Performance Of African American Students Research Articles

African American Student Success and First-Year Seminars:

The purpose of this study was to examine the retention and academic performance of African American students who participate in a first-year seminar course and persist past the first year of college compared to those who do not participate in the course. Higher education scholars point to first-year seminars as means of increasing retention or persistence from first to second year (Jaijairam, 2016). It is also salient to note the body of literature conveys that African American students are retained at a lower rate than their White counterparts (Johnson, 2013). These factors present a unique opportunity to explore approaches to retention past the first year of college that may positively affect African American students. This quantitative study sought to uncover the impact of a first-year seminar course on the retention of African American students past their first year at one urban university in the Northeast region of the United States.

Personal Narratives of African American Students with Learning Disabilities: Challenging “Privileged” Patterns?

Overrepresentation of African American students in special education has been related to the unfavorable academic outcomes and achievement gap for these students. In a search for a comprehensive account of the roots of these perpetuating concerns, narrative skills are of importance because of their relation to reading achievement and school engagement. Research on narrative performance of African American students with learning disabilities is scarce and possibly preventive of in depth understanding of these students’ unique, often culture-based, language and academic strengths and needs. This study compares personal narratives of African American and European American students with learning disabilities using two approaches: one traditionally favored in schools and one in accord with narrative styles of some African American communities. The participants were 41 school-identified students with learning disabilities in 4-7 grades from 15 urban and suburban schools. The results indicate that two groups are equally capable of producing personal narratives using the majority of narrative patterns of both narrative approaches. The minimal differences between the groups may be attributed to the culture-based preferences well documented in students without disabilities. Implications of recognizing the unique narrative profile of African American students with learning disabilities are discussed. Subscribe to LDMJ

Adding to the Education Debt: Depressive Symptoms Mediate the Association between Racial Discrimination and Academic Performance in African Americans

Although the United States faces a seemingly intractable divide between white and African American academic performance, there remains a dearth of longitudinal research investigating factors that work to maintain this gap. The present study examined whether racial discrimination predicted the academic performance of African American students through its effect on depressive symptoms. Participants were a community sample of African American adolescents (N=495) attending urban public schools from grade 7 to grade 9 (Mage=12.5). Structural equation modeling revealed that experienced racial discrimination predicted increases in depressive symptoms 1year later, which, in turn, predicted decreases in academic performance the following year. These results suggest that racial discrimination continues to play a critical role in the academic performance of African American students and, as such, contributes to the maintenance of the race-based academic achievement gap in the United States.

“life's first need is for us to be realistic” and other reasons for examining the sociocultural construction of race in the science performance of African American students

AbstractThe body of research aimed at explaining the science teaching and learning of African Americans has identified myriad factors that correlate with African American's science career choices and science performance generally. It has not, however, offered any satisfactory explanations as to why those factors are disproportionately racially determined. This article argues that the sociocultural construction of race, which has roots in antebellum Western society, has endured to the present day; and that there is sufficient historical tradition and empirical evidence to warrant a research agenda that accounts for the sociocultural construction of race in explaining African American science education. The article concludes by suggesting a set of research questions and theoretical perspectives that considers the sociocultural construction of race to guide future research. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50:82–103, 2013

Racial Microaggressions: The Narratives of African American Faculty at a Predominantly White University

What role does race play in the lives of fourteen African American (7 women, 7 men) faculty on a predominantly White campus? This case study focuses on their narratives which revealed that racial microaggressions were a common and negative facet of their lives on campus. Specifically, their narratives suggest interactions of microinvalidations with White colleagues and microinsults with White students. This faculty responded to racial microaggressions by creating campus change and safe space for students of color. Given the potential negative outcomes of racial microaggression, these findings suggest that work is needed to improve the campus climate for African American faculty. Keywords: racial microaggressions, African American faculty, higher education Racial oppression continues to be a problem in U.S. society. Oppression includes institutional and interpersonal actions that block access and resources for oppressed groups (Bankston, 2000; Jaggar & Young 2000; Johnson, 2000; Roth, 2005). Oppression may occur as discrete or chronic events; however, its effects are cumulative and widespread (Frye, 1983). In higher education, one illustration of racial oppression is the underrepresentation and distribution of African American faculty. African American faculty makes up only 4.9% of full-time, tenuretrack faculty in the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2009). Beyond being underrepresented, African American faculty are concentrated in lower faculty ranks (i.e., 6.2% of assistant professors, 5.4% of associate professors, and 3.2% of full professors) and in community colleges (Agathangelou & Ling, 2002; Gregory, 2001). Their departments confine African American faculty to race-specific roles and expectations (Aguirre, 2000; Benjamin, 1997; Martinez Aleman & Renn, 2002; Moses, 1997). For example, department chairs often expected African American faculty to only teach and research, often marginalized, racial scholarship (Moses, 1997). Furthermore, African American faculty were often assigned high numbers of African American advisees, diversity-related committee work on top of other required service obligations, and teaching loads higher than those of their White peers (Agathangelou & Ling, 2002; Balderrama, Teixeira, & Valdez, 2004; Aguirre, 2000; Allen et al., 2002; Johnson, Kuykendall, & Laird, 2006). On teaching evaluations used for retention and promotion purposes, students rated African American faculty teaching unfavorably compared to White faculty (DiPietro & Paye, 2005; Hamermesh & Parker, 2005; Rubin, 2001; Vargas, 2002). Students also rated African American faculty as less intelligent than White faculty (Hendrix, 1998; Rubin, 2001; Williams et al., 1999). These factors take time away from research and, therefore, have been posited as contributing to the unsuccessful tenure and promotion of African American faculty (Fields, 2000; Turner, 2003). While understanding institutional racial oppression is important, one must also attend to interpersonal racial oppression. Several scholars have noted the importance of interpersonal interactions. For example, a body of research demonstrates negative mental and physical health consequences of interpersonal racial oppression for African Americans (Dole et al., 2004; Pittman, forthcoming; Watkins et al., 2006; Williams, Neighbors, & Jackson, 2003). In higher education contexts in particular, Gurin and colleagues (2002) noted that interpersonal racial interactions must have particular features (e.g. quality and quantity) to produce positive outcomes for college students. Other works have illustrated that interpersonal racial oppression has harmed the mental well-being and academic performance of African American students (Chesler, Wilson, & Malani, 1993; Rovai, Gallien, & Wighting, 2005). Despite the potential negative impact of interpersonal racial oppression, it remains an under-researched topic in higher education (Yosso et al. …

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

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.

Racial Stereotypes and Gender in Context: African Americans at Predominantly Black and Predominantly White Colleges

In this study, relationships among stereotype expectations, gender, and academic self-concept and performance of African American students in predominantly White and predominantly Black college contexts were examined. Stereotype expectations are students' perceptions of biased treatment and evaluation within their major classroom settings (SE). Findings indicated that students' majors were related to stereotype expectations, as well as to their academic competence. Our results also provide evidence of gender and institutional interactions in the relationships between stereotype expectations and academic outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of the need to examine issues of race and gender in the academic experiences of African Americans, as well as how their specific school and classroom contexts may influence their experiences.

Weighing In: Elementary-Age Students and the Debate on Attitudes toward School among Black Students

Many of the prevailing theories concerning the relatively low academic performance of African American students tend to center on the attitudes of adolescents. Much less research attention has been paid to the attitudes of younger students. As a result, the image of black adolescents - who, like most American adolescents, exhibit oppositional attitudes - has come to represent much of what we know and take for granted about black students as a group. The findings of this study, based on data collected in an ethnographic study of two all-black elementary schools, suggest that black children begin school very much achievement-oriented and engaged with the process of schooling. These findings provide evidence that the school experience plays a significant role in the development of attitudes toward school

Introduction and Overview: The School Reform Movement and the Education of African American Youth

This special issue of the Journal of Negro Education examines how the current School Reform Movement is meeting and failing to meet the educational needs of African American youth. Such an examination is necessary, we believe, because as a national phenomenon that importantly shapes the lives of Black children, the School Reform Movement itself is being shaped by networks of predominately White business, legislative, and educational elites. And while it is true that, under this leadership, schools now seem to be focusing more on instruction than they did in the past, the instructional frameworks they employ are often incompatible with Black cultural and pedagogical traditions, as several articles in this issue will illuminate. As one consequence of this fact, the academic performance of African American students continues to lag behind that of their White counterparts, at least by the measure of standardized tests, which seems the only measure the school reform oligarchy truly accepts. Let us leave aside for the moment the limitations and biases inherent in standardized tests, and also their utility for stigmatizing disadvantaged populations to better justify the inequities visited upon them. Beyond these considerations, high-stakes testing functions as an integral component of the de-personalized, technocratic school reform paradigm. Other elements of this paradigm include the imposition of so-called tough curriculum standards, more attention to student assessment data than to pedagogy or to students themselves, and various forms of punishment (e.g., grade retention, diploma denial) against students who fail to perform satisfactorily on state examinations. In this educational climate, the principle of equity receives little more than rhetorical attention. Consider, as an example, the matter of teacher quality. If it is only fair to judge students by the same performance standards, is there not also the strongest obligation to provide them with equal opportunities to meet those standards? Indeed, given the critical connection, which Linda Darling-Hammond discusses in this volume, between teacher quality and how well students learn, would not true fairness require that students at educational risk be taught by the most qualified, rather than the least qualified teachers-- the latter comprising a disproportionately high percentage of the teaching forces in most urban areas? To our knowledge, the question of teacher equity across diverse socioeconomic populations is not even a serious item on the school reform agenda. Therefore, while we support the increased attention schools now seem to be giving to instruction, as African American educators, the editors of this issue find the current approach to school reform seriously flawed in at least two respects. First, it has failed either to address, or, in some cases, to even recognize serious inequities in the distribution of both material and human resources among diverse student populations. As a result, students in greatest educational need (especially urban students of color) are being condemned to the same fatal educational disadvantages to which they have been subjected for as long as we can remember. Secondly, the school reform movement has imposed a technocratic, de-personalized, and unnecessarily punitive instructional framework on the process of education, thus suppressing the humane and relational approaches to learning that are traditional within the African American educational, cultural, and social experience. It is this tradition of humane and relational educational approaches that emerges as the central theme of the articles contained in these pages. Within that tradition, educational processes, whatever they happen to be, rest upon deeper, more fundamental, human principles. These include confidence, trust, a sense of community, and high expectations for success among teachers, both for their students as learners and of themselves as nurturers of the priceless human potential they perceive in their students. …

Single-Sex Classes and Academic Achievement in Two Inner-City Schools

In response to the low academic achievement and school motivation of disproportionate numbers of African American students, some inner-city schools have experimented with single-sex classes as a strategy to improve academic and personal development. This study reports a comparison of two single-sex and two coeducational fifth-grade classes (N = 90). Class grades were consistently higher in the single-sex classes, although the difference was not always statistically significant. Standardized test data showed no trend; however, in three subject areas, the coeducational groups performed better. It is possible that test scores are more resistant to change and reflect cumulative learning, while class organization and environment exert stronger influence on class grades. More research is needed in this area. In recent years, a great deal of attention has been focused on the lower academic achievement of African American students, especially those in urban U.S. schools, compared to students of other racial and ethnic groups. Research has revealed that due to their poor academic performance, a disproportionate number of African American students, males in particular, have been channeled into special education programs, tracked into less challenging course work, and perceived as lacking the ability and motivation to succeed and perform well in school (Murrell, 1992). The need to improve the school performance of African American students has challenged educators to become more knowledgeable about the factors and conditions related to these students' academic achievement. Many strategies have been attempted, with differential success, to improve Black students' motivation to learn. Schools have experimented with mentoring programs, special tutoring, in-school counseling, and other programs to enhance academic achievement and school-related motivation among this critical population. Creating conditions that improve students' motivation to learn remains a top priority in many urban, majority-minority school districts. Some districts have organized, or tried to organize, single-sex classrooms in inner-city African American schools as a strategy to improve boys' and girls' academic and personal development. Some of these experiments were abandoned for fear of litigation, or they were challenged in court as being in violation of Title IX of the federal Civil Rights Act, which stipulates equal consideration for girls and women in federally funded school athletic and other programs (Kelly, 1991; Lawton, 1990). A few efforts circumvented legal challenges by accepting the few girls who wished to attend primarily all-male classes. Pilot programs were initiated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Lawton, 1990); Detroit, Michigan (Wilkerson, 1991); Baltimore, Maryland (Kelly, 1991); and New York City, New York City, New York (Berger, 1991; Navarro, 1991). The rationale for most such programs has been that the coeducational environment creates unnecessary distractions that impede these youths' learning and overemphasize a youth culture that may be inimical to their academic achievement and personal development (Coleman, 1961). Advocates have argued that single-sex class organization provides a better learning environment for at-risk urban African American youth-especially the males among this population. They further claim that gender-separate schooling both enhances academic motivation and lessens behavioral problems among Black students (Riordan, 1990). They further view sex-segregated classrooms as offering these students an experience of genuine equality of opportunity that is unattainable in a coeducational setting. Many of the claims about the potential pedagogical benefits of single-sex education for urban African American male students have not been empirically investigated. Few quantitative studies have examined the benefits of single-sex schooling for at-risk African American youth in inner-city schools. The present article describes an empirical research effort that was undertaken with that goal in mind. …

Overcoming Obstacles: Academic Achievement as a Response to Racism and Discrimination

Previous studies have suggested that in response to occupational and educational discrimination based on race, many African American students have mentally withdrawn from the schooling process, as indicated by low levels of achievement and high levels of school dropout. By contrast, the present study's analysis of interview data collected from 28 African American urban eighthgraders indicates that some African American students with a high awareness of racial discrimination respond to this discrimination in ways that are conducive rather than detrimental to academic success. For these students, positive racial socialization was a primary factor influencing and promoting academic success. Implications for future research on the academic performance of African American students are discussed. INTRODUCTION Several authors have examined the relationship between racial and economic inequality and individual mobility. Among these, Ogbu (1978, 1988, 1991) has arguably had the greatest impact on the way educators today view the relationship between racial inequality, educational attainment, and academic achievement, especially among African American students. Chief among Ogbu's contentions is the argument that, as a response to racial discrimination and limitations on their educational and occupational opportunity, African Americans have failed to develop a strong academic orientation. In an attempt to explain differential achievement levels among minorities in the United States, Ogbu (1991) identifies immigration status as a key factor determining minorities' academic attitudes, efforts and levels of success. Using the terms and involuntary to describe the minority status of African Americans, he contends that the historical legacies of racism and discrimination, especially as they relate to educational and employment opportunities, have had a decidedly negative influence on the school performance of African Americans. Ogbu's (1988) argument rests on the supposition that African Americans have adapted to discriminatory educational and employment policies and practices by disengaging from the schooling process. He maintains that African Americans have come to characterize striving for academic success as culturally subtractive (p. 177). As Ogbu posits in a 1978 article: As caste-like minorities, [African Americans] have had access mainly to inferior education; they have experienced the job ceiling and other caste barriers that prevent them from maximizing their efforts in school in terms of future social and economic rewards; they have, generally speaking, responded to these barriers with mental withdrawal failing to persevere in their schoolwork. (p. 237) In an extension of Ogbu's earlier work, For&am and Ogbu (1986) advance two additional factors influencing the academic achievement of African American adolescents: an oppositional collective or social identity and an oppositional cultural frame of reference. Accordingly, they assert that: Subordinate minorities like black Americans develop a sense of collective identity or sense of peoplehood in opposition to the social identity of white Americans because of the way white Americans treat them in economic, political, social, and psychological domains, including white exclusion of these groups from true assimilation .Along with the formation of an oppositional social identity, subordinate minorities also develop an oppositional cultural frame of reference which includes devices for protecting their identity and for maintaining boundaries between them and white Americans. (p. 181) Fordham and Ogbu further contend that oppositional identity and oppositional cultural frame of reference enter into the schooling equation for African American adolescents through these students' perceptions and interpretations of schooling as learning the white American cultural frame of reference which they have come to assume to have adverse effects on their own cultural and identity integrity (p. …

The Effects of Psychocultural Variables on the Academic Performance of African-American Students: A Literature Review

This article discusses the various cultural, socioeconomic and psychological variables that contribute to the academic performance of African American students. While it may be concluded that many factors such as race, economics and home environment influence the school performance of African-American students, culture has the greatest impact on learning. It is the cultural incompatibility between African-American students and an educational system based on traditional American values that accounts most for their poor school performance. Interventions that involve schools accommodating the African American cultural style with culturally sensitive instructional practices are reviewed. School psychologists play an essential role in assisting school personnel in the implementation of these interventions befitting the African American cultural style.

School Mathematics and African American Students: Thinking Seriously about Opportunity-to-Learn Standards

The author draws on tenets of critical race theory to investigate the political and conceptual underpinnings of opportunity-to-learn standards. More specifically, he examines the potential influence of opportunity-to-learn standards on the mathematics education of African American students. Four questions are raised and discussed related to the adequacy of opportunity-to-learn standards as a framework for improving the mathematics performance of African American students. The author concludes that opportunity-to-learn standards should be built on (a) the rapid growth and changes in mathematics; (b) constructivist principles of learning; (c) the concept of fiscal adequacy; and (d) cultural factors that influence mathematics learning.

Instructional Approaches and Interventions that can Improve the Academic Performance of African American Students

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONAL APPROACHESCOMPREHENSION-DEVELOPMENT INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIESData collected by National Assessment of Educational Progress and other organizations indicate that average achievement levels of African American students are distressingly low, particularly with respect to higher-order comprehension and thinking skills (Cooper & Levine, 1993; Levine & Eubanks, 1990). During past two decades or so, educators have developed and/or refined instructional strategies that many observers believe provide us with capacity to bring about virtually a revolution in successfully developing comprehension and thinking skills of students whose performance currently is unsatisfactory in reading, history, mathematics, science, and other subjects (C. Block, 1993; Idol & Jones, 1991; Means, Chelemer, & Knapp, 1991; Pearson, 1985). Some of most prominent of these instructional strategies include use of graphic organizers, semantic webbing and mapping, inferencing and prediction techniques, and summarization guidelines (C. Block, 1993; Levine & Sherk, 1989). Assisting faculties to learn how to use these strategies and introduce them as part of regular classroom typically requires a large-scale, continuing staff development effort; considerable technical assistance; and improvements in school climate, leadership, expectations for students, and other characteristics or correlates of unusually effective schools. However, impressive gains have been registered thereby in performance of students, particularly those who otherwise would be low achievers or at risk of dropping out of school (C. Block, 1993; Cooper & Levine, 1993; Levine & Lezotte, 1990, 1994; Levine & Sherk, 1989; Means, Chelemer, & Knapp, 1991).The results of a recent study by Knapp, Shields, and Turnbull (1992) support conclusion that instructional strategies stressing comprehension and thinking can improve achievement of disadvantaged students. Knapp et al. examined effects of emphasizing or not emphasizing meaning and understanding in 140 elementary classrooms with high percentages o poverty students. They offer following generalizations regarding implications for design and conduct of instruction in schools with a high proportion of students from low-income families:The findings dispel myth that, for most of children of poverty, academically challenging work in mathematics and literacy should be postponed until they are ready--that is, until they have acquired full mastery of basic skills. Although such students are often lacking in certain basic skills, they can acquire these skills at same time that they gain advanced skills (which provide a broader, more meaningful context for learning the basics). (p. i)Indeed, instructional practices aimed at developing meaning and understanding provide avenues for teachers to expand their repertoires. Those who wish to do so can expand their practices provided they receive appropriate mix of encouragement, support, and flexibility.COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION AND OTHER TECHNOLOGY-BASED APPROACHESOne good example of a technology-based approach designed specifically to help students acquire skills and knowledge necessary to become independent thinkers and learners is anchored instruction approach being developed by Cognition and Technology Group (CTG) (1990). Anchored aims to create problem-solving environments based on use of videodisc and computer technologies that provide a framework for sustained exploration of authentic tasks (p. 2). CTG's initial work has involved painstaking creation of videodiscs, computer software, and instructional materials designed to improve average- and low-achieving students' problem-formulation and problemsolving capacities as well as various comprehension and communications skills. Students work cooperatively in small groups much of time, and guidance in learning-to-learn is provided by both teacher and technology. …