School & District Management

Mind the Gap

By Denise Kersten Wills — December 22, 2006 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Minority students’ achievement levels closed in on their peers’ during the 1970s and ’80s, but that progress stalled in the 1990s.

Why and what can be done remain elusive questions, though researchers recently turned up a tantalizing clue. In a study published in September in the journal Science, African American 7th graders who completed a 15-minute assignment early in the year earned markedly higher fall grades.

The idea, says Geoffrey Cohen, a University of Colorado at Boulder psychology professor and one of the lead authors, was to short-circuit “stereotype threat”—a type of performance-sapping stress experienced in situations where people fear that poor performance will confirm a stereotype.

An abstract of the report, “The Power of Social Psychological Interventions,” as well as supporting online materials, is available from the journal Science.

The researchers presented students with a list of values. The students were told to circle their highest values and write about why they are important. A control group identified their least-important values and wrote about why someone else might hold them.

See Also

Read the related story,

Tough Love

The objective—to reduce stereotype threat by affirming students’ sense of identity—appears to have worked: The African American students who wrote about their own values earned higher fall-term grades than classmates of the same race who didn’t. Moreover, they closed the achievement gap with white students—whose grades were unaffected by the exercise—by about 40 percent.

The researchers were so surprised that the effect lasted an entire term that they waited to publish until they could replicate their results the following year.

Cohen says more research is needed. “We only did the study in one grade at one school,” he notes, “so we don’t yet know how these interventions will play out in other schools.” And, he adds, no one expects the exercise to be a silver bullet.

Still, Cohen believes teachers can help students by keeping in mind that some may feel stereotype threat. “It’s an issue of empathy,” he says. “There’s a preoccupation or a question that many minority students may be asking themselves: ‘Will the stereotype be applied here to me and members of my group?’”

A version of this article appeared in the January 01, 2007 edition of Teacher Magazine

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and K-12 education jubs at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
How District Leaders Align Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction for Student Success
Join K-12 leaders as they share strategies for aligning curriculum, assessment, and instruction to support all learners.
Content provided by Otus
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
Achieve Early Literacy Success at Scale
Researchers have uncovered an intervention helping schools achieve early literacy success at scale. Learn how to bring it to your district.
Content provided by Ignite Reading

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

School & District Management What Principals Can Do So Teachers Don't Dread Observations
Principals can make walkthroughs more palatable. Here's how.
6 min read
Principal and teacher walking through a school hallway.
E+/Getty
School & District Management Opinion This Time of Year, Principals Have Two Jobs. Here’s How to Ace Them Both
Here are 4 tips on how to finish this school year strong—while preparing for the next.
3 min read
It's the time of year to develop current teachers and look ahead to future hires.
Vanessa Solis/Education Week via Canva
School & District Management Opinion When School Leaders Deliver Bad Directives
One of the upshots of issuing lame orders is breaking the trust of teachers, which may never be regained.
10 min read
Conceptual illustration of classroom conversations and fragmented education elements coming together to form a cohesive picture of a book of classroom knowledge.
Sonia Pulido for Education Week
School & District Management Opinion 3 Mistakes New Leaders Should Avoid
Districts are searching for aspiring leaders. What does it take to succeed in the role?
4 min read
Screen Shot 2025 01 16 at 5.28.27 PM
Canva