Teacher perceptions of student abilities can affect crucial placement decisions that, in turn, affect student opportunities to learn. The author’s research shows that this is particularly the case with black students who have earned high scores on math assessments but who, on the basis of teacher judgment, have not been recommended for placement in algebra in 8th grade. The author suggests a “less-is-more” approach — that is, remove teacher judgment from placement decisions and use universally available academic achievement performance data. This will increase the true identification of high-performing students, thereby increasing the opportunity to learn among students of different demographic backgrounds and reducing achievement gaps.
Analysis of 188 black undergraduates' beliefs concerning influence of some selected factors on their academic achievement indicated that, for the females, academic achievement was believed to be significantly more affected by internal factors than by external ones, and for Ss whose mothers had more education than fathers. Ss desire, efforts, abilities, knowledge about coursework, and educational background were ranked as the five most influential internal factors, while luck, difficulty of curriculum, instructors' fairness, rewards from others, and value attached to grade were ranked as the five least influential external factors.
Early Academic Achievement Among American Low-Income Black Students from Immigrant and Non-Immigrant Families