The CAP report carefully avoids assuming that teacher expectations cause student achievement. Teachers may have an accurate sense of who is likely to graduate from college, regardless of race or economic class, the researchers note. Teachers with low expectations of students may be more likely to teach in underperforming schools. Also, teachers’ low expectations of minority and disadvantaged students may reflect these students’ actual underperformance, possibly a result of broader education system problems.
Even after taking other factors into consideration, including students’ motivation and course-taking patterns, “teachers’ expectations and students’ college-going outcomes had a significant relationship, and teacher expectations were tremendously predictive of student college completion rates,” the study found.
Ulrich Boser, a senior research fellow for CAP, told The Huffington Post that he was surprised by the strength of the results.
“I expected to find something –- we had seen other data that linked teacher expectations with just remaining enrolled in college,” said Boser. “For us, what was surprising was that individuals [whose teachers had high expectations] were three times more likely to graduate from college.”
He continued, “If you’re told you’re going to graduate from college, that could make you more likely to take certain actions.”