Student Achievement

Student Achievement
Each year, children are failing in school. As the years progress, the number of
children failing keep rising. In "Closing the Achievement Gap", Kati Haycock, the
Director of the Education Trust at the American Association for Higher Education,
states " Between 1970 and 1988, the achievement gap between African American
and white students was cut in half, and the gap separating Latinos and whites
declined by one-third. That progress came to a halt around 1988, however, and
since that time, the gaps have widened" (6). As a result, people are doing studies
and have come up with several theories that exist on how to address the
achievement gap. These ideas have been categorized below to establish the issue
to show causes for failure to achieve, to describe the consequences for students
who are not achieving, and to suggest possible solutions.
Causes for Failure to Achieve
There are many causes for failure to achieve in students. Claude M. Steele, a
professor of social psychology at Stanford University, claims that the reason for
student failure is a combination of "stereotype threat". Steele's definition of
stereotype threat is "a situational threat, in general form, can affect the members of
any group about whom a negative stereotype exists" ("Threat" 614). He believes
that the stereotyping towards minority students and women, in certain fields,
affects their performance to a high enough degree that they could and do fail.
Steele included statistics of the lower achievement scores of African Americans in
colleges as compared to white students. If the stereotype threat shows up often
enough, those being stereotyped could internalize the stereotype. That would mean
that students would always think that they are being stereotyped and would
therefore hinder their own achievement. Harold Berlak, a Senior Research Fellow,
with the Applied Research Center (ARC) in Oakland, California, who shares some
similar views with Steele, also talks about some causes in the achievement gap. In
"Race and the Achievement Gap", he uses a study from the Roy Wilkins Center for
Human Relations to show that African Americans were 4.5 times less likely to be
found in schools ranked low in math and reading (Berlak 2). He claims due to those
statistics that students of color are not opted to have the "gifted and talented"
school programs, which affects both the test score gap and the gap in academic
performance (Berlak 2). Amy L. Wax, Professor of Law for The University of Virginia
School of Law, on the other hand, shows a different cause in failure. She does not
share the same views with Steele or Berlak. In her article, "The Threat in the Air",
she states, "We resist confronting the social and behavioral causes of short falls in
academic performance. Stark differences between groups in marriage rates, family
stability, paternal involvement, parenting practices and discipline, and other habits
and values, are associated with children's disparate academic success." (Wax 2).
Wax also uses the idea that causes for failures are "emotional", rather than
undeveloped learning (Wax 2). Even though Steele, Berlak, and Wax have touched
on the causes, there are consequences that always follow.
Consequences for Students Why Are Not Achieving

Consequences are a major part of today's society. Every problem/ solution has a
consequence that will follow. In review of the achievement gap, there are some key
consequences. Low self esteem is a very big problem that students face. The
achievement gap makes it even worse on students. Berlak uses a quote from an
African-American high school student. "Well we are suppose to be stupidwe
perform poorly in school cause we all have it thought up in our heads we're
suppose to be dumb so we might as well go ahead and be dumb" (Berlak 4). A
consequence that Steele uses would be his term disidentification. He states that
disidentification is "pain lessened by ceasing to identify with the part of life in which
the pain occurs" ("Thin Ice 46). Steele uses disidentification in correlation to
stereotype threat by saying that when stereotype threat affects school life,
disidentification occurs and it becomes a high price for the student to pay. In looking
closer at a particular consequence of students dropping out, Rod Paige uses his
effect in relation to his solution of "accountability".
Before Rod Paige, a big believer in "accountability" became U.S. Secretary of
Education he was the School Superintendent for Houston. While holding the
Superintendent position, Paige put into action a policy that held principles
accountable for how well their students achieved in school. He put this plan into
action because he believed that he could lower the drop out rates for Houston. In
the year between 2001 and 2002, Houston school district reported that their
dropout rate went down to an amazing 1.5 percent ("Miracle" 2). In seeing the
results Paige was having on Houston, George W. Bush after being elected President,
named Paige the U.S. Secretary of Education. Bush then used Houston as a model
for the "No Child Left Behind" policy. Although, according to Robert Kimball, then
assistant principal of Sharpstown High School, he saw no such results. "I had been
at high school for three years, and I had seen many, many students, several
hundred a year, go out the door. And I knew they were quitting. They told me they
were quitting" ("Miracle" 1). Apparently the Houston school district was using codes
to represent a different status. Instead of giving them a dropout status, put them as
going to finish with GED, or transferred to a different school. So, Paige believes
accountability will work to close the achievement gap, whereas, Steele does not.
Solutions
Steele has also come up with a solution to the achievement gap. Steele calls his
solution "wise schooling". Steele claims wise schooling is "the schooling of
stereotype-threatened groups may be improved through situational changes that
reduce the stereotype threat these students might otherwise be under" ("Threat"
624). Steele does say that even by lowering the stereotyping threat, it may not
accomplish what is needed to identify within the domain. To help with this problem
Steele set up some strategies to use in schools, and they are as follows: making use
of optimistic teacher-student relationships to erase the doubt that clouds the
student mind, to challenge over remediation by giving harder work to show they
have potential, by stressing the expandability of intelligence so students can
overcome the meanest implications of the stereotype, by affirming domain
belongingness so students won't have doubt of belonging and that they can

achieve, to value multiple perspectives so that is shows students a stereotype is

less likely to be used, by having role models, using nonjudgmental responsiveness
where there is little cost of failure and the gradual building of domain efficacy from
small gains, and by building self-efficacy to attempt to raise the student's sense of
competence and self-efficacy ("A Threat in the Air 624-625). Haycock agrees with
some of the strategies that Steele says would be helpful to use in schools. She
states, "Students who take more-rigorous coursework learn more and perform
better on tests. Indeed, the more-rigorous courses they take, the better they do"
(Haycock 9). Berlak's solution kind of differs from Haycock and Steele. Berlak
claims. "We still live in a society that is separate and unequal. The goal for the 21st
century must become the elimination of institutionalized racism in all sectors of
social, economic, cultural, and political life-in business, housing, employment, law
enforcement, the courts, health-care institutions, and of course, schools" (Berlak 5).
He claims that standardized tests are a form of institutionalized racism and schools
that use standardized testing only strengthen the racism.
Even though there are causes for failure to achieve, consequences for students who
are not achieving, and possible solutions, the achievement gap is still widened
today. The achievement gap is a never ending argument along with education.
Indiana is frequently held to have the lowest common education in the Midwest.
While it seeks to improve test scores, many teachers are changing the way they
teach their material. Instead of teaching children one way to do something, they
teach them many ways to figure out a problem. So in hypothesis we could assume
that students are becoming more able to learn academically. This may be true in
some instances and then again, there could be some underlying effects to prove
that it is not. My next paper is going to touch on the topics as to why teachers have
changed their curriculum over the years and if the added laws, such as "No Child
Left Behind" has anything to do with the change in curriculum.