Marc H. Bornstein
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, USA
Title: Children’s academic competencies: Success is in the eye of the beholder
Biography
Biography: Marc H. Bornstein
Abstract
How children are thought to perform in the school setting often varies as much on account of actual individual differences as who judges them. Differences in reported ratings of children’s academic performance are well documented in the literature, and rater assessment of academic competencies is important because competency beliefs impact children’s academic achievements. The current study aimed to examine similarities and differences in child, mother, father, and teacher reports of children’s (age 10) academic competencies in math, reading, music, and sports (N = 267 families). This study extends analyses beyond the bivariate level to compare inter-rater and inter-domain correlation coefficients and matrices. Raters showed some systematic mean differences, but high levels of order agreement, perhaps reflecting the observable nature of children’s school-based competencies. Little inter-domain agreement was observed except among teachers, which may be attributable to teachers’ unique perspectives on children’s competencies. The educational, developmental, and methodological implications of these findings are discussed in the context of children’s school performance.