Joining the Conversation Workshop

1. What advice did you receive from your group members?
Danielle: Make the setting of the play clear to the reader
Spencer: Add a cast
Blair: Include a background to the play

2. What was the most helpful advice? Explain.
The most helpful advice was to make the setting clear to the reader. I was thinking to write my play as a book and hope that the reader would catch on that what I stated was the setting. But her advice made it more direct that I shouldn't try and make it to confusing.

3. What was the least helpful advice you received? Explain.
The least helpful advice was to add a cast. I had figured out that I was missing a cast seeing that my other group member was told that he forgot one as well.

4. How will you revise this assignment? Be Specific.
If I were to revise this paper I would add a cast and try to include more information in the play rather than have people just state what they think.

Joining the Conversation 1st draft

Calvin Kennedy

Presents

A black man’s

Struggle with education

4/1/13

On average, African American 12^th graders read at approximately the same level as a white 8^th grader!? Do I read on the same level as a white 8^th grader? I mean I never struggled with reading in school, and I always felt very capable when it came to reading out loud. I’ve heard about all of the saddening facts about African Americans in school and I’ve always wondered if any of them applied to me. But this isn’t about me I want to figure out why African Americans struggle in school and what does their community have to do with it.

Gail: Well you have to take into consideration the upbringing of most of these African Americans. Most likely these children grew up in an urban community, struggled financially and because of the bad economy in that community they probably experienced quite a bit of violence as well.

Calvin: So how does that affect them academically? I mean most celebrities and great people throughout history started off in a struggling family.

Gail: Yeah but the thing about celebrities is that they are the minority, and because they are celebrities does not mean they are educated.

Calvin: I agree, but what about the masses of black people that don’t obtain an education.

Gail: Well if you grew up in a community that struggled financially chances are you did to. So when it comes to school your parents are more concerned with getting the next paycheck and don’t have time to pay attention to how their kids do in school. So if you come home every day and you parents do not have time to talk with you about what you’ve learned then most likely you will lose interest in your own education because your parent failed to instill how important an education is. Don’t get me wrong most parents do think that an education is important it’s just that in their heads other things are more urgent than talking about how your day in school was.

Calvin: I see, so what you are saying is that in a struggling household most parents may not be able to spend valuable time with their child because they are too busy trying to make ends meet.

Gail: Exactly so as a result the child grows up valuing what their parents’ value which in that case is making money and surviving.

Marcia Caton speaks up

Marcia: Oh this conversation is getting very interesting I have to add my seven cents.

Calvin: Well seeing as I cant control the voices in my head I guess I can’t stop you.

Marcia: Hey don’t sound so sour you should be happy I’m here.

Calvin: Okay well what do you have to say?

Marcia: Well what I wanted to say is that in school African Americans are the majority of students expelled, or suspended, especially males. This comes from two things. A parent not disciplining their child and the child’s low value of education. Both of which extend from the parent’s absence due to work or other things, incarceration for one thing. Did you know that African Americans also lead the nation in single parent household?

Calvin: Ok so are you saying that poor parents are the leading reason for why African Americans struggle in school?

Marcia: Yes

Gail:  No

Marcia: What do you mean no?! If parents had a high value of an education then they would be able to pass that on to their children.

Gail: But those parents would be able to if they had that “time” to give it is because of the lack of money in the community that makes it harder for parents to get jobs and the violence in the community comes from that struggle to make money.

Marcia: What does violence have to do with the students?

Gail: Well a violent community could cause them a loved one or their lives, also on a psychological level it makes the students less social which could have all kinds of results on a child’s mindset about those he/she goes to school with.

Marcia, and Gail’s voices fade out of my mind.

They both make a point but I have a feeling that there is more to this community impact on a student than what we have covered. Monica Caton pries her way into my thoughts

Monica: Calvin your right to think so. Many people forget that the community also impacts the school itself. Most of the teachers and faculty come from neighboring communities and probably lived there for a while.

Calvin: Yeah that was definitely the case for my school but how does that affect the school’s curriculum?

Monica: Well see it doesn’t necessarily affect the curriculum just how well the students absorb the material. In most of these schools there are teachers who are not qualified to teach effectively and they may not even value education, or at least how well their students do. So the students receive a poorly taught education because the delivery was weak. Now I’m not saying that every teacher is unqualified to teach, but if you take 6 classes and 2 of your teachers didn’t do a good job then you may struggle in those areas further down your academic career and start to doubt all of the opportunities you could receive through a good education.

Jacqueline: Hold on their missy you are totally overlooking a big part of how the community impacts the school.

Calvin: Hey Jac—

Jacqueline: Shut it loser!

Monica: Wooh there what’s the attitude for?

Jacqueline: Its for you, how could you assume that the teachers are the only reason for why schools are ineffective. Did you forget about the social battleground that schools have become. In an urban community your clothes have to be named brand, and if you can’t relate to most of the people around you, then you become a daily target for the cruelties that kids bring to school every day. Most of these behaviors and norms that stem straight from the community the school was placed in.

Monica: Okay I hear what you are saying but even if the students were socially united they still wouldn’t be able to learn a thing because of the growing numbers of poorly trained teachers that populate these urban schools.

Jacqueline: Yes but a united group of students will fight for a better school, just like the kids that ask for a better playground or new basketball court. The thing about a united youth is that they will be able to bounce ideas off each other and thus learn how to better their lives.

Calvin: I actually agree with Jacqueline I can’t say that I have witnessed students take charge of their learning outside of studying and working together. However if we didn’t have a lot of social barriers between each other than that could definitely be possible.

Monica: Well this is your head we are talking in and I guess I cant make you agree with what I say.

Janice: Hey everyone sorry I’m late I was busy trying to find my way into your thoughts. But I would like to talk a little more about the community aspect.

Calvin: Really? What more could you say?

Janice: Well I want to talk about all of the people that report and discuss the things that happen in the community and how their statements may lead communities to move in the wrong direction.

Calvin: Okay well do explain.

Janice: Well most of these news reporters who talk about students who have difficult lives don’t actually understand how the community impacts the student academically. So when they report their opinion of the matter the schools become defensive and try to make quick irrational changes without truly understanding how to fix the problem.

Calvin: Yeah well the thing I learned at the beginning of my research is that there is a reason for why this issue has plagued us for years. My head and heart feels a little irritated because the more I learn the bigger this task seems to get.

All Sources: Well Calvin nothing worth doing is ever easy!

FIN

Annotated Bibliography 2nd Draft

Thompson, Gail L. Through Ebony Eyes. San Francisco, California. Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint. 2004. Print.

            Through Ebony Eyes is an in depth analysis of the many factors that play a role in African Americans and Latino’s education. Gail Thompson explains how the traditional ways of both the government and school system has created an environment that makes it difficult for African Americans to succeed in school. He also discusses the ways that educators and interest groups have attempted to close the gap between students of color and their white counterparts. Thompson includes in input on where he believes schools and the government went wrong in addressing students of color in a country that it designed to address the majority. Through Ebony Eyes is his way to inform educators and anyone who hopes to become an educator on ways to become more effective when teaching the minority here in America.

            Thompson’s argument is broken up into different chapters throughout the book. In each chapter he addresses a different reason for why African Americans struggle academically. It almost seems as if he is attempting to argue his opinion on all of the factors that he has come across in his studies.  The author does a great job of connecting all of different aspects he discusses back to the student, while including how it impacts them academically. In the introduction he claims to discuss the issues that affect minorities academically where in actuality he focuses on African Americans and only include other minorities if they happen to fall into the same boat as African Americans. The book is structured similar to that of a textbook, which shows how the author hopes to truly educate the reader in ways to teach minorities more effectively. He breaks down the different factors into “theories” and backs them up with personal examples as well as hypotheticals.

            From reading the introduction and first chapter I can already tell that this book will be the driving force behind my research because of how well it has been structured. The main thing about this book is that it may connect to other things that I pick up later on in my research. Seeing as the author includes his opinion of a variety of different topics I may be able to find different authors or researchers that may disagree with what he states in this book.

·         “In other words, these students infer that they have to reject their home culture to succeed academically” (pg. 17)- The Acting White Theory

·         “During previous eras black youth were more likely to derive values and identity from family, church, and school…. Today, the influence of these traditional purveyors of Black culture [has] largely diminished. Now media and entertainment are among the major forces transmitting culture to this generation of Black America”. (pg. 20)

·         “This preoccupation with getting rich quickly stems from at least two sources. The first being is the high unemployment rate in urban communities. In many cases, the education system has failed to prepare young blacks for the workforce or for college” (pg.21)  

_______________________________________________________________________________

Hale, Janice E. Learning While Black. Baltimore, Maryland. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 2001 Print.

           Learning While Black is a book about the impact that the community and life outside of school has on African American students that live in an urban environment. Janice Hale explains how politicians and news reporters, who discuss education and its impacts on African Americans, lack experience which makes them less fit for discussing the solution to the problem. She then includes her solutions to the issues that most educators see in African American communities. Hale mentions that if the school is not the center of the program or institution that hopes to reach out to African American students than they will not be able to reach those students who struggle academically. She also talks about the relationship between school and family is essential because students don’t stop learning when they leave school so everyone involved must be on the same page for the student’s sake.

           Throughout the book the author uses personal examples as well as things she has learned throughout her research to strengthen her point. From reading the first chapter the reader can tell that some of the issues she has addressed may seem obvious but when she goes in depth about the importance of each issue, the reader will see an entirely different way at looking at the same issues. That allows the author to include more solutions and explain why educators are the best sources for truly understanding what issues African American students face within an academic environment.

           This reading is not ultra-useful because Janice Hale uses this book to solve the issues that affect African American students. My research is purely to find and analyze the issues that African American students face. However the author explains how her solution will fix the academic struggles that African American students face, which means that she will mention and explain the issues she has come across.

•“The overwhelming majority of African American children come from single-parent households. African Americans work longer hours often for less money than whites earn (Toppo 2000); often they are minimally educated and have substantial constraints on their time.” (pg. 8)

•“Parents whisper among themselves, expressing their frustration with this situation, but is never brought into the dialogue on school reform” (pg. 9)

•“At this writing the state of Michigan spends $35,000 a year to incarcerate one African American male. For maximum-security incarceration, the cost to state is about 65,000 a year, and to the federal state about $75,000. Compare those costs with $8,000 it cost to enroll an African American male child in a two-year Head Start program.” (pg. 38)

____________________________________________________________________________ 

Irvine, Jacqueline Jordan. Black Students and School Failures.New York. Greenwood Press. 1990.

           Black Students and School Failures is a book about the different connection between African American students performance in school, and their personal lives. The Author Jacqueline Irvine connects every aspect of an African American, who grew up in an urban environment to how well they do on a national scale. She also discusses how the mindset of these students change throughout their school experience and all of the driving factors that lead them to a horrible conclusion. This book also includes a lot of stats that relate African Americans to whites in different categories such as: standardize testing, graduation rates, poverty, and teen pregnancy.

           Irvine does a great job of explaining what schools in poor communities lack and how a failed school system creates poorly educated students. She then connects that with the added impression that students get from their environment. This book breaks down the aspects of educating a student both from the academic point as well as the cultural point of view. The level of analysis that the author shows throughout her book prove that she has not only looked at this issue from a numbers stance but a psychological stance as well. It is as if she has stepped in to the shoes of the student, teacher, and researcher.

          

I can use this book in multiple ways. For one I can use this information to strengthen things that I have learned in other parts of my research. Also my main topic may be altered because I am learning about the issues that cause African Americans to struggle in school; however this book may lead me to focus on a more specific area. The author provides detailed examples of how each issue can cause a snowball effect of failure or misfortune in a student’s life. That will allow me to use the book in multiple ways depending on where I go with my research.  

·         “There is a strong relationship between black student achievement, teen parenthood, and poverty. Poor black students usually score lower on standardize measure of achievement and are overrepresented in the ranks of dropouts and pregnant girls.” (pg. xiv)

·         “The hidden curriculum is the unstated but influential knowledge, attitude, norms, rules, rituals, values, and beliefs that are transmitted to students through structure policies, processes, formal content, and social relationships of school”. (pg. 5)

          

·         “One factor related to the nonachievement of black students is the disproportionate use of severe disciplinary practices, which leads to black students exclusion from classes, their perception of mistreatment, and feelings of alienated and rejection, which result ultimately in their misbehaving more and/or leaving school”. (pg. 16)

____________________________________________________________________________ 

Almond, Monica R. "The Black Charter School Effect: Black Students In American Charter Schools." Journal Of Negro Education 81.4 (2012): 354-365. Education Research Complete. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.

           This source focuses on the Black-White achievement gap and the different factors that affect both blacks and whites academically. The reading explains how over the last decade or so the gap between blacks and white has been linked to poorly trained teachers, low curriculum standards, and a lack of appreciation for Black culture. There are more factors mentioned in the reading al based around the ways that the school fails to adjust to the requirements of black students. The article also discusses how many people are unsure on how to go about some of these issues related to black student’s struggle in school and how this issue causes a rift between people who are looking to address this issue.

           This article does a great job in giving a background on the Black-White achievement gap. By going into detail about the history of this issue and where the country stands on it now allows the reader to get a full understanding of what researchers have learned about blacks in school. However the pages that are used to discuss the change in black students in charter schools are a waste because they do not connect back to how this is affecting black students academically or the difference between black students in charter schools and traditional schools. In fact it takes a while for the article to even come back to the question of “Why African Americans perform lower than whites academically”.

           I can use this source in order to connect the factors about the black-white achievement gap to other things I have learned in my reading. This source also explains the way that schools in poor communities fail to educate black students and mentions the reasons for why these schools are ineffective.   

•“Roxbury Preparatory Charter School in Boston, Massachusetts boast achievement scores that are higher than their peers in Boston Public Schools, and higher than the average of their peers in the state of Massachusetts overall. With a student population that is 61% African American, Roxbury Prep's mission is unapologetically college-driven (Merseth, 2009).” (pg. 7)

•“All ñve schools examined in the Merseth (2009) study were identified as having high expectations for their students. Researchers found that the students were expected to perform at high levels, manage their behavior, and be full participants in the classroom.” (pg. 7)

•“But is racial segregation problematic for Black students? Today, a majority of Black students already attend defacto segregated schools, as a result of White-flight and other policy related issues.” (pg. 9)

___________________________________________________________________________________

Caton, Marcia Theresa. "Black Male Perspectives On Their Educational Experiences In High School." Urban Education 47.6 (2012): 1055-1085. ERIC. Web. 31 Mar. 2013.

           This source discuss the perception of black males in high school and some of the punishments that are based around that perception. Marcia Caton states that black males are the majority of students that are expelled or suspended from school. She also believes that public schools in black communities are a micro version of the penal system because of how their ways of punishment are used to isolate the misbehaved from the rest of the academic community. The author argues that the school’s disciplinary standards make it more likely for a black male to be prosecuted rather than given an “in-house” punishment.  The black male perception in high school is also linked back to their mindset and explains how they are more likely to conform to the negative opinion they have been labeled with because that is the type of culture they have been exposed to.

           This article is well structured and does a great job in introducing how the black male perception in high school is derived from the vast majority of black males that receive disciplinary punishment. Also it ties that notion back to the idea that black students who go to urban public schools are more likely to conform to the way others view them because of the way that those public schools are disciplining their students. The author structures her argument well, however she doesn’t seem to have a strong argument because of her lack of evidence and poor job of connecting her thesis to those pieces of information.

           I am planning on using this information as an appetizer so it can open my eyes to how the perception of black students could have an effect on their performance in school. In my research I hope to use this to explain the social aspect of why blacks struggle in school; however that depends on where I decide to go in my paper. All of this information makes it difficult to narrow my research towards one aspect of blacks struggling in school.

•          “A study of 19 middle schools in the Midwest, found that Black males were sent to the principal office more than their counterparts for more subjective reasons such as “disrespect” and “perceived threat” (Wallace, Goodkind, Wallace, & Bachman, 2008).” (pg.  4)

•          “Black males have been marginalized from mainstream society because of historical, economic, and political forces and therefore do not benefit from the resources of this country” (pg. 24)

•          “However, the ways in which schools balance discipline with a nurturing and caring environment are reflected in the ways that schools treat their students. Urban school administrators should invest more in providing teachers with professional development on classroom management.” (pg. 25)

Annotated Bibliography Workshop

1.  What advice did you receive from each member of your group? Explain.

Well my group didn't have time to get to my paper so I didn't get any feedback. But Danielle did comment on my blog with ways to improve my paper. I agree with her point on focusing my summaries to be more of a summary and less of an analysis.

2. What was the most helpful advice you recieved?

The most helpful advice I recieved was to make sure that my summary paragraphs are summaries not analysis'.

3. What was the least helpful advice?

Well i only got one comment so I can't really say what was not helpful.

4. What are you plan's for revision?
RE-read, and Re-read

Self Assessment Reflection

What were your goals for yourself in writing this paper?  To what extent did you reach your goals?

My goal in the annotated bibliography was to create a document that explained the usefulness of my sources and give me a starting point with each source. However I feel as if the annotated bibliographies that are about the books I am using may not cover the entire book seeing as I haven't read the entire thing.

How did you use your time in developing this paper?  Did you use class opportunities to improve your writing?  Explain.  How did your use of time fit your goals?

I didn't use a lot of class time to work on this paper because I still was trying to figure out how to focus my inquiry question into a smaller category. When I started my work I was in the library and pulled out a few books and 4 hours later I had gotten a strong idea on what each of the books were about and I believe that I was able to write about the sources and how I planned on using them.

How did you see your writing changing?  Did you take advantage of the responses from your peers?  Explain how you worked with your peers?

I don't see a change in my writing just yet I feel as if after I have gotten further down the process of actually putting together all of what I have learned into one cohesive purpose. 

Who else contributed to your paper’s success?  Explain their role?

My mother has played a big role in my paper's success because I am constantly talking to her about every interesting piece of information relating to my inquiry question, she gives her feedback and gives me ways to not only continue my research but one day use this to solve an issue that is very personal to me.

What have you learned about yourself as a writer? What did you learn from others?

Throughout the course of this class I have learned that my writing is rarely done with much detail and that it may take a few proof readings to catch all of my grammatical errors. Also I have learned that my concepts are great and I can explain them very well however I must learned to do so with out  being to wordy. I feel as if I write similar to the way I talk and I use a lot of words because I think that I can make a stronger argument with extra words. So the key for me is to learn about other great debaters and see how they structure their arguments, that will not only better me as a speaker but help me become a meticulous writer.

What was the hardest part of writing this paper?  Explain.  

The hardest part of this paper was following the steps and including certain things in certain paragraphs. I used Megan's example and read her annotated bibliography over and over because I wanted to make sure I understand what she would be looking for in each paragraph. The struggle for me in this paper was that I didn't know the difference between a summary and an analysis.

What was the easiest part? Explain.  

The easiest part of this paper was writing how I plan on using the source in my paper. While reading my sources I would constantly refer back to how this could help me in my research.

Where did you take risks?  Explain.

I dont feel as if I have taken any risk, yet.

What parts of your paper are you proudest of?  Why?

My favorite part of my paper would be my analysis of each sources, because to me that is the most important part and I could refer back to that if I am unclear on how I want to use that authors opinion.

What parts of your paper still need improvement?  Why?  How did you attempt to make these improvements before you turned the paper in?

I feel as if before the workshop session my paper needed a good proofreading, but outside of that I dont really know what parts of my paper I could improve. A simple way I addressed that issue was to re-read my paper and think of ways to make my points clearer.

Explain your writing process from brainstorming to now.

I dont feel as if I did much brainstorming however after reading some of my sources I now want to find information on more specific topics such as parental involvement, and school activities in African American communities.

Annotated Bibliography 1st draft

Thompson, Gail L. Through Ebony Eyes. San Francisco, California. Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint. 2004. Print.

            Through Ebony Eyes is an in depth analysis of the many factors that play a role in African Americans and Latino’s education. Gail Thompson explains how the traditional ways of both the government and school system has created an environment that makes it difficult for African Americans/Latinos to succeed in school. He also discusses the ways that educators and interest groups have attempted to close the gap between students of color and their white counterparts. Thompson includes in input on where he believes schools and the government went wrong in addressing students of color in a country that it designed to address the majority. Thompson’s argument seems very broad because he doesn’t focus on one issue that affects the academics of people of color in America. It almost seems as if he is attempting to argue his opinion on all of the factors that he has come across in his studies. Through Ebony Eyes is his way to inform educators and anyone who hopes to become an educator on ways to become more effective when teaching the minority here in America.

            Thompson’s argument is broken up into different chapters throughout the book. In each chapter he addresses a different reason for why African Americans struggle academically. The author does a great job of connecting all of different aspects he discusses back to the student, while including how it impacts them academically. In the introduction he claims to discuss the issues that affect minorities academically where in actuality he focuses on African Americans and only include other minorities if they happen to fall into the same boat as African Americans. The book is structured similar to that of a textbook, which shows how the author hopes to truly educate the reader in ways to teach minorities more effectively. He breaks down the different factors into “theories” and backs them up with personal examples as well as hypotheticals.

            From reading the introduction and first chapter I can already tell that this book will be the driving force behind my research because of how well it has been structured. The man thing about this book is that it may connect to other things that I pick up later on in my research. Seeing as the author includes his opinion of a variety of different topics I may be able to find different authors or researchers that may disagree with what he states in this book.

·         “In other words, these students infer that they have to reject their home culture to succeed academically” (pg. 17)- The Acting White Theory

·         “During previous eras black youth were more likely to derive values and identity from family, church, and school…. Today, the influence of these traditional purveyors of Black culture [has] largely diminished. Now media and entertainment are among the major forces transmitting culture to this generation of Black America”. (pg. 20)

“This preoccupation with getting rich quickly stems from at least two sources. The first being is the high unemployment rate in urban communities. In many cases, the education system has failed to prepare young blacks for the workforce or for college” (pg.21)
_________________________________________________________________________________

Hale, Janice E. Learning While Black. Baltimore, Maryland. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 2001 Print.

            Learning While Black is a book about the impact that the community and life outside of school has on African American students that live in an urban environment. Janice Hale explains how politicians and news reporters, who discuss education and its impacts on African Americans, lack experience which makes them less fit for discussing the solution to the problem. She then includes her solutions to the issues that most educators see in African American communities. Hale mentions that if the school is not the center of the program or institution that hopes to reach out to African American students than they will not be able to reach those students who struggle academically. She also talks about the relationship between school and family is essential because students don’t stop learning when they leave school so everyone involved must be on the same page for the student’s sake.

            Throughout the book the author uses personal examples as well as things she has learned throughout her research to strengthen her point. From reading the first chapter the reader can tell that some of the issues she has addressed may seem obvious but when she goes in depth about the importance of each issue, the reader will see an entirely different way at looking at the same issues. That allows the author to include more solutions and explain why educators are the best sources for truly understanding what issues African American students face within an academic environment.

            This reading is not ultra-useful because Janice Hale uses this book to solve the issues that affect African American students. My research is purely to find and analyze the issues that African American students face. However the author explains how her solution will fix the academic struggles that African American students face, which means that she will mention and explain the issues she has come across.

·        “The overwhelming majority of African American children come from single-parent households. African Americans work longer hours often for less money than whites earn (Toppo 2000); often they are minimally educated and have substantial constraints on their time.” (pg. 8)

·        “Parents whisper among themselves, expressing their frustration with this situation, but is never brought into the dialogue on school reform” (pg. 9)

·        “At this writing the state of Michigan spends $35,000 a year to incarcerate one African American male. For maximum-security incarceration, the cost to state is about 65,000 a year, and to the federal state about $75,000. Compare those costs with $8,000 it cost to enroll an African American male child in a two-year Head Start program.” (pg. 38)

_____________________________________________________________________________

 Irvine, Jacqueline Jordan. Black Students and School Failures.New York. Greenwood Press. 1990.

            Black Students and School Failures is a book about the different connection between African American students performance in school, and their personal lives. The Author Jacqueline Irvine connects every aspect of an African American, who grew up in an urban environment to how well they do on a national scale. She also discusses how the mindset of these students change throughout their school experience and all of the driving factors that lead them to a horrible conclusion. This book also includes a lot of stats that relate African Americans to whites in different categories such as: standardize testing, graduation rates, poverty, and teen pregnancy.

            Irvine does a great job of explaining what schools in poor communities lack and how a failed school system creates poorly educated students. She then connects that with the added impression that students get from their environment. This book breaks down the aspects of educating a student both from the academic point as well as the cultural point of view. The level of analysis that the author shows throughout her book prove that she has not only looked at this issue from a numbers stance but a psychological stance as well. It is as if she has stepped in to the shoes of the student, teacher, and researcher.

            I can use this book in multiple ways. For one I can use this information to strengthen things that I have learned in other parts of my research. Also my main topic may be altered because I am learning about the issues that cause African Americans to struggle in school; however this book may lead me to focus on a more specific area. The author provides detailed examples of how each issue can cause a snowball effect of failure or misfortune in a student’s life. That will allow me to use the book in multiple ways depending on where I go with my research.   

·         “There is a strong relationship between black student achievement, teen parenthood, and poverty. Poor black students usually score lower on standardize measure of achievement and are overrepresented in the ranks of dropouts and pregnant girls.” (pg. xiv)

·         “The hidden curriculum is the unstated but influential knowledge, attitude, norms, rules, rituals, values, and beliefs that are transmitted to students through structure policies, processes, formal content, and social relationships of school”. (pg. 5)

·         “One factor related to the nonachievement of black students is the disproportionate use of severe disciplinary practices, which leads to black students exclusion from classes, their perception of mistreatment, and feelings of alienated and rejection, which result ultimately in their misbehaving more and/or leaving school”. (pg. 16)

Active Reading Post (2)

Stereotype Threat

             To this day the stigma of being African-American is still relevant, as it has proved to have an effect on the educational outcomes of these individuals.  Traditionally blacks have known to score lower on standardized tests than their white counterparts. It was argued by Dr. Claude Steele and Dr. Joshua Aronson that blacks are assisted in their underperformance by a stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson). Most people know of stereotypes, for example: Asian-Americans excel in mathematics, women do poorly in math, and for African-Americans they have consistently tested poorly. Steele and Aronson have argued that these negative stereotypes can be extremely harmful and assert that stereotype threats can seriously alter academic achievement and motivation for these students.

Through the course of their studies, they have found out those black students who value academic success the most, are also the most susceptible to stereotype threat. This occurs in two ways: first, it adds a pressure that may directly undermine their performance; second, if it persists as a chronic feature of the school performance domain, it may force the affected students to misidentify with that domain.  This could explain a multitude of explanations, such as the discrepancy between SAT scores for whites and blacks, even when the socioeconomic class is not a factor. Also, as we look at the second explanation this also gives us more information to why black students disengage from academics in high school.

Steele and Aronson are not first to test stereotype threat as during the 1960’s Irwin Katz and his colleagues suggested that stereotype threat could also influence performance on a test.  Katz found that blacks were able to score better an IQ subtest if the test was presented as a test of eye-hand coordination. In addition, another key finding showed that blacks score better on an IQ test when they believe the test will be compared to that of other black.

Later these two professors take Katz findings to conduct a set of tests of their own. Their goal was to test the hypothesis that predicts underachievement in test situations for school-identified blacks. In order find a school identified set of students they pooled students from Stanford University, where black and white students were randomly assigned to test different treatments of conditions. In this study the students were given a diagnostic test, and the results were similar to that of Katz in that blacks perform worse than whites. However when the test is presented in another fashion other than a test of academic ability, the performance of blacks improves drastically. In this study the interaction was only marginally significant, but if we look at later studies we see a in increase importance.

In their second study, black students again took a diagnostic test. The results showed that the nature of the test impairs the rate as well as the accuracy of black’s performance. This experiment was similar to the first, except the test time was cut into half and after the test the participants completed a version of the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory.

The third study looks to examine why framing tests as measures of ability impairs the performance of black participants. Here the students did not even take a test instead they were asked to complete a word fragment task, which has been shown to measure the cognitive activation of constructs either primed or self-generated. The first twelve fragments reflected race-related constructs or an image associated with African-Americans. Fragments consisted of minority, welfare, color, token, inferior, weak, flunk, lazy and black. Later the participants completed a questionnaire that asks for their hobbies and activities they enjoyed the most. Those that were stereotypically related were basketball, being a couch potato, or hip-hop and were found to be avoided the most by African-American students. In addition, students were asked to complete a demographic questionnaire that asked about age, gender, major. There was also a second item that asked about race. It was hypothesized that students in the diagnostic section were more likely to not acknowledge their race.

The results of this study showed that blacks in the diagnostic section were able to complete more of stereotype race-related fragments. The first three studies showed that presenting a difficult test as a representation of diagnostic of ability can undermine the performance and make them feel threatened by racial stereotypes.

The fourth study asked the some participants to record their race on demographic questionnaire before taking the test. They reasoned that doing so might force these participants to think more about racial stereotypes, feel stereotype threatened when they took the test, and as a result perform worse on the test.  The results showed that reporting racial identify depresses performance on a difficult test even when it was not presented as a diagnostic of intellectual ability.

 In the fifth study, black students were placed in race-primed condition, the only difference this time was that black participants were administered by computer. The results showed that race-primed participants answered significantly fewer items correctly than do unprimed participants. This study also confirms that race priming depresses the performance of black participants on a difficult examination, and that it causes reactions that could be response to stereotype threat.

 In conclusion, the first three tests showed that if stereotypes are primed for the test-takers, the students will perform worse on the test. However, the last two tests showed that merely asking a set of black students to record their race is enough to impair their test performance, even when the test is not portrayed as measure of intellectual ability. Which makes one think, is identifying yourself as an African-American enough to for students to perform less well on tests? And if so, what does this say about how blacks perceive their group identity as being black

Key

Yellow: Relates to my topic about African Americans in school

Red: Word of Interest

Purple: Something to think about throought my research

My Thoughts

This reading brought up an entirely new idea that may have a big impact on my research. The author argues that sterotypes actually hinder African Americans from performing well on test and that by asking them what to state their race makes them feel threateneed. I cannot say that I believe what the author argues but it is definetly something to take into consideration and explore. I wonder if the author failed to notice other factors that might also have an impact or play a role in why African Americans perform poorly on tests.