In schools all over the world, teachers often have trouble being fair to all students and treating all of them completely equal.  True neutrality is hard to achieve in a classroom setting, and being unbiased is something that teachers frequently struggle with.  Teacher bias is whenever a teacher shows favoritism towards some students and is unfair to others.  There are many different types of it; including but not limited to gender bias, racial bias, cultural bias, and economic bias.  It is happening all over the country, whether people realize it or not.  Teacher bias is a major problem in schools and can have a great effect on the future of students.

Most teachers are biased and unfair in some way or another; but many of them either do not realize it, or they do not want to admit it.  Teachers love to brag about being neutral, and admitting that they are biased towards some students is something that they often have a lot of trouble doing.  The fact of the matter is that teachers play favorites, whether they believe it or not.  This favoritism may be realized or it may be subconscious, but it is almost always there.  There have been multiple studies that show that teacher bias does, in fact, exist, and is also a bigger issue than most people expect.  One study gave students’ tests to two different teachers, one teacher that knew the students and one teacher that didn’t.  The grades that were given on the tests looked at by one teacher were often different from the grades on the tests looked at by the other.  This proves that many teachers are so biased that students’ grades often get affected by it.  This means, of course, that students will not get the grades that they actually deserve based on whether they know the material.  How well liked a student is by their teacher can play into their grades and overall success a lot.  The most extreme cases of teacher bias is when a teacher will deliberately change grades of a student based on how much they like them.  Most teachers obviously would not go that far, but these instances are still not all that rare.  If a teacher does not like a student, then they can make that student’s grades worse.  When this happens, it frequently goes unnoticed, so teachers are often able to get away with it.  Again, these are only the most extreme cases, and only some teachers will actually do this.  

The more common form of conscious teacher bias is when a teacher likes a certain student and bumps their grade up.  Teachers have many reasons for bumping up a student’s grade, but it is still a definite bias if that student did not do any extra work to earn it.  Curving tests and assignments to bring up all of the students’ grades is not bias, but when only some students have their grade bumped up while the rest do not is the teacher being unfair.  Not all teacher bias is conscious though.  In fact most teachers are simply unconsciously biased towards their favorite students and do not even realize it.  When it comes to multiple choice tests or assignments that have a clear correct answer, subconscious bias obviously cannot have that drastic of an effect on the students’ grades.  The main place where the issue of subconscious teacher bias takes a huge toll is on written assignments and papers.  If a teacher wants a student to do well on an assignment while they are grading it, then that student is more likely to actually do well because the teacher may not take off as many points or will give more points for good things the student has put down.  Also, if a teacher secretly does not like a student or does not want them to do well, then their assignments will already be looked at in a negative way.  This leads to the teacher being harsher when grading that student’s assignment because their subconscious biases come into effect.  

If a teacher is biased for or against a student in a class that mostly revolves around multiple choice tests, then teacher bias cannot take effect as much.  When it comes to classes that revolve around papers, however, a teacher’s bias for or against a student can make multiple letter grades of a difference.  Teachers always prefer some students over others, and have different biases when it comes to which students they like.  Even if this was not the case, teachers would still not be able to be completely neutral when grading.  For example, if a teacher just got done reading a really good assignment from a student, then they might think the next assignment that they grade is a lot worse than it actually was.  The opposite can be true too.  If a teacher just finishes with an assignment that was particularly bad, then the next assignment may look particularly good in comparison and would receive a better grade, even if it was only mediocre.  If a teacher is grading papers, then the first paper that gets graded may receive a grade far different than what it deserved, because the teacher has not yet read any other papers to compare it too.  The last paper that gets graded may also be graded poorly, because the teacher has already graded so many papers and possibly could be grading differently by the time they get to the last one.  Teachers may also read the beginning of a paper and immediately will think it is bad.  Then, they will automatically view the rest of the paper to be bad as well, even if the rest of it improves from the beginning.  Also, a paper may be great at the beginning and not so great the rest of the way, but a teacher might give it a good grade because the first impression was that it was a good paper.  Teacher biases like this can be the difference between passing or failing, and can lead to students being overall more or less successful in their academic careers than they should be.  

Everyone knows that a big part of being successful in life involves getting good grades in school, so that is why it is extremely important that people are made aware of the teacher bias issue.  More teachers should be getting instructed on how to remain as neutral as possible with students in their classes.  Teachers should be taught to realize that they are biased, and they should try their best to fix that.  They need to know about prevalent biases such as racial bias or gender bias, and how to reduce them.  Most teachers are obviously not actually racist or sexist, but that doesn’t mean that gender and racial biases do not exist.  Teachers still frequently show unconscious favoritism towards their own gender and race.  This does not mean they are racist or sexist, but it does mean they are biased.  Being a male student or a female student can give someone many different labels in a teacher’s eye.  Many assumptions and preconceptions are made about students just based on their gender in particular.  Girls obviously have the label of being better behaved in schools.  Many female teachers will look at it that way and will be somewhat biased against boys.  The reverse is true too.  Male teachers may be biased for boys and against girls in many instances.  A popular assumption is that girls are better at English assignments and boys are typically better at math.  Many studies show that this is not actually true.  These false assumptions can lead to girls being told that boys are better at math, and as a result, girls may get worse scores on math tests because of what they have been told.  

Racial bias is an issue with teachers in schools as well and is arguably just as bad as gender bias.  Minority students are very often looked at as not as smart, and are less likely to be recommended for advanced classes.  Many African American and Latino students in particular have stated that they have felt biased against in some of their classes.  Teachers who grew up during times when black and white students were separated will most likely be especially biased in these situations.  These types of biases make it harder for some minority students to succeed as opposed to white people.  It has also been argued that minority students actually have some academic advantages because of teacher bias.  For example there are a great many scholarship opportunities for minority students that are popping up recently.  The same goes for male and female students.  There are certain scholarships that are exclusive to either males or females; most notably academic scholarships.  One of the kay causes of teacher biases is stereotyping.  Students are very frequently stereotyped and put into categories based not only on race and gender, but also on income and political beliefs.  Whether students come from rich or poor families can often determine whether a teacher believes them to be smart or not.  Students from poorer families are often times assumed to be less intelligent by teachers; and these assumptions can cause a poor student to actually do worse in classes because of teacher bias.  The culture a student comes from can brand that student a certain way in the eyes of a teacher.  

The different political opinions of students or even just opinions in general can often cause teachers to be biased for or against a particular student.  When it comes to political opinions in particular, teachers may like or dislike a student more based on whether they have the same or different views on politics.  People cannot help judge each other based on political opinions.  This is because many people believe what they believe very strongly when it comes to politics.  When a teacher sees a student with a different political opinion than them, the teacher cannot help but think that the student is less intelligent.  Teachers can also not help but like the student a little bit less.  This will eventually cause the student to do worse in the class because the teacher is somewhat biased against them.  It would most likely be an unintentional bias, but it would still have an effect on the student.  Also, if a student shares many of the same political opinions as the teacher, then that student will most likely have more of a shot at becoming one of the teacher’s favorites.  Therefore, the student will most likely do a lot better in the class than they should because of teacher bias and favoritism.  Teachers will often pick students as favorites who are more similar to them.  Lots of students who are not teacher favorites will likely end up getting graded unfairly.  This kind of thing is a major problem because grades have a heavy impact on the future of students.  

The issue of teacher bias is hard to overcome, because most teachers are not only under the impression that they grade fairly, but are also under the impression that they are completely neutral and not biased.  The issue is not viewed as one of the important issues of the world because many people are not directly seeing the negative effects of it.  It is also very hard to prove which teachers are more biased than others.  This topic is not often talked about, and more people need to be made aware of it.  The importance of the teacher bias issue is extremely largely undervalued.  The effects are larger than most people realize, and many people agree that it has a drastic effect on the future of students.  Education is something that should be fair for everyone.  It should be very important that every student gets a fair chance to succeed.  If teacher bias continues at the level it’s at now, then some brilliant minds may never get the chance to truly emerge.  Some students who might have grown up to cure cancer or help the world in great ways may never end up doing so because of teachers being biased in their earlier years.  This is why it is very important to give every student an equal chance at succeeding in school.  If students are told their whole life that boys are better at math, then they may believe they are better or worse at math than they actually are.  If minority students continue to be discriminated against in the classroom, and continue to be made to believe that they will not succeed and are not as smart as white students, then there will be high dropout rates among these minority students for a long time to come.  

Students who feel like their teachers are biased against them rarely speak up, because they do not want to be seen as immature.  But the truth is that teacher bias is happening, and it has not gotten much better since the early days of schools and education.  Students who feel they are biased against need to speak out about it more, and the teachers need to accept the fact that they might actually be biased and that they should try and be as fair as possible to all of the students.  Teachers will often say that they are not biased, or that teacher bias is not a big deal, but they are definitely wrong.  Many students have claimed to be biased against in their classes, and many students have had their grades suffer because of teacher bias.  Some people claim that good students are going to do good anyway, no matter what teacher they get.  This is not always true.  Even the best student can be largely negatively affected by teacher bias.  There have been many instances of teachers deliberately changing the grades of students that the do not like, so it can affect any student.  All students should care about this problem because all students have likely been affected by it.  

The issue of teacher bias in schools may be one that is impossible to completely fix, but humanity should at least be addressing the issue and doing what we can.  A possible way to reduce teacher bias is to get teachers to periodically attend sessions which would tell them and give them advice on how to stay neutral with all students.  Teachers need to be made aware of the issue because many of the instances of teacher bias are a subconscious thing, or the teachers may not realize they are being biased.  The education system of the United States is something that the country has been extremely proud of for a while, but it still definitely needs a lot of work.  Education is one of the most important factors which will determine humanity’s success, so it is extremely important that the education system is as neutral and fair to every student as possible.  This is why teachers must learn how to better treat students in their class completely neutral.
