INCREASING TEACHER EXPECTATIONS FOR STUDENT-ACHIEVEMENT

This report summarizes a study of a staff development program to reduc e disparity in educational achievement across race and sex. Teacher Ex pectations and Student Achievement (TESA; Kerman, Kimball, & Martin, 1 980) was implemented in an elementary school. Achievement test scores, attitudes toward school and self, perceptions of teacher practices, a nd grade retentions were compared for the 306 students of teachers who volunteered to participate in the experimental program, as well as st udents in the same school (n = 329) and in a different school (n = 250 ) whose teachers did not participate. The results differed depending u pon which comparison group was used. A small positive effect is implie d by the within-school comparison, and a negative effect is implied by the between-school comparison.