Teachers' stereotypes of Asian, Black, and White students

This research uses two different measurement operations to examine contemporary stereotypes of Asians, Blacks, and Whites held by an ethnically diverse sample of teachers. Data were drawn from a sample of 188 teachers representing over 160 schools in Southern California. Consistent with previous research, participants endorsed a "model minority" stereotype of Asians with regard to intelligence, academic striving, introversion, and rule compliance. Contrary to expectation, there was substantial congruence in the degree of uniformity and favorableness of the stereotypic traits associated with Blacks and Whites, with participants' revealing both strong positive and negative trait associations. The use of both open-ended and fixed-format measurement strategies revealed some method variation in the assessment of participants racial beliefs, with the open-ended format suggesting more complex and heterogeneous racial representations. Results are discussed in terms of methodological issues in stereotype assessment and implications for reducing the impact of racial biases in psychoeducational evaluations.