Investing in teaching and learning: Dynamics of the teacher-student relationship from each actor's perspective

This article integrates findings from three independent studies (one national quantitative and two urban qualitative) to analyze two aspects of the teacher-student relationship: (a) how teachers and students each view their mutual relationship and (b) how this relationship affects students' subsequent academic performance. All three studies corroborate the significant finding that teachers base their educational expectations heavily on students' test scores, whereas the students shape their own educational expectations largely from their perceptions of their teachers' expectations as well as their test scores. Teachers' reliance on test scores masks racial differences in their expectations, which students may perceive as racism.