Achieving academic success is a challenge for many children; however, for many African American children, academic success is more than a challenge; it is an almost impossible feat. Anyone can look in the papers, or take a peek in the average classroom grade books and see the big disparity, or achievement gap that is evident between African American and Caucasian students’ grades, or levels of proficiency on academic measures. Although there are many reasons that have been offered to explain why this gap exists, many researchers are interested specifically in the role that teacher’s beliefs, attitudes, and teaching practices or styles play in enhancing or hindering academic performance among African American students.
Oates, (2003) examined the relationship between the ethnicity of the teacher and the ethnicity of the student to determine if dissimilarity in teachers and students races has an influence on teachers’ perceptions of students (Oates, 2003). He also looked at whether the relationship between teacher perceptions among students of the same race (i.e. African American teacher; African American student) would be consequential to performance. He utilized the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) of 1988, that focused on 24,559 eighth graders; however, after centering on the educational processes of students who had tenth(1990) and twelfth(1992) grade standardized test data and tenth grade teacher-perception data available, he had a sample size of 836 African American students; 670 with perception data from white teachers and 166 with perception data from African American teachers; and, 7094 white students with perception data from white teachers and 155 with perception data from African American teachers (O...
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...od further directions to go into. These and other focuses on academic achievement can help glean more information on, and a better understanding of how teachers’ perception, beliefs, attitudes, and teaching practices can have an impact (positive or negative) in African American students’ academic success.
References
Oates, G.L. (2003). Teacher-student racial congruence, teacher perceptions, and test performance. Social Science Quarterly, 84(3), 509-523.
Bakari, R. (2003). Preservice teacher's attitudes toward teaching african american students: contemporary research. Urban Education, 38(6), 640-654 Retrieved from http://uex.sagepub.com/content/38/6/640.refs.html doi: 10.1177/0042085903257317
Love, A, & Kruger, A.C. (2005). Teacher beliefs and student achievement in urban schools serving african american students. Journal of Educational Research, 99(2), 87-98.
Landsmen, Julie. (2004, November) Closing the Achievement Gap: Confronting the Racism of Low Expectations. Educational Leadership 62 (3).
The first step towards addressing the racial achievement gap begins with educators addressing his or her individual racial attitudes for, as the authors purport, “As we become personally aware of our own racialized existence, we can more deeply understand the racial experiences of others” (Singleton, Linton, 2006). In all honesty, I think Singleton and Linton hit the bull’s eye by suggesting that the first step towards initiating culturally relevant teaching is for the teacher to really examine his or her attitudes, values, and principles.
Contrary to what many people may believe, African-Americans have a strong motivation towards achieving. From the parents to the children, there is a strong orientation for wanting to learn and get ahead. Research has shown that black children have educational and occupational aspirations that are often equal to, and sometimes higher, than white children (Stevenson et al. 1990; Winfield 1991b; Hill 1999). African-American paren...
Data proves that America does not have enough African American males teaching in today’s schools. As a matter of fact, only 2% of America’s nearly five million teachers are black men (Bryan 1). In our American society, more and more African American females are fiercely taking over both public and private classrooms. Although this might be a great accomplishment, school officials believes that if more black males teach, it would reduce the numbers of minority achievement gaps and dropout rates. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 44% of students nationwide are minorities, but nearly 90% of teachers are white. Polls and surveys further read that if there were more African American male teachers, the dropout rate would decrease while the graduation rate increases. In urban societies most African American teens would be more likely to succeed if there were more black males instructing secondary classrooms.
As an African American male, I experienced inequality, and judgment from individuals that have no idea what kind of person I truly am. As a youth, I received a lackluster education, which has resulted in me underachieving in a number of my college classes. It has come to my attention that other colored students are currently experiencing and receiving the same inadequate learning environment and educatio...
The achievement gap is defined as the disparity between the performance groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, ability and socio-economic status. The achievement gap can be observed through a variety of measures including standardized test scores, grade point averages, drop out rates, college enrollment and completion rates. The Black-White achievement gap is a critical issue in modern society’s education system. Although data surrounding the issue clearly indicates that the racial performance gap exists in areas of standardized tests, graduation rates, dropout rates, and enrollment in continuing education, the causative reasons for the gap are ambiguous—therefore presenting a significant challenge in regard to the most effective way to close the gap. The gap appears before children enter kindergarten and it persists into adulthood (Jencks 1998). Since 1970, the gap has decreased about 40 percent, but has steadily grown since. Theories suggest the Black-White achievement gap is created by a multitude of social, cultural, and economic factors as well as educational opportunities and/or learning experiences. Factors such as biased testing, discrimination by teachers, test anxiety among black students, disparities between blacks and whites in income or family structure, and genetic and cultural differences between blacks and whites have all been evaluated as explanations for the Black-White achievement gap (Farkas 2004). The research that follows will elaborate on these factors as they affect the decline in academic performance of black males—particularly the literacy achievement of black males.
In the article “Implicit racial bias often begins as early as preschool, a study finds” that black students are discriminated against by their teachers. Teachers don't expect as much from
In conclusion, the Academic Achievement has been fueled by society's presets, minority students' lack of effort, and the failures of the schooling system in America. There has been some challenging setbacks, but the Gap can be fixed to create a common ground for all prospective members of America's society to excel on equally. By realizing that change can be achieved, there are little to no limits for minority students to create a better mindset towards education. Students, parents, and teachers have to be willing to work together, as well as tackle obstacles upheld by society, and the economic deficiencies that effect schools across America. This will, in turn, take America one step closer to closing the Academic Achievement Gap in America.
The challenges faced by Black males in American society are well known. What may not be widely recognized is the role America's schools play in perpetuating these problems. The purpose of this paper is to make more generally accessible recent research that attempts to isolate factors leading to conflict between Black male students and increasingly White teaching staff in our public schools (Cooper and Jordan, 2003). This paper also describes ways in which schools and school districts are beginning to implement programs designed to resolve these conflicts.
Throughout the years the dropout rate of African Americans has increased and decreased. Many people look at black students as if they sit there and do not learn anything at all but we do try. Some may think that the only reason the black students drop out is because their grades, but that’s not true. Some dropout because of financial pressure, health problems, mental, emotional, and social issues, and may not have family support.
The author, Gloria Ladson-Billings, discusses in her book, "The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children," how African American students perform at lower academic levels in part due to teacher approaches and attitudes. She performed a study on eight teachers of different races and backgrounds and their approaches to teaching African American students. The purpose of the study was to identify what approaches or techniques have been most successful in helping African American students to achieve academic success. She also focuses on the idea of "culturally relevant teaching" and how it can positively impact students when teachers are aware and incorporate a student's culture and backgrounds into the classroom. Throughout the book, the
On average, minorities attend schools that have less-experienced, lower-paid teachers who are less likely to be certified, poor graduation records, and high poverty rates. Many studies suggest that racial diversity is the key to...
Schools that are filled with low-income colored students across the country are far more likely to have inexperienced teachers, bad grades, very little opportunities for economic funding and racial segregation compared to schools in wealthier areas. The issue of teacher
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2004) reported that Black students continue to trail White students with respect to educational access, achievement and attainment. Research on the effectiveness of teachers of Black students emphasizes that the teachers’ belief about the Black students’ potential greatly impacts their learning. Teachers tend to teach black students from a deficit perspective (King, 1994; Ladson-Billings, 1994; Mitchell, 1998). White teachers often aim at compensating for what they assume is missing from a Black student’s background (Foorman, Francis & Fletcher, 1998). The deficit model of instruction attempts to force students into the existing system of teaching and learning and doesn’t build on strengths of cultural characteristics or preferences in learning (Lewis, Hancock...
It is very important for teacher educators to develop self-awareness of cultural biases and discriminatory practices as well as to exam the effects of their beliefs, their attitudes, and expectations for teacher