The Ability of Teachers To Identify Academically At-Risk Elementary Students

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Abstract
Teachers of 748 lower middle-class elementary school students (kindergarten—grade five) classified 66% of the students as academically at-risk. The three major reasons given for classification were: (a) unsupportive home environment (29%), (b) classroom attention problems (22%) and (c) poor attitude (25%). Correlations between teachers' at-risk classifications and the criterion measures for the total school population were .79 with free lunch/no free lunch, .47 with having been retained or not retained last year, .40 with Iowa Test of Basic Skills Reading scores and .46 with ITBS Composite scores. The same pattern of correlations was noted across race, grade and sex classifications. It was concluded that teachers were moderately accurate estimators of student likelihood of being academically at-risk. The data also suggest that teachers may engage in some stereotyping and that there is the potential presence of test bias.