Rena Karipidis
Re-envisioning Education and Democracy
Public Intellectual Essay
AREN’T THEY GOOD ENOUGH? WHAT’S HOLDING THEM BACK?
“Never discourage anyone…who
continually makes progress, no matter how slow.”
- Plato
When one thinks of advanced programs, one usually envisions the stereotype of excelling, white students. One hardly considers the achievements of students from other groups specifically African Americans, because historically it has been the more advantaged social classes that have performed considerably better because of their socioeconomic status and the types of resources available to them (Blair et al. 539). In this paper, I will briefly describe the Advanced Placement (AP) program and then try to answer the question by looking at a number of factors. I will then go on to discuss “stereotype threat” as described by Claude Steele. Thirdly, I will mention the importance of the development of the relationships between schools, families, and communities and the positive results these relationships have on the academic development of students of color. Lastly, I will describe the socioeconomic, genetic and social structure theories that have been utilized to talk about the low performance of students of color. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question, “What factors are the causes of the achievement gap and how do they effect the lower performance of African American students in advanced programs?”
Education
has reached the point where advanced programs are regarded highly when
admissions to colleges are made to the advantage of the student. The Advanced
Placement program was designed for high school students offering them the
opportunity to take college level courses while in high school instructed by
their own high school teachers. University and college professors gather the
materials for these courses and students are able to demonstrate the skills
that they mastered at the end of the year by taking a test. Students may
receive credit for having completed such courses, and may not be obligated to
take introductory classes in college. It is also believed that students who
have gone through the program will be better prepared for the college workload
(Nugent, Karnes 30).
According
to the National Task Force on Minority Achievement, “reaching the top” for
underrepresented minority groups has been an issue that has received little
attention in the past. Based on the reduction of affirmative action admission
policies in public colleges and universities, the Task Force has come up with
recommendations that will enable students from these groups to fulfill such a
goal. The solutions do not solely lie in one level of the educational system
but encompass the entire spectrum from pre-school to higher education. Black
students nationwide do not perform as well as white students on any form of
measure that is utilized for testing students. There is no clear explanation
why this is so and views differ depending on the way in which different
individuals perceive things. The implementation of a diverse curriculum is
important, because it will create a tolerance for those students and teachers
that were not so tolerant for the ethnic differences there before. By creating
a multicultural education the achievement gap between black and white students
will become narrower and the low performing students will be able to reach the
goals that they would not have before (Executive Summary of the College Board).
African American students have been a national experiment in racial integration since the 35 years of the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Factors that have contributed to their low performance have been a result of their social and economic deprivation, the unsettling suggestion of the Bell Curve and the societal stereotypes that have low expectations from them. All these factors are the leading causes of the poor motivational drive that these students experience in their academic development. Beyond class there is something racial that is depressing the academic performance of these students, something known as “stereotype threat” (Steele par.3).
Stereotype threat is the threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype or the fear of doing something that would unintentionally confirm that stereotype. In order to avoid this type of threat from occurring some students try to oppress their true identity by doing something know as, “disidentification”. Disidentification may occur by ceasing to identify with the part of life in which the pain occurs, this type of withdrawal may be supported by other members within the group and may lead to becoming a norm within the threatened group (Steele par.11).
Black culture is an individualistic culture where forward
movement is seen to come from within the individual. Studies have shown that
Black students have a lower performance, they tend to work alone and not with
others when doing something academically oriented. Black students tend to work
by themselves and they check and recheck their work by looking at the back of
the textbook. The Asian students work together and discuss problems on
assignments and their results are always a lot higher. This information is
based on an experiment conducted at the
When
Black people reach any type of success this is viewed by the community as a way
for others within the community to accomplish something in their lives as well.
To do this, black people have felt the need and still need to show the white
people that they are “worthy” of their success by acting as white people do. The
black community feels that in order to succeed it needs to do so as a
community, so any attempt by an individual to receive a higher education is
almost like betrayal because it is as if they are conforming to the norms of
white behavior and attitudes. This aspect hinders their success, Black students
see it as doing it to prove something to the White population and tend to
forget about the importance it will have for their future lives.
This causes immense problems for those black students with the potential of higher academic aspirations. They are torn between their parents’ expectations of them in achieving academic success and the natural desire to stay in step with their peers and retain their adolescent friendships. Many of them find a middle ground, keeping high enough grades to avoid conflict at home with parents and out of trouble with the teachers.
Claude Steele and some of his colleagues decided to conduct an experiment to see whether stereotype threat experienced by black students will affect their performance negatively. For this experiment, both white and black students were given a test that was difficult for their level and an assumption was made that the performance of students would be similar if they experienced something in the same way (par.16-21).
The difficulty of the test made a negative stereotype for the students of color. It was seen as an interpretation of their performance and the students felt as if they would been seen with the limited ability to perform well. This can be extremely intimidating and groups that don’t experience this perform better with out the added pressure. When the black students were told that the test was a measure of intellectual ability they performed poorly, but when they were told that it was part of an experiment they performed significantly higher, because the threat was removed and the pressure alleviated. This caused the “spotlight anxiety” to disappear (Steele par.21).
George Herbert Mead’s idea of the “looking-glass self” social psychology has made the assumption that the way people perceive themselves is viewed from others within the family, school or broader society. When these views are negative, people tend to internalize them creating a low self-esteem and self-hatred. These students create a “self-fulfilling prophecy” where they set the standards relatively low, so that they are able to fulfill them. By setting low standards, they feel that they are within their potential domain and can accomplish what others in society feel their capabilities extend to (Steele par 24).
When stereotype threat is reduced black students perform equally as well as white students. A black student performs at a lower level when he/she feels that he/she is in a situation that will stereotypically enforce their low performance. Tests need to be seen as racially fair, but this is difficult because they have not been seen as fair for so long that it has minority students weary of their fairness. The only way to do this was to ensure the students that the research had been done by blacks they need to feel a sense of trust. Underperformance seems to be rooted in social mistrust more than in self-doubt (Steele 45).
Also, any critical feedback given to these students needs to be done in a way that will be trusted and not questioned and doubted in any way. By telling the students of color that the standards used to view their work was high and that they are capable to meet these, is an indication to these students that stereotypes were not looked at. When feedback is construed as ambiguous, this causes the students to think that it was caused by negative stereotypes located within the social realm. Creating a favorable climate will result in significant performance differences, the development of cross-group communication with teachers and amongst students of different cultural backgrounds will lead to the success of the students that tend to be left on the side, because of a social stereotype associated with their race.
When
teachers learn to value student perceptions of practice and use negotiation
strategies to work collaboratively to make decisions about changes there is an
alteration in the beliefs, practices and climate change. These lead to a higher
motivation from the students, increased learning and higher achievement. Caring
is the necessary ingredient to effective learning, this does not mean that
standards need to be lowered in any way, instead this
is an indication of the beliefs that people should have with each other.
Through the development of relationships between schools, families and the
community, the caring aspect can be established and the academic development of
students of color will alleviate (Blair et al. 539).
To
facilitate student learning and development, it is vital to incorporate six
types of school-family-community involvement that were established by Epstein
(1995).
- Parenting that aids in developing supporting home environments for children
as students;
- Creating and conducting effective types of communication about the academic
programs and children’s progress to the parents;
- Volunteering and providing help with the organization of school functions
and activities;
- Giving advise to parents on how to help their children at home with schoolwork;
- Ensure that the parents are part of the decision-making process of the
school;
- Utilizing community resources and services to strengthen and support the
schools, students and their families (Sanders Report 07).
Rod
Paige, the U.S. Education Secretary believes that the achievement gap between
minority and non-minority students can be done away with if there is good
teaching involved. Although there are theories that blame the socioeconomic
status of these students, he claims that the students that do not perform well
are merely those that were not taught well. Good teaching needs to encompass a
diverse curriculum, with an educator who is tolerant of different cultural
backgrounds (Markley 33).
Another
problem is testing. Minority students perform lower on testing than other
students because they know their teachers expect them to do so. If testing were
to cease this would solve the problem of the achievement gap, however it would
not increase the deficit minority students experience within their educational
environment. In order for good teaching to occur, there needs to be the weaving
of parent, school and community support (Markley 33).
Progress
can be achieved with the pursuit of an extensive array of public and private
policies, actions and investments. Collectively these initiatives would provide
a greater opportunity for academic development for the underrepresented
minority students through their schools, colleges, universities, homes and
communities. The leadership for these initiatives should come from a diverse
group of societal actors ranging from minority parents and communities to
officials of higher education institutions.
Some
of the views that individuals have to explain the achievement gap are the
following three. The first explanation is the socioeconomic model that looks at
the economic disparity between the two ethnic communities. This can be traced
back to the legacy of slavery and the oppression that the Blacks suffered. It
is believed that there is a correlation between educational achievement and
economic status and that once the economic factor disappears then so will the
educational (Blair et al. 539).
The
second view takes into consideration the social structure of a family or
culture. This view points out to the unstable families; poor parenting skills,
lack of drive and ambition; negative peer pressure and poor choice of role
models; high levels of teenage pregnancies; drugs and crime and a lack of
parental involvement in child’s education which leads to a lack of interest in
it usually associated with minority groups. That is why to ensure academic
success it is important to incorporate the family, school and community
together on educational outcomes and persist with the effort of getting them
involved (Blair et al. 539).
The third view known as the “genetic” model represented by the Bell Curve simply puts it that by natural, evolutionary selection Blacks do not have the genetic intelligence to compete equally with whites. There is little evidence of genetic inferiority however, this view is not even considered by scholars as being a viable option. The race someone is from has nothing to do with one’s intellectual capabilities (Blair et al. 539).
Learning
has nothing to do with one’s genealogical make up; it is enhanced by motivation
and paired with the presence of a supportive and respectful environment that
embraces the differences that each individual has. By doing so, there is a
strong indication of higher achievement across the student groups and the
building of a greater caring for the variety of cultures, a sense of community
and bonding with the learning environment and the people within them (Steele
par. 33).
Human
beings are curious in that they want to learn more about others and they do so
from themselves through the development of relationships. That is why it is vital
that education and schooling create a supportive environment for students of
very diverse backgrounds. This needs to be done by the teachers and will be an
indication of how much they value and are willing to understand the diversity
that is found within their classroom. It is as equally important for teachers
to pay attention to the needs of the individuals as it is to the content of
what it is that they are learning. This means personal attention needs to be
increased and the structural system of the school needs to be addressed, by
making changes within the curricular structure and the emphasis of involvement
placed on families and the community. These enhancements will upgrade the
student’s academic performance.
In
conclusion, a feature used when discussing any social problem is usually the
statistics of whites as the measure versus blacks as being the problem. The
solutions then are based in getting black people to act white, adopt their
value, behavior, attitudes and mannerisms. This is not a viable solution by any
means. These two groups do not share a common culture and Black people are not
impressed with the virtues of white people. When these factors are looked at
closely and scrutinized, changes will occur and all parties will benefit. A
trustful and supportive environment is one of the key components to building a
confident individual. As well as breaking down the barriers that hinder such
action, because at the moment “ it seems that educators tiptoe around big moral
and political questions for fear of offending ‘the sensibilities of one group
or another,’”(Rosen 358). Once this
dissipates minority students will see that performing well is for their own
benefit and not something that means they are conforming to what others in
society want.
It
is not that minority students are incapable of performing well. It is that they
are situated within societies that do not see to their needs. They are part of
societies that have categorized them as performing a certain way because of
their ethnic background. The low numbers of minority students in advanced
programs is because minority students are not really given the attention that
they require from an early age. With the support and attention from dedicated
educators and involved parents and community support, these low performing
students will see their potential to strive for something better in their lives
like their white counterparts. Genetics has nothing to do with it; economics
and society do though. These two factors need to be altered and this begins
from within the community. The creation of strong programs of
school-family-community relationships will lead to the collaboration with
community groups to set up parenting classes and workshops that will lead to
the better understanding of adolescents and provide the students with a
positive outlook to pursue their education. This three-way relationship can
promote the achievements of these students in other contexts, so that they are
recognized for their hard and productive work. When this environment is
created, students will cease to feel the stereotype threat they do and they
will come to realize that they should be proud of who
they are and not suppress their own culture to be accepted by another.
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Arenson, Karen W. “Study Faults Advanced-Placement Courses.”
The New York Times.
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3. Burdman, Pamela. “Extra Credit, Extra
Criticism.” Black Issues in Higher Education. 17.1 (2000): 28
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Minority Students left behind; state to change rules in which biased tests,
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for Advanced Programs.” The Plain Dealer.
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chief: Good teaching is key to closing the achievement
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‘Stereotype Threat’ and
11. “AP Program faces New Criticism
over its testing standards.” The Chronicle of Higher Education,
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