TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Goulas, Sofoklis
AU  - Megalokonomou, Rigissa
AU  - Sartori, Tommaso
        TI  - All Eyes on the Nerd? The Unequal Distribution of Teachers’ Attention
        PY  - 2025/Nov/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18294
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp18294
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - randomized controlled trial
KW  - attention allocation
KW  - teacher behavior
KW  - educational inequality
KW  - peer effects
        ER  -