Background <p>Although teachers intuitively judge student motivation every day, little is known what information students and teachers prioritize to judge student motivation.</p> Aim <p>We examined students’ and teachers’ judgments by applying the lens model, an approach explicitly developed to explain the emergence of social judgments by multiple attributes.</p> Methods <p>Nineteen teachers each judged <i>Md</i> = 21 secondary school students’ motivation for a specific school subject on single-item scales (<i>N</i> = 447 students) as students did. Furthermore, subject-specific achievement goals, gender, migration background, and school grades served as cues potentially used in judging student motivation.</p> Results <p>Students and teachers aligned with <i>r</i> = .24 (<i>p</i> &lt; .001) on students’ subject-specific motivation. Linear mixed-effects models revealed that students predominantly value achievement goals for feeling motivated. Teachers overemphasized school grades, and to a lesser extent work-avoidance goals. They perceived students with a migration background as being less motivated.</p> Discussion <p>Results demonstrate that different perceptions of why students are motivated can explain low agreement in judging motivation. Options how the judgments of students and teachers could be aligned are discussed.</p>