The Effects of Stereotypes on the Achievement Gap: Reexamining the Academic Performance of African American High School Students

This study investigated whether African American high school freshman students experience stereotype threat when taking a test that is seen as a predictor of their success on a high-stakes test. The authors conceptually replicated a previous study by Kellow and Jones (2005) using a true experimental design, as opposed to a quasi-experimental design. White students scored statistically significantly higher than African American students when told that their test performance would be predictive of their performance on a statewide, high-stakes standardized test. The following potential mediators of stereotype threat were included in the study and the effects of each are discussed: (a) perceptions of ability and expectancy for success, (b) achievement goal orientation, (c) anxiety, and (d) perceptions of stereotype threat. The results suggest that African American students are at a disadvantage compared to White students when their knowledge and skills are measured using a high-stakes standardized test. Implications for high-stakes testing of African American students are discussed.

[1]  A. Elliot,et al.  A 2 X 2 achievement goal framework. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[2]  L. J. Stricker.  Inquiring About Examinees' Ethnicity and Sex: Effects on AP Calculus AB Examination Performance , 1998 .

[3]  Carol S. Dweck,et al.  Motivational processes affecting learning. , 1986 .

[4]  William M. K. Trochim,et al.  Research methods knowledge base , 2001 .

[5]  Jacqueline K. Peck,et al.  No Child Left Behind , 2005 .

[6]  E. Pinel,et al.  Stigma consciousness: the psychological legacy of social stereotypes. , 1999, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  Jessi L. Smith.  Understanding the Process of Stereotype Threat: A Review of Mediational Variables and New Performance Goal Directions , 2004 .

[8]  P. Pintrich.  The role of motivation in promoting and sustaining self-regulated learning , 1999 .

[9]  Brett D. Jones,et al.  Stereotype Threat in African-American High School Students: An Initial Investigation. , 2005 .

[10]  A. Anastasi.  Psychological testing, 6th ed. , 1988 .

[11]  S. Spencer,et al.  Stereotype Threat and Women's Math Performance , 1999 .

[12]  Jacquelynne S. Eccles,et al.  Predictors of math anxiety and its influence on young adolescents' course enrollment intentions and performance in mathematics , 1990 .

[13]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[14]  Katherine E. Ryan,et al.  Psychological Processes Underlying Stereotype Threat and Standardized Math Test Performance , 2005 .

[15]  Johannes Keller,et al.  Blatant Stereotype Threat and Women's Math Performance: Self-Handicapping as a Strategic Means to Cope with Obtrusive Negative Performance Expectations , 2002 .

[16]  L. Vartanian,et al.  Revisiting the imaginary audience and personal fable constructs of adolescent egocentrism: a conceptual review. , 2000, Adolescence.

[17]  Jim Blascovich,et al.  African Americans and High Blood Pressure: The Role of Stereotype Threat , 2001, Psychological science.

[18]  C. Stangor,et al.  Activating stereotypes undermines task performance expectations , 1998 .

[19]  J. Eccles,et al.  The development of achievement task values: A theoretical analysis , 1992 .

[20]  Brett D. Jones,et al.  The Unintended Consequences of High-Stakes Testing , 2003 .

[21]  Jason W. Osborne,et al.  Linking Stereotype Threat and Anxiety , 2007 .

[22]  C. Steele.  A threat in the air. How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance. , 1997, The American psychologist.

[23]  B. Parkinson,et al.  Emotion and motivation , 1995 .

[24]  Frank M. Pajares,et al.  Competence perceptions and academic functioning , 2005 .

[25]  P. Lachenbruch.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.) , 1989 .

[26]  J. Eccles,et al.  In the Mind of the Actor: The Structure of Adolescents' Achievement Task Values and Expectancy-Related Beliefs , 1995 .

[27]  J. Nicholls.  Achievement motivation: Conceptions of ability, subjective experience, task choice, and performance. , 1984 .

[28]  Duane F. Shell,et al.  Self-Efficacy and Outcome Expectancy Mechanisms in Reading and Writing Achievement. , 1989 .

[29]  P. Hanges,et al.  Understanding the Stereotype Threat Effect With "Culture-Free" Tests: An Examination of its Mediators and Measurement , 2003 .

[30]  P. Pintrich,et al.  Motivation in Education: Theory, Research, and Applications , 1995 .

[31]  Stereotype threat research and the assumptions underlying analysis of covariance. , 2005, The American psychologist.

[32]  P. Pintrich.  The dynamic interplay of student motivation and cognition in the college classroom , 1989 .

[33]  J. Eccles,et al.  Sex differences in achievement patterns. , 1984, Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation.

[34]  J. Eccles.  Expectancies, values and academic behaviors , 1983 .

[35]  E. Pinel,et al.  Stigma Consciousness in Intergroup Contexts: The Power of Conviction , 2002 .

[36]  S. Spencer,et al.  Contending with group image: The psychology of stereotype and social identity threat , 2002 .

[37]  P. Devine.  Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. , 1989 .

[38]  C. Wolters.  Advancing Achievement Goal Theory: Using Goal Structures and Goal Orientations to Predict Students' Motivation, Cognition, and Achievement. , 2004 .

[39]  J. Meece,et al.  Sex differences in achievement: A test of alternate theories. , 1984 .

[40]  C. G. Lord,et al.  Alleviating women’s mathematics stereotype threat through salience of group achievements , 2003 .

[41]  Carrie B. Fried,et al.  Reducing the Effects of Stereotype Threat on African American College Students by Shaping Theories of Intelligence , 2002 .

[42]  Michael Johns,et al.  Knowing Is Half the Battle , 2005, Psychological science.

[43]  Michael Smithson,et al.  Correct Confidence Intervals for Various Regression Effect Sizes and Parameters: The Importance of Noncentral Distributions in Computing Intervals , 2001 .

[44]  Michael J. Middleton,et al.  Avoiding the demonstration of lack of ability: An underexplored aspect of goal theory. , 1997 .

[45]  Robert E. Ployhart,et al.  Understanding Racial Differences on Cognitive Ability Tests in Selection Contexts: An Integration of Stereotype Threat and Applicant Reactions Research , 2003 .

[46]  C. Steele,et al.  Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[47]  최영한,et al.  미국 NCTM의 Principles and Standards for School Mathematics에 나타난 수학과 교수,학습의 이론 , 2002 .

[48]  Jeremy Cody.  Spatial Ability Test , 2010 .

[49]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  THINGS I HAVE LEARNED (SO FAR) , 1990 .

[50]  A. Su,et al.  The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics , 1932, The Mathematical Gazette.

[51]  A. Elliot,et al.  A HIERARCHICAL MODEL OF APPROACH AND AVOIDANCE ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION , 1997 .