Progress of Education Reform Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement

Workman, E. (2012, December). Teacher expectations for students: A self-fulfilling prophecy? The Progress of Education Reform (23)6, pp. 1-7. Education Commission of the States. http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/01/05/51/10551.pdf 

A colleague shared this article on the relationship between teacher expectations and student achievement. The article reviews some of the research associated with this idea and points out the importance of setting high expectations for all students. The author argues that teachers may, unknowningly, set higher expectations for some students rather than others and this discrepancy could be related to intentional or unintentional racial or ethnic bias. She calls for teacher educators to examine how they are preparing teachers and how we are continuing to support the professional development of inservice teachers so that high expectations can be set for all students. 

This article made me reflect on my practice as a teacher educator and it made me wonder if I was setting high expectations for all of my students, which are teacher candidates. The article called for this disposition to be taught in teacher preparation, but if this were to occur, teacher educators would need to self examine their own practices. Therefore, it would be important to prepare future scholars in a similar fashion. Essentially, we would need to look at and consider this idea when preparing teachers and when preparing teacher educators.