Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/334709 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 18294
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Teachers play a central role in shaping how students benefit from peers, yet little is known about how classroom composition affects their attention-allocation decisions. We conduct a large-scale randomized experiment using realistic class- room vignettes to assess how teachers engage with students under varying scenarios and objectives. The presence of a high achiever reduces the likelihood that teachers engage with a low achiever by about 8%, with substantially larger effects when teachers prioritize task success, consistent with convenience-based decision-making. Using administrative data, we show that low achievers perform worse when quasi-randomly assigned to a classroom with an exceptional student.
Subjects: 
teacher behavior
attention allocation
randomized controlled trial
educational inequality
peer effects
JEL: 
I21
I28
C93
D91
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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