Classroom context, teacher expectations, and cognitive level: Predicting children's math ability judgments

• We report a new observational tool for measuring Classroom Ability-based Practices.
• We examined predictive factors for first grade children's self-judgments in math.
• Child and teacher ratings were more congruent in highly differentiated classrooms.
• Classroom context moderated the relations between cognitive level and ability ratings.
• Findings extend work on social and cognitive factors shaping ability judgments.

Classroom practices that make ability differences salient communicate differential teacher expectations for students. This study reports on a new observational tool for measuring Classroom Ability-based Practices (CAP) and explores how young children's self-perceptions of ability in mathematics are related to their teachers' expectations for them and to their cognitive reasoning skills in classrooms that vary in usage of such ability-differentiated practices. The sample consisted of 193 children and their teachers in 15 first grade classrooms. The CAP was a reliable measure of ability-based differential teacher treatment and showed criterion validity as a moderator variable in predicting children's ability perceptions. In highly ability-differentiating classrooms, children's self-ratings were more congruent with teachers' expectations of students' mathematics ability. Also in highly ability-differentiating classrooms, higher cognitive levels predicted lower self-ability ratings in math. These findings extend our understanding of the social and cognitive factors that shape young children's self-judgments of math competence.