scholarly journals Exploring the Achievement Gap Between White And Minority Students in Texas

2003 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Linton ◽  
Donald Kester
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Achievement Gap ◽  
Minority Students ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
White Students ◽  
African American Students ◽  
Test Score ◽  
Ceiling Effect ◽  
American Students ◽  
Score Range

The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) has been used to document and track an achievement gap between white and minority students in Texas. Some educators have credited the TAAS with fueling a drive to close the achievement gap while others suggest that TAAS scores may be misleading because of factors such as score inflation and a possible ceiling effect. The purpose of this study was to analyze the gap in mathematics achievement for eighth grade students. The study compared TAAS and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test results to determine if the achievement gap between white, Hispanic, and African-American Students had narrowed between 1996 and 2000. Results indicate that TAAS mean scores increased significantly for all three ethnic groups between 1996 and 2000. Comparison of the TAAS test score frequency distributions for each ethnic group indicated that white students' scores shifted from the middle to the upper portion of the test score range while minority students' scores shifted from the lower to the middle and higher score range. Both white and minority students' TAAS test score distributions were significantly more negatively skewed in 2000 than in 1996. Comparisons between white and minority students' TAAS scores showed that white students had significantly higher scores than either Hispanic or African-American students in both 1996 and 2000. Comparison of mean score differences in 1996 and 2000 indicated that the achievement gap between white and minority students had narrowed. NAEP scores increased significantly from 1996 to 2000 for Hispanic students, but not for white or African-American students. However, test score distribution patterns showed small positive changes for all three ethnic groups. Comparisons between ethnic groups indicated that there were significant differences between white and minority students' scores in both 1996 and 2000. Comparison of mean score differences in 1996 and 2000 indicated that the achievement gap between Hispanic white students had narrowed slightly but that there was no change in the achievement gap between white and African-American students. Analysis of the TAAS test score distribution patterns indicated the likelihood that a ceiling effect had impacted students' scores. The evidence for a ceiling effect was strongest for white students. In 2000, 60.4% of white students had a TAAS score that fell in the top 10% of the score range. In contrast, there was no evidence of a ceiling effect for the NAEP. Mean score gains on the TAAS are only partially substantiated by the NAEP data. Furthermore, there is a very strong possibility that a ceiling effect artificially restricted the 2000 TAAS scores for white students and created the illusion that the achievement gap between minority and white students had been narrowed.

Social Distance Evaluations in White and African-American Students

1995 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 478-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Lee Hoxter ◽  
David Lester
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
African American ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Asian Americans ◽  
White Students ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
African American Students ◽  
The Other ◽  
African American Adults ◽  
American Students

Among 241 college students, both white and African-American adults were less willing to be personal friends with people of the other ethnic group than with people of their own ethnic group. African-American students were also less willing to be friends with Asian Americans than were white students.

How Teachers and Schools Contribute to Racial Differences in the Realization of Academic Potential

2012 ◽  
Vol 114 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Wildhagen
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Hierarchical Linear Modeling ◽  
White Students ◽  
African American Students ◽  
School Level ◽  
Racial Gap ◽  
American Students ◽  
Academic Potential

Background/Context The fulfillment of academic potential is an underdeveloped area of inquiry as it relates to explaining racial differences in academic outcomes. Examining this issue is important for addressing not only differences in the typical outcomes for African American and White students but also the severe underrepresentation of African American students among the highest achieving students. Whereas other studies have operationalized lost academic potential as unfulfilled expectations for educational attainment, this study takes a different approach, measuring whether students earn higher or lower grades than the grades predicted by earlier tests of academic skills. Students whose grades are equal to or exceed those predicted by their earlier test scores are said to have fulfilled their academic potential, whereas those whose grades are lower than predicted have not realized their potential. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study finds that African American high school students are less likely than their White peers to realize their academic potential. The analyses test several explanations for the racial gap in the realization of academic potential, focusing on the students themselves, their teachers, and their schools. Research Design This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to analyze data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. Conclusions/Recommendations The results suggest that teachers perceive African American students as exerting less classroom effort than White students, which accounts for a substantial proportion of the racial gap in unrealized academic potential, even with several student characteristics held constant. At the school level, there are larger racial gaps in unrealized academic potential in segregated schools and schools with strict disciplinary climates. Strikingly, the negative effect of strict disciplinary climate exists net of students’ own receipt of disciplinary actions. That is, the negative association between strict disciplinary climate and the realization of academic potential for African American students applies to African American students regardless of whether they themselves have been in trouble at school. This study reveals that characteristics of schools that lack immediately obvious racial implications, such as a school's approach to student discipline, may be just as harmful as overtly racialized inequality within and between schools.

African-American Student Perceptions of Predominately White Campuses: The Importance of Institutional Characteristics Relating to Racial Climate

2003 ◽  
Vol os-20 (2) ◽  
pp. 65-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda T. King ◽  
Thomas E. Ford
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
White Students ◽  
African American Students ◽  
African American Student ◽  
Institutional Characteristics ◽  
Racial Climate ◽  
Campus Environment ◽  
Predominately White ◽  
American Students

The Campus Climate Survey was developed to identify the institutional characteristics of predominately white colleges or universities (PWCUs) that African-American students perceive as important predictors of the quality of the campus environment. We examined whether African-American and White students differentially consider institutional characteristics relating to racial climate to evaluate the campus environment. The survey was administered to 131 African-American and 247 White high school seniors and college students. Results suggest that African-Americans were especially attuned to racial climate characteristics. Furthermore, these racial climate characteristics are uniquely important for African-American students: they mattered to them but not to Whites. Indeed, the general institutional characteristics (non-racial climate related) were more important for determining social comfort for White students.

Segregation, Desegregation, and Resegregation in Cincinnati: The Perspective of an African American Principal

2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lionel H. Brown ◽  
Gulbahar H. Beckett ◽  
Kelvin S. Beckett
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
African American ◽  
White Students ◽  
African American Students ◽  
School Funding ◽  
Board Of Education ◽  
Teacher Qualifications ◽  
Black Schools ◽  
American Students ◽  
Black School

Recent research on Brown v. Board of Education has emphasized continuing disparities in the education of White and African American students. This research has used the failure of desegregation to account for persisting gaps in White and Black school funding, teacher qualifications, and student achievement. But the current focus on the failure of desegregation has overshadowed an equally significant but underreported success in the area of improving education for African American students. According to the most recent findings on student achievement, for example, the gaps between African American and White students are again narrowing, in some cases approaching zero. The present article shows that the failure of desegregation is not the only, nor is it likely to prove to be the most enduring, legacy of Brown. At the same time that desegregation was being resisted and ultimately reversed in Cincinnati, as elsewhere, Brown was inspiring an emphasis on quality education that resulted in two of the city's worst-performing Black schools’ being transformed into schools of excellence.

Closing the Gap: A Group Counseling Approach to Improve Test Performance of African-American Students

2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2156759X0901200
Author(s):  
Angelia M. Bruce ◽  
Yvette Q. Getch ◽  
Jolie Ziomek-Daigle
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
White Students ◽  
Group Counseling ◽  
African American Students ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Pass Rate ◽  
Pass Rates ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
American Students ◽  
Passing Scores

This article evaluated the impact of a group counseling intervention on African-American students’ achievement rates during the spring administration of high-stakes testing at a rural high school in Georgia. Eighty percent ofeligible students who participated in the intervention received passing scores on the four sections tested during the spring administration of the Georgia High School Graduation Tests (GHSGT), and all participating students received passing scores on the English Language Arts and Math sections of the GHSGT. Additionally, the achievement gap between African-American students and White students on the Enhanced Math narrowed during the 2007-2008 testing period, with 63.2% of African-American students achieving pass rates as compared to 70.5% of White students. The pass rate increased from the 38.7% pass rate among African-American students from the previous school year, indicating that the intervention was successful in improving pass rates on high-stakes testing. Implications for professional school counselors include utilizing the practice of group counseling and disaggregating data to promote achievement among underachieving student subsets.

The Traits of “Good Teachers” as Identified by African-American and White Students with Emotional and/or Behavioral Disorders

1998 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Mcintyre ◽  
Juan Battle
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Behavioral Disorders ◽  
White Students ◽  
Behavior Management ◽  
African American Students ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Instructional Skills ◽  
American Students

The responses of 209 youngsters in 11 programs for students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders (E/BD) were examined regarding their perceptions of four trait categories of so-called good teachers: Personality Traits, Respectful Treatment of Students, Behavior Management Practices, and Instructional Skills. Results demonstrated that African-American students perceived Personality Traits and Respectful Treatment of Students as being more important than their white counterparts; females felt that all four of the trait configurations were more important than their male counterparts felt they were; and as the age of students increased, each of the four trait configurations was viewed as being less important. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Validating African American Students at Predominantly White Institutions

2000 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon L. Holmes ◽  
Larry H. Ebbers ◽  
Daniel C. Robinson ◽  
Abel G. Mugenda
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
African American ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Minority Students ◽  
African American Students ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Predominantly White Institutions ◽  
White Institutions ◽  
American Students ◽  
Primary Focus

The purpose of this article is to provide a review of research and theory focusing on factors that have been cited as contributing to the retention and graduation of African-American students attending predominantly White institutions. The authors use recommendations cited in the literature to develop a model for predominantly White institutions to provide African-American students with positive learning experiences. While African-American students are the primary focus of this discussion, the model can be adapted to meet the needs of other minority students in higher education.

A Review of Los Angeles Unified Data Following the OCR Compliance Investigation

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (8) ◽  
pp. 1051-1073 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Robert ◽  
Nathern S. A. Okilwa
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
White Students ◽  
African American Students ◽  
Performance Indicator ◽  
American Students ◽  
White Schools ◽  
American Schools

In 2011, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) conducted a compliance review of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to examine the district’s provision of resources and opportunities to schools with predominantly African American students as compared with schools with predominantly White students. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which LAUSD has responded to OCR findings. Research questions include the following: (a) How do LAUSD majority White and majority African American elementary schools compare on performance indicator variables? (b) What are the differences in teacher quality variables between majority African American and majority White schools? (c) How successful has the OCR review been to date in accomplishing the outcomes advocated for by the OCR? Findings indicate that majority African American schools continue to have significantly lower teacher and student attendance, student performance, and percentage of students identified as gifted and talented (GT). African American students also continue to experience higher rates of disciplinary incidents as compared with White students.

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