Download or read book Teacher and Student Perspectives of Factors Affecting the School Performance of African American Students at Suburbia High School written by Stacey M. Falconer-Medlin and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brief Literature Review: A review of related literature identified several factors that affect the academic success of African American students in public high schools. These factors include socioeconomic status, parent support and involvement, attendance, participation in structured extracurricular activities, student engagement, teacher bias and expectations, systemic or institutionalized racism, and disproportionality in school exclusionary discipline practices. Of these identified factors affecting student achievement, socioeconomic status appears to have the greatest influence. Statement of Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore reasons for the decreasing academic achievement of African American students in Suburbia High School in Northern California. Research will address staff and student perspectives for the decrease in achievement and seek to identify factors that can directly or indirectly be addressed by school leadership to promote more positive educational outcomes for African American students. Methodology: The researcher used a mixed-methods research design and collected both qualitative and quantitative data to answer research questions. Data were collected from staff members at Suburbia High School through an online survey and from student participants through individual interviews. The survey inquired about staff members' personal opinions of the decline in African American student test scores on state achievement tests and the disproportionate number of African American students receiving disciplinary suspensions. The student interview protocol focused on the student's opinions of the school, staff, curriculum, and policies, as well as their own personal habits during and after school hours. Conclusions and Recommendations: Results of this study supported past research that socioeconomic status was a significant predictor of the academic achievement of students. Additionally, the researcher found evidence of low teacher expectations and bias within Suburbia High School that resulted in inequitable outcomes for its African American student population. Based on these findings, it is the recommendation of the researcher that teachers and school leaders at Suburbia High School adopt a school-wide behavioral intervention and supports program, provide more varied academic interventions and support programs for impoverished students, and implement professional development opportunities for staff to address racial bias' that are resulting in lower expectations for African American students at Suburbia High School.
Download or read book Black American Students in An Affluent Suburb written by John U. Ogbu and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-02-26 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Ogbu has studied minority education from a comparative perspective for over 30 years. The study reported in this book--jointly sponsored by the community and the school district in Shaker Heights, Ohio--focuses on the academic performance of Black American students. Not only do these students perform less well than White students at every social class level, but also less well than immigrant minority students, including Black immigrant students. Furthermore, both middle-class Black students in suburban school districts, as well as poor Black students in inner-city schools are not doing well. Ogbu's analysis draws on data from observations, formal and informal interviews, and statistical and other data. He offers strong empirical evidence to support the cross-class existence of the problem. The book is organized in four parts: *Part I provides a description of the twin problems the study addresses--the gap between Black and White students in school performance and the low academic engagement of Black students; a review of conventional explanations; an alternative perspective; and the framework for the study. *Part II is an analysis of societal and school factors contributing to the problem, including race relations, Pygmalion or internalized White beliefs and expectations, levelling or tracking, the roles of teachers, counselors, and discipline. *Community factors--the focus of this study--are discussed in Part III. These include the educational impact of opportunity structure, collective identity, cultural and language or dialect frame of reference in schooling, peer pressures, and the role of the family. This research focus does not mean exonerating the system and blaming minorities, nor does it mean neglecting school and society factors. Rather, Ogbu argues, the role of community forces should be incorporated into the discussion of the academic achievement gap by researchers, theoreticians, policymakers, educators, and minorities themselves who genuinely want to improve the academic achievement of African American children and other minorities. *In Part IV, Ogbu presents a summary of the study's findings on community forces and offers recommendations--some of which are for the school system and some for the Black community. Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement is an important book for a wide range of researchers, professionals, and students, particularly in the areas of Black education, minority education, comparative and international education, sociology of education, educational anthropology, educational policy, teacher education, and applied anthropology.
Download or read book Teaching to Close the Achievement Gap for Students of Color written by Theodore S. Ransaw and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-08 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume highlights approaches to closing the achievement gap for students of color across K-12 and post-secondary schooling. It uniquely examines factors outside the classroom to consider how these influence student identity and academic performance. Teaching to Close the Achievement Gap for Students of Color offers wide-ranging chapters that explore non-curricular issues including trauma, family background, restorative justice, refugee experiences, and sport as determinants of student and teacher experiences in the classroom. Through rigorous empirical and theoretical engagement, chapters identify culturally responsive strategies for supporting students as they navigate formal and informal educational opportunities and overcome intersectional barriers to success. In particular, chapters highlight how these approaches can be nurtured through teacher education, effective educational leadership, and engagement across the wider community. This insightful collection will be of interest to researchers, scholars, and post-graduate students in the fields of teacher education, sociology of education, and educational leadership.
Download or read book A Look Inside written by Stacy L. Casper and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this multifaceted research project, the author examines and identifies factors that inhibit the school performance of students at the low end of the achievement gap. The literature review examines the environments from which many academic underachieving students come and establishes a correlation between the circumstances of students' lives and their achievement in school. In an effort to understand how the effects of live events inhibit academic performance in school, the author conducted research which consisted of three case studies of underachieving African-American students which included: personal interviews, documentation analysis, and informal observation. Additionally, four teachers were also interviewed to garner their perspectives on academic underachievement. The interviews were examined for correlating information and are presented as student and teacher mirrored perspectives. This study offers a good look at what is taking place in schools: what students and teachers are experiencing and seeing.
Download or read book What Do You Expect from this School written by Elizabeth Mukiibi and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Exploring Academic Achievement Among African American Students in a Predominately White Suburban High School written by Kandice Wilson Taylor and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This research study explored the academic achievement of African American high school students in a predominately White high achieving suburban high school. The grand tour research question guiding the qualitative study was based on how African American students at All American High School understood and accounted for individual academic achievement. The research literature categorized factors associated with academic achievement into external interpersonal factors associated with the student, internal school factors, and intrapersonal factors associated with the student. The data were collected using an open-ended questionnaire, face-to-face interviews, and researcher observations. Forty-five African American students completed the questionnaire. The in-depth interviewing technique was employed with eight African American students with proportional representation in each of the grade and achievement levels. The major conclusions from the research study were: (1) African American students isolated themselves into three peer groups. Achievement levels varied between the groups. The students identified the concept of isolation through "Acting White." (2) Competition with White students was a positive influence on student achievement and served as a motivation for students to achieve at higher levels. (3) Teachers' actions and disposition towards students served as a negative and a positive influence on the students' achievement. Teachers with high expectations were a positive influence on students' academic achievement. Teachers not establishing a positive relationship or making a connection through the students' interest were a negative influence on students' academic achievement. (4) Students with the higher grade point averages belonged to school sanctioned sports teams, organizations, and clubs. Students with low grade point averages did not participate in school sanctioned events and demonstrated no association with the school outside of their classes. (5) Students accepted ownership for their academic behavior and did not perceive teachers as the person accountable for their academic performance. These were factors that accounted for students' academic behavior. Recommendations were presented by the researcher for consideration and further discussion. -- Abstract.
Download or read book Blacked Out written by Signithia Fordham and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1996-03-13 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative portrait of student life in an urban high school focuses on the academic success of African-American students, exploring the symbolic role of academic achievement within the Black community and investigating the price students pay for attaining it. Signithia Fordham's richly detailed ethnography reveals a deeply rooted cultural system that favors egalitarianism and group cohesion over the individualistic, competitive demands of academic success and sheds new light on the sources of academic performance. She also details the ways in which the achievements of sucessful African-Americans are "blacked out" of the public imagination and negative images are reflected onto black adolescents. A self-proclaimed "native" anthropologist, she chronicles the struggle of African-American students to construct an identity suitable to themselves, their peers, and their families within an arena of colliding ideals. This long-overdue contribution is of crucial importance to educators, policymakers, and ethnographers.
Download or read book African American Students Experiences Achievement and Outcomes Examined Through the Lenses of Teacher Expectations Racial Congruence and Stereotype Threat written by Carla Postell and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The phenomenological study examined the retrospective perceptions of academic experiences and outcomes of 13 African American full or part-time college students enrolled in either a community college or university located in an urban area. For the purpose of this study, educational experiences are defined as self-reported academic achievements and perceived success levels attained by participants during high school. Academic outcomes are the self-reported academic achievement and success level attained at their colleges and universities. The researcher interviewed participants, using a one-on-one interview process to conduct the interviews. This study examined influences of race congruence between students and teachers. This topic was studied to determine if students find that being taught by a person who is of the same or different race influences their educational experiences and outcomes. African American college students' retrospective appraisal of the role that teacher expectations, teacher-student racial congruity, and stereotype threat played in their high school education, guided this study. Findings from the participant interviews produced four major themes: perceptions of teacher expectations, stereotypes, stereotype threat, and racial congruence. Examining this concept gives educators the opportunity to understand how African American students view their educational experiences and the role these theories play in students' academic outcomes. Results from the present study provide data to better understand the achievement gap and how to bring closure to the gap, helps educators and policymakers reset their perspectives and priorities as they relate to African American students, encourages and suggests the implementation of diversity training programs and curriculum as they relate to African American students, and reflects teacher expectations and perceptions of African American students. Recommendations for further research include: (a) examining how teacher expectations, racial congruence, and stereotype threat, as they relate to African American students, might be impacting the achhievement gap, (b) conducting a longitudinal research design to extend the study by following students throughout college to graduation to determine how racial congruence between instructors and students in college influenced their college outcomes, and (c) using a mixed-methods research design to study a multicultural group of students (e.g., Black, White, Hispanic, Asian) and teacher racial congruence.
Download or read book Every Closed Eye Ain t Sleep written by Teresa Hill and published by R&L Education. This book was released on 2011-07-16 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every Closed Eye Ain't Sleep: African American Perspectives on the Achievement Gap examines the origins and perpetuation of the achievement gap from the perspective of the African American community. Instead of accepting the achievement gap as an inevitable matter of fact, Every Closed Eye Ain't Sleep questions the fundamental beliefs that perpetuate the gap. Drawing on dialogue with African American community members, Teresa Hill advances a framework for understanding a predominant African American view of the educational process. She then juxtaposes this framework with the norms perpetrated by the educational establishment to demonstrate how disagreements about the roles and responsibilities of parents, teachers and students affect community members' experiences in schools. Every Closed Eye Ain't Sleep opens a dialogue about the achievement gap on different terms, analyzes the gap as an issue of social justice, and provides educational leaders and policymakers with ways to engage in the productive dialogue necessary to improve education for African American children.
Download or read book Perceptions of Teacher Expectations by African American Students and Teachers in Selected High Schools written by Beverley E. Pringle and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study revealed that teacher expectations are lower for African Americans than for non-African American students as perceived by African American students. Racial stereotyping has occurred in classrooms and in the schools. Teacher expectations that encourage high levels of academic achievement in African American students are relatively the same as those of exceptional teachers, regardless of the race or ethnicity of the students.
Download or read book Why Black Boys Fail in Public Schools written by Melvin Hitchens and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2009 with total page 126 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is one of a kind that speaks to the heart of the issues that face schools around the country - the plight of black boys. The author provides the reader with a clear view on why black boys fail in public schools. After reading the book, teachers, parents and the students are encouraged to know that with support, direction and encouragement black boys have the God- given potential to reach success. This book is unique because was designed to be in the student's hand in the classroom. This book can be used as a current textbook that provides insight to them about their struggle. So often teachers study the concerns of the students they serve, but there are few times when the student and teacher can study the issues together and later come up with possible solutions. This book offers such opportunities for the teacher and the student.
Download or read book Experiences of African American Students in Suburban High Schools with a Predominately European American Student Body written by Jill P. Johnson and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The broad focus for this research was to describe the culture of a high school comprised predominantly of European American students and its concomitant effects from the perspective of African American students. The principle issues guiding the research are the development and maintenance of a cultural identity in the presence of explicit and tacit attempts at acculturation. As this research project revealed, African American students who attend suburban high schools with a predominately White student population have distinct needs. Typically, African American students may experience isolation due to a lack of peers or adults that understand their cultural experience, most likely will experience racial harassment, and will receive little if any educational instruction regarding African American culture or heritage. All of these factors may affect the academic achievement and the emotional comfort of the students."--The Abstract, ii.
Download or read book Teacher African American Student Relationships written by Kathleen M. McGonigle and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This qualitative study examined suburban middle and high school teachers' perceptions of race as a factor of influence on their relationships with African American students. Data were collected from a survey of 54 Caucasian middle and high school teachers, interviews with 18 Caucasian middle and high school teachers, and two focus group discussions with eight African American high school teacher participants. The results indicated that the majority of Caucasian teachers (a) did not think about their race on a daily basis, (b) used a color-blind approach to interact with students, (c) believed that they enjoyed opportunities of favoritism living as a Caucasian person in the United States, and (d) had positive perceptions of African American students' academic and behavior potential. While limited in number of subjects, the focus group data indicated that race was an important factor in the teacher student relationship.
Download or read book Never Giving Up written by Marcus L. Arrington and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: K-12 schools in America's post-industrial urban centers are faced with the task of leading children to educational achievement and social development amid lingering social issues such as poverty, violence, and unemployment. Children in these metropolitan settings have the burden of pursuing goals and dreams in unfavorable and often dangerous social contexts. Theory and literature related to student achievement suggests that inner-city students benefit from hope. Few studies report the influence of hope from the perspective of students. The purpose of this research study was to examine the influence of hope in the lives of several urban African American high school students who attend a small urban public high school that serves predominantly marginalized African American youths. The related research question was: In what ways do students who attend THS experience hope? Subquestions related to student characteristics and school experience supported the formal research question. Phenomenological inquiry utilized the method of interviewing. Data were collected from 10 students, five boys and five girls. Each student participated in one interview. Interview questions were structured to gain insight into student perspectives of hope; life-goals; and experiences while attending the small urban public high school. Data analysis was guided by procedures endorsed by Miles and Huberman (1994). Findings and conclusions suggested that students in this study possessed hope-related characteristics such as determination, vision, and optimism. Findings and conclusions also revealed that students experienced hope through relationships with key individuals as well as access to institutions that featured critical resources helpful to their pursuit of life-goals. Another conclusion revealed that students attributed online learning and relationships with staff at the site school to their experience with hope. Though not emphasized in the literature, findings in this study suggested the need for school staff to provide and demonstrate frequent and noticeable care for students. This research study provided the site school with student reports of their enrollment experiences that could influence teacher-student interaction, administrator-teacher interaction, and school partnerships. By amplifying student voices, this study also contributed to the literature related to hope, achievement in urban education, and strategies for addressing the needs of marginalized youths.
Download or read book Black Students written by Gordon L. Berry and published by Corwin. This book was released on 1989-11 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are so many Black students prematurely leaving school? What factors can be attributed toward academic achievement of Black students? Should teachers be less concerned with curriculum content and more sensitive to the social and psychological needs during child development? The authors argue that academic achievement for Black students is influenced not only by circumstances found in the individual or family and school settings, but by a whole host of factors. Social and economic environments, the development of the self-concept, peer pressure, personal attributes such as resources, skills and motivation--these are a few of the many factors contributing towards a person's ability to achieve academically. Black Students brings together current research to address these factors from a variety of perspectives and covers the full educational cycle from kindergarten through the college years. The majority of past research on academic achievement of Black students has placed blame on the individual or credited failure toward an incapability to succeed. Berry and Asamen's mission is to shift away from this narrow perspective and to look more holistically at the issues. In addition the book provides some specific programmatic directions for enhancing the academic experiences of Black students. "The editors conceptualized and produced an important, informative, issue-oriented book with contributions by prestigious, involved scholars in education, the social sciences, and mental health. . . . Recommendations for policy and programmatic changes are included, along with directions for future research." --Choice "All in all, this book was well conceived and succeeds in its high ideals of offering a useful, womanlike contribution to the riddle of the causes of under achievement of black Americans and ultimately of all black people of the diaspora; intuitively understood by all who know anything of the history of their experience, but yet to be coherently deciphered." --Education Today "Informative and thought provoking. Berry and Asamen make the reader painfully aware of the many casualties and losses of black youth, particularly low income black youth within today's educational system. . . . [It] explores the societal factors that inhibit or can enhance the academic achievement of low income black students. Black Students affirmed some of my own beliefs and provided new information." --Association for Women in Psychology Newsletter "A book written by people who obviously care about Black education. Moreover, it is difficult to take exception to Berry's conclusion that Blacks need an educational system which offers equity and excellence." --British Educational Research Journal.
Download or read book Engagement in Change written by Nina Patricia Moore and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Evaluating Educational Supports from an African American High School Student Perspective written by Matthew T. Fallon and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this exploratory study was to build on research concerning African American student achievement. Despite theory/knowledge most often considering achievement itself, this study addressed a gap between such theory/knowledge amd the high school student perspective concerning academic interventions and supports directed toward African American youth. As such, this study addresses three questions: 1) Do male and female students differ in their evaluation of academic supports? 2) Does grade level impact which supports students idenitfy as effective? 3) Do students, identified as gifted, differ in their evaluation of supports from their peers? One hundred and ninety-four purposely selected African American high school students from one large comprehensive high school completed a confidential online survey. Using a Likert scale, they rated the degree to which various academic supports have been effective or helpful to their school success, ranging from "not at all" to completely." Applying descriptive,hypothesis and post hoc testing procedures, the data was analyzed overall and by sub-group of gender, grade level, and identification as gifted. Despite limited differences in grouping by gender and gifted identification, the student perspective was consistent overall concerning ratings of the academic supports available to them, such as the value provided by extracurricular opportunites, access to technology, and teachers who take a personal interest. The Freshman group most often differed with their peers e.g. in valuing "Teachers who are interested in you as a person," F(3,189)=5.54 p.
