Influence of Teacher and Student Characteristics on Teacher Ratings of Students' Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Functioning: A Scoping Review

ABSTRACT Although behavior rating scales are frequently used in the school‐based assessment of student behavior, concerns have been noted regarding the subjectivity of teacher ratings. Individual studies have documented systematic differences in teachers' assessments of groups of students; however, the extent to which findings have been consistently identified across studies was unknown. Through the current scoping review, we sought to better understand the extent to which particular student and teacher characteristics have been shown to contribute to systematic differences in teachers' ratings of students' SEB functioning across different domains. We searched multiple online databases to identify any studies that had examined associations between student or teacher characteristics and systematic differences in ratings of student SEB functioning. Across the 19 studies meeting inclusion criteria, the influence of student characteristics (i.e., race/ethnicity, gender) were more frequently studied than were teacher characteristics and externalizing behaviors were more frequently studied than internalizing or social behaviors. Whereas studies consistently found that teachers rated Black students as demonstrating a greater degree of externalizing behaviors, other findings were often mixed or nonsignificant. Given inconsistent findings across studies, additional research is warranted to draw definitive conclusions about systematic rating differences as a function of most student and teacher characteristics.