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This article examines the determinants of the grades teachers give to students. It distinguishes such meritocratic sources of grades as the student's widely valued and classroom-specific achievements (the former measured by standardized test scores) from such nonmeritocratic sources as race, sex, and track level. The data trace one cohort in a single school district as it passes through the first, second, and third grades. We use three-stage least-squares analysis to estimate separate nonrecursive models for reading and mathematics. We find that grades reflect classroom-specific achievement more than widely valued achievement but that the strongest effect derives from the generalization of grading across subjects. This reflects an interactive process between student and teacher rather than a simple pattern of general student achievement or generalized teacher assessment of noncognitive student traits.
Leiter et al. (Mon,) studied this question.