that if girls do better in math than boys, it is probably because of their innate ability and effort. But they also report that when boys do well in math, it is more likely due to parental support and society’s higher expectations for their success. That’s what we discovered from 400 elementary and middle school math teachers we surveyed across the country for our new study. The purpose of the study was to learn more about how teachers explain students’ success and failure in math. We found that the variation in views among educators is not limited to the gender of students. Teachers also hold contrasting views about math performance when it comes to students’ race and ethnicity, our study found. More specifically, we found that when Black and Hispanic students outperform Asian and White students, teachers are more likely to think it’s because of effort and differences in their cognitive abilities. In contrast, when...