ABSTRACT
This chapter examines whether, how often, and to what extent the teacher expectations deviate from the students' performance level. It explores whether these deviations in expectations relate to characteristics of the student and the class composition, in order to assess whether teachers have biased expectations. The chapter addresses the question whether inaccurate teacher expectations affect students' future academic performance. It suggests that with respect to gender and socioeconomic status, not all teachers have equally biased expectations. The chapter examines differences in expectation among groups of students based on demographic characteristics. In the Dutch context, inaccurate teacher expectations have a large impact on the placement of students in secondary school tracks. Negative effects of too low teacher expectations not only happen at the allocation of students to one of the secondary school tracks, but they can occur during the entire educational career of students.
