Naima Shirdon, M.A.
Doctoral Student
Graduate Research Associate
School Psychology Program
CRANE Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy
The Ohio State University
n.shirdon@gmail.com
The racial achievement gap, particularly as it relates to the discrepancy in the academic performance of Black students and White students, has received much attention in the past decades. This phenomenon has spurred researchers to investigate why the achievement gap exists. While research has highlighted many contributing factors that perpetuate the racial gap—including socioeconomic disadvantage, discrimination and segregation (Steele & Aronson, 1995)—another aspect that has gained significant consideration is the stereotype threat. When an individual is a part of a group that has negative stereotypes associated with it, certain situations may activate this stereotype, causing the individual to become concerned about being judged by the stereotype and subsequently hindering their academic performance (Steele & Aronson, 1995). Through a series of studies, Steele and Aronson (1995) were able to confirm the existence of stereotype threat and its adverse impact on the performance of African American students. Given the fact that school psychologists occupy a unique role within schools, supporting both student learning and quality teacher instruction, they are in an optimal position to encourage discussions among staff about how to works towards reducing the racial achievement gap. It is important to present the information about stereotype threat to school staff—teachers and administrators alike—so that they gain a comprehensive picture of what this phenomenon entails and what can be done to remedy its effects. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide school psychologists with the tools to better understand the nature of stereotype threat, allowing them to support efforts to combat it and further gain the support of school staff in the process. This will be achieved by exploring the ease with which stereotype threat is activated within students, the understanding that addressing the stereotype threat alone will not solve the racial gap and finally highlighting an evidence-based intervention which targeted the phenomenon and yielded beneficial gains in the performance of African American students.
Beyond affirming the existence of stereotype threat and its impact on African Americans, the studies conducted by Steele and Aronson (1995), which utilized GRE questions to assess Black and White college students, also displayed the prevalence and ease with which these stereotypes become salient. In their two initial studies, the stereotype condition was characterized by classifying the test to be taken by the students as a being a measure of intellectual ability (referred to as the diagnostic condition). It is notable that the combination of these studies gave evidence to support that Black students in the diagnostic condition underachieved in relation to their White counterparts but did not underachieve in this way in the non-diagnostic condition (Steele & Aronson, 1995). A subsequent elaboration on the diagnostic condition gives the reader an understanding of the magnitude of the stereotype threat and the ease of its arrival. Steele and Aronson (2004) stated that it is the diagnostic condition—and not the non-diagnostic condition—that is more representative of generating differences that are akin to real-life test situations. When a student takes a test, they understand that its main purpose is to assess their ability in the subject matter. If the situation is evaluated through this lens, one can potentially reevaluate testing within schools overall and could call into question whether or not stereotype threat permeates testing as a whole.
Additionally, beyond the potential prevalence of stereotype threat, the fourth study of Steele and Aronson (1995) showcased the ease of activating and being affected by stereotype threat. Even without the test diagnosticity factor, simply making the negative stereotype salient was sufficient to hinder African American performance. This study was significant because it removed a previous element that was linked to stereotype threat in the three preceding studies (test diagnosticity) and showed that even by removing this element and keeping others (race-priming), stereotype threat still surfaced in Black students. Moreover, for stereotype threat to occur, the student must be aware of the negative stereotype for it to have an effect. This raises the question, how do individuals unknowingly advance this notion? As we know, people gain their sense of self-adequacy partly due to how others perceive them. As such, negativity from classroom teachers may play a part in students affirming the negative stereotype. A teacher in an urban school setting working with middle-school students who are largely African American made a remark to another colleague that she already knew which students would fail. She insisted this was the case within the classroom and students may have overheard her remark. Such negativity bleeds into the classroom and helps those students form a picture of themselves, namely that they are failures who cannot perform successfully. Even though the disparaging remarks of the teacher are devoid of race, it is a connection that the students may surely make.
This notion of the negative stereotype can then be exacerbated through different mediums. For example, black children may often encounter depictions of white children on the television who are successful, knowledgeable and inquisitive. It is significant to note that there is a lack of Black children with these same characteristics on television. Studies examining the connection between TV and self-esteem have concluded that TV helps raise the self-esteem of young white males the most and young African American males the least. Sometimes constructing an identity of oneself and developing notions on race is as much about what you see in your surroundings as it is about what you do not see. When one considers both the prevalence and ease of adopting stereotype threat, it is understood that this cannot continue to go unnoticed. School psychologists have a responsibility to acknowledge this phenomenon, support efforts to help to ensure that their fellow colleagues (teachers and administrators alike) are aware of it, and help to implement practical solutions. However, this begins with having the proper understanding of stereotype threat and not misinterpreting it as many others have done.
Gaining a comprehensive picture of what stereotype threat is also involves a precursory understanding of what stereotype threat is not. It is perhaps tempting to use this phenomenon to explain away the racial achievement gap; however, this would be an erroneous assumption. Following a review of popular media, scientific journals and psychology textbooks, Sackett, Hardison, and Cullem (2004b) uncovered that many misinterpret Steele and Aronson (1995) to mean that stereotype threat is the main cause for differences in tests scores, and if it were not present, scores between Black and White students would be commensurate. The significance of this error lies in the possibility of decision makers internalizing this understanding and making subsequent decisions based on it. Sackett et al. (2004a) offer that a misinterpretation could lead an individual to principally focus on alleviating stereotype threat and putting less stock in research and interventions that are geared towards other aspects besides the stereotype threat that contribute to the racial gap. If school professionals potentially view stereotype threat as the key to unlocking the racial gap issue, their expectations as to what interventions that target stereotype threat can achieve will be unrealistic.
Furthermore, if results, such that they are expecting, are not evident in an intervention (e.g., a drastic increase in the performance of African American that becomes comparable with their White counterparts), school professionals may choose to abandon these interventions in light of their high expectations. This is reminiscent of a phenomenon in special education: the discrepancy model. The discrepancy model holds that if a child has a 30-point discrepancy between their IQ and achievement scores, they may be eligible for a specific learning disability diagnosis. Though this has been proven to lack evidence to support it, it is still practiced today. Thus, practitioners, perhaps due to a misunderstanding of research, are adhering to erroneous practices that can adversely affect students. This highlights the need for having a sound understanding of relevant research that may inform practice and lends support to the notion that stereotype threat should be accurately understood. School psychologists are in a unique position to convey relevant information on stereotype threat to school staff, serving to bridge the gap between research and practice. When school professionals acknowledge that addressing stereotype threat is a part of the solution and not necessarily the solution itself, they will be able to conceptualize it in a more realistic manner, become patient with results as the expectations would be more realistic and continue to uphold efforts that are geared towards alleviating other factors that contribute to the racial achievement gap.
School psychologists are not tasked with simply presenting theoretical research to school staff, rather they are to present research that has practical applications, contributing to effective teaching practices and data-based decision-making. Simply having the knowledge of the risks that stereotype threat poses for students would not be sufficient for school professionals to take action and lend their support to efforts that would overturn this process. Being able to present an evidence-based intervention that has been implemented, effectively hindered the influence of stereotype threat and shown beneficial effects upon African American performance would potentially sway school professionals to implement a similar intervention in their districts. One such intervention sought to mitigate the impact of stereotype threat through students confirming their sense of self-integrity (Cohen, Garcia, Apfel, & Master, 2006). The intervention involved students in the treatment group regularly engaging in a 15-minute writing activity wherein they recorded what their most important values were and were made to write a paragraph as to why this was the case. As for African American students in the treatment group, their transcripts demonstrated that their grades improved and more significantly they reflected a 40% reduction in the racial achievement gap (Cohen et al., 2006). Furthermore, a second intervention sought to chart the performance trajectory of the students in the study. Ultimately, Cohen and colleagues (Cohen et al., 2006) reported that the data for Black students in the treatment group illustrated that the writing activity served as a protective factor against experiencing an early decline in performance; this was the case for Black students in the control group who faced a downward trend in performance (Cohen et al., 2006).
Beyond the fact that this intervention was successful, what makes it significant is the small amount of time it took within the classroom (15 minutes). Often interventions are not carried out with fidelity because they require too much time and effort from the teacher, often time that he/she does not have. Another aspect that points to the practicality of this intervention is not only does the intervention merely require 15 minutes, but it is also a simple and repetitive action on the part of the teacher that does not require pre-planning or data collection. These two factors are additional barriers for teachers. When I was completing a consultation case in an urban school setting, I was working with a music teacher. As the teacher only interacted with her students once a week, it was increasingly difficult to implement the intervention due to the small amount of time that she had with the students. She mentioned this concern in the initial consultations, and I imagine that this played a part in her not following through with the intervention with fidelity. In retrospect, if I was able to provide her with an intervention that took these concerns into account and perhaps implemented the intervention on a smaller scale, it could have been more successful. When administrators advance initiatives and interventions, it is important for them to have a complete picture of what this will require of their staff. Due to the short amount of time required, the lack of any significant pre-planning or post-follow-up for teachers, and ultimately the effectiveness of the intervention advanced by Cohen et al. (2006), this is an intervention that school psychologists could advance when engaging in a plan of action to effectively fight against stereotype threat.
Conversations about stereotype threat should not be limited to theoretical discussions and an exchange between researchers, rather as stereotype threat presents a clear risk to the performance of African American achievement and contributes to the racial achievement gap, tangible solutions must be pursued. As school psychologists are uniquely placed in schools and foster relationships with both teachers and principals, they may be best suited to offer insights on the comprehensive nature of the problem and potential solutions. As such, this paper has outlined ways in which to portray the research on stereotype threat in a way that it is made salient to school professionals. This paper has done so using the following arguments: firstly, by illustrating the ease and potential prevalence of stereotype threat, secondly by contextualizing the stereotype threat problem and understanding that it is a part of the answer – and not the answer – to racial gap and finally by way of presenting an evidence-based intervention that can easily be incorporated by teachers within schools in a non-intrusive fashion. The presence of literature which confirms this harmful psychological process of stereotype threat impedes the performance of African American students should be sufficient for school professionals to lend an ear to information that further elaborates and clarifies the phenomenon. Fortunately, we have not only the confirmation of its existence but proven interventions that help circumvent this process. School psychologists are encouraged to disseminate this information and utilize it to gain support for further initiatives that will help alleviate this phenomenon in their schools.
References
Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. L. (2006). A self-affirmation intervention to reduce the racial achievement gap. Science, 313, 1307–1310.
Sackett, P. R., Hardison, C. M., & Cullen, M. J. (2004a). On interpreting stereotype threat as accounting for black-white differences on cognitive tests. American Psychologist, 59(1), 7-13.
Sackett, P. R., Hardison, C. M., & Cullen, M. J. (2004b). On the value of correcting mischaracterizations of stereotype threat research. American Psychologist, 59(1), 48-49.
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 797–811.
Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (2004). Stereotype threat does not live by Steele and Aronson (1995) alone. American Psychologist, 59(1), 47-48.
Naima Shirdon, MA., is a fourth year doctoral student in School Psychology at The Ohio State University. She believes in the transformative power of education and has worked to create meaningful outcomes as an early literacy specialist in low-income communities, as a Writing Center and Writing across the Curriculum consultant at OSU – supporting the writing practices of students and instructors respectively, and most recently as a Graduate Research Associate – conducting research related to social-emotional competence in diverse communities. She has extended her community efforts through creating the Somali Literacy Project (http://thesomaliliteracyproject.com/), which seeks to raise awareness about education and child development within the Somali community. Along with culturally responsive teaching and practice, her research interests also include early intervention, social-emotional competence, and autism.