Improving Black Student Achievement

By Enhancing Student's Self Image

Foreword

The academic underachievement of minority students is documented by the large gap between standardized test scores of minority and majority students and by the continued high rate of suspension and dropout among Black and Hispanic teenagers. This underachievement of a large and growing segment of our population is nothing short of a national crisis.

By the year 2010, Blacks and Hispanics will comprise approximately 30 percent of our population. Labor force projections indicate a severe decline in the number of blue-collar jobs and a substantial increase in jobs that require high levels of technical skill. Given this economic picture, the crisis of underachieving minority students will become a central issue in determining our nationÆs economic survival. We can envision a large unemployed segment of the population and, simultaneously, a severe labor shortage in numerous highly skilled occupations. It is doubtful the United States can maintain world leadership under these conditions. As Americans and in our roles as educators, we must work together to ensure that equitable opportunities exist for all students. Minority children, like all children, should be given the opportunity to succeed.

Many factors have been cited for the underachievement of minority students, including economics, parents, community, and the environment. The Effective Schools Research makes it clear that whatever influence is exerted by these factors, schools can make a difference. Researchers who study effective schools have found schools serving lower-income neighborhoods where studentÆs performance on standardized tests is average or above. While we may not be able to control other variables, evidence indicates that schools can have a significant impact on the minority studentsÆ academic performance.

Researchers have outlined effective instructional strategies, as well as analyzed characteristics of effective school districts, school buildings, classrooms, and teachers. With this in mind, the Mid-Atlantic Equity Center has designed this publication series to address essential characteristics of effective instruction identified by these researchers, including:

  1. Learning to Persist/Persisting to Learn:teaching students to persist in their learning;
  2. Cross-Cultural Communication: An Essential Dimension of Effective Education: understanding cultural diversity and its importance in the classroom;
  3. Improving Black Student Achievement by Enhancing StudentsÆ Self-Image: helping Black students to build positive academic self-concepts; and
  4. Effective Schools for National Origin Language Minority Students: describing educational policies and practices which are effective with national origin students.

Learning to Persist/Persisting to Learn, the first in the series, assists teachers in improving the academic self-concept of minority students by helping teachers to: (1) understand why some students fail to successfully complete a task; (2) identify nonpersisting students; and (3) pinpoint curriculum and instructional strategies that can help students learn to persist. Persistence is a learned behavior, and students from lower-income families are more likely that their middle-income counterparts to observe adults who lack control of their environment and to view luck or chance as a more significant factor in success that effort or persistence. This publication helps educators teach students to cope with adversity and to persist in the successful completion of a task.

Cross-Cultural Communication: An Essential Dimension of Effective Education discusses cultural differences that can lead to communication problems in the classroom and suggests behaviors that affirm rather than devalue a minority studentÆs culture. Since our educational institutions tend to reflect the norms and values of the majority culture, cultural misunderstandings often have a negative effect on a minority studentÆs academic performance. This booklet assists teachers to recognize and utilize student diversity in ways that enhance academic identity.

Improving Black Student Achievement By Enhancing StudentsÆ Self-Image helps teachers to better understand the factors that contribute to a positive self-image for Black students and to design and implement instructional strategies that will enhance Black studentsÆ academic self-concept. While a positive academic identity is important for all students, it is a particularly critical issue for underachieving Black students.

Effective Schools for National Origin Language Minority Students provides highlights from a re-analysis of the effective schools literature, focusing on only those effective schools which achieved grade-level success with low-income and minority students over several years. Recent immigrants and children of immigrants, limited-English-proficient, and culturally diverse students have entered American schools in steadily increasing numbers over the past decade. Many schools have not been able to accept the challenge of change necessary to better serve these students, who frequently do not fit easily into the ôtraditionalö classroom. Although the effective schools literature has produced a formula for change, this formula has not focused on what works for national origin language minority children. This publication reconsiders the effective schools research in its application to these students. In particular, policies and practices which have been shown to be effective with national origin children are discussed. Descriptions of effective schools serving national origin language minority students are detailed.

Sheryl Denbo, Ph.D., Executive Director
The Mid-Atlantic Equity Center

Acknowledgments

This publication represents the collaborative efforts of numerous individuals. I wish to extend my appreciation to the following individuals for their review of and contributions to this work: Francena Cummings, Carolyn Douglas, Jill Moss Greenberg, Joyce Kaser, Carolyn Kingsley, Margaret LaRocca, Julie Marshall, Susan Shaffer, Warren Simmons, Constance Tate, and Jacqueline Zakrewsky. I would also like to thank Julee Dickerson-Thompson for the artwork, and Kathy Lyon for the layout and design.

Sheryl Denbo, Ph.D., Executive Director
The Mid-Atlantic Equity Center

How to Get the Most from this Publication

All educators should strive to bring out the best in all students. This requires that they be prepared to give their best. This publication can facilitate your personal and professional growth and help you bring out the best in countless children and youth.

The following tips will help you to get the most from the information provided:

Finally, after you have done all of the above, read this publication again in a few months. It will mean more to you after you have put it to practical use. Good luck!

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