Teachers' choice of punishment as a function of a student's gender,age, race,and IQ level

Evidence suggests that teachers treat students differently according to various characteristics, including demographic factors and academic labels. An attempt was made to discover whether teachers' recommendations of punishment would differ according to the students' age, race, gender, IQ level, and type of offense. Punishment was recommended for a hypothetical student in a fighting, a stealing, and a cheating situation. The results revealed that southern white female teachers generally reported that they would recommend more severe punishment for males than for females and for white males than for black males. It was noted that these results occured despite the fact that teachers differed in age, number of years of teaching experience, grade levels taught, and education level.