A Gendered and Racialized Educational Hierarchy: Disparities in Elementary School Teachers' Perceptions of Student Behavior.

This article examines how U.S. elementary school teachers' perceptions of student behavior vary longitudinally by the intersection of student gender and race, using data from the 2011 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K:2011). Employing growth curve modeling, the study finds that teachers' evaluations of White, Asian American, and Latinx girls improve over time, while perceptions of Black girls remain stagnant. Among boys, teacher perceptions of Black boys decline sharply through fifth grade, contrasting with increasing perceptions of White, Latinx, and Asian American boys. By fifth grade, a pronounced hierarchy emerges, with Asian American girls viewed most favorably and Black boys least favorably, highlighting the importance of an intersectional approach that considers how race and gender together shape educators' perceptions rather than examining these factors separately.