Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Closing the Black-White Achievement Gap: Strategies for Michigan Connections Academy
achievement gap between African American and White students, as evidenced by state test scores.
As a school we want all students to be able to succeed, and it is a concern that a specific group of
students is struggling to reach proficiency. Thankfully, this gap is not impossible to close, and it
all begins with shifting our school's attitudes and actions about culture, gifted students, and
mastery. Once teachers become educated on the cultures of their students, edit the gifted and
talented policy to bring in a greater diversity of students, and focus on mastery more than
performance, the achievement gap between African American and White students can close.
In order to begin closing the gap between African American and White students at our
school, teachers need to become more educated on the culture of our African American students.
The vast majority of our staff is White, but about 16% of our student population is African
American (Great Schools, n.d.). According to Carter (2013), teachers are less effective at engaging
students when there is a difference in social background because most teachers are unable to grasp
their students' realities. MICA should provide teachers with professional development in order to
educate us on the cultures of minority students in our school, especially those of African American
students, so that we are better able to cultivate relationships and mutual understanding. This will
also enable us to understand how their culture influences their educational needs and how we can
differentiate instruction and improve achievement. These changes are important because these
students can have a cultural mismatch with their curriculums which produce negative effects.
According to Carter (2013), minority students are more likely to become bored and underachieve
when their curriculum ignores their heritage and teaches from a White cultural viewpoint that they
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often cannot relate to. Armed with new knowledge, teachers at MICA could add lesson
modifications, extra resources, and LiveLesson content to incorporate the cultures of all students
in our school to increase engagement and achievement. These actions will make MICA a more
inclusive and culturally responsive school where students of all backgrounds feel important,
understood, and engaged, closing the achievement gap between ethnic groups.
Another strategy for addressing the achievement gap between African American and White
students is to reevaluate MICA's gifted and talented policy to include more students of color.
Studies show that across the country White and Asian students make up a disproportionately large
percentage of students in gifted, honors, and AP courses, while other ethnic groups are
underrepresented (Tyson, 2013). Students who are given a more challenging curriculum typically
perform better academically, so if "minority students and White students are not exposed to the
same learning opportunities, racial gaps in achievement on standardized tests will follow," (Tyson,
2013, p. 176). If the statistic holds true at MICA that White students are overrepresented and
African American students are underrepresented in our GT courses, this imbalance is a contributor
to the gap in student achievement. As a staff we need to analyze the ethnic makeup of our GT
classes and make necessary changes to equalize it. Adding more African American students will
increase their achievement and contribute to closing the achievement gap between them and White
students, as evidenced by the results from an elementary school in Durham, North Carolina.
According to Tyson (2013), this school added more African American students to their GT
program and created a "guest" GT program to expose more students to the challenging curriculum.
As a result, passage rates on the end-of-year test increased and the achievement gap between
African American and White students was narrowed over time, and even disappeared in one cohort
after just three years. If more African American students are enrolled in GT courses, I am hopeful
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that our school will experience increased success, too; however, we must come up with a plan for
At MICA the process for identifying GT students is highly reliant on learning coach and
teacher recommendations, which can lead to missed opportunities for African American students
due to unintentional bias. In a study conducted by David Card and Laura Giuliano in Broward
County Schools in Florida, it was discovered that high-ability Black and Hispanic students, as well
as English language learners, were less likely to be referred by parents and teachers for I.Q. testing
in order to enter GT programs (Dynarski, 2016). There are many potential causes of this. "Teachers
may have lower expectations for these children, and their parents may be unfamiliar with the
process and the programs. Whatever the reason, the evidence indicates that relying on teachers and
parents increases racial and ethnic disparities," (Dynarski, 2016). Training teachers to properly
identify gifted students and be aware of their own unintentional biases could help increase the
number of all students, including African Americans, in GT courses, but that is not enough -- at
MICA we need to develop a screening program that does not rely so heavily on teachers and
In the fall, winter, and spring of each school year, all students take Measures of Academic
Progress (MAP) tests in math and reading, and the results can be a helpful tool for identifying
gifted students, but I would further recommend we add more data to support or encourage teacher
and parent referrals. According to Dynarski (2016), Broward County Schools in Florida found
success when they required all second graders to undergo universal screening with a short
nonverbal test; students with high scores were referred for I.Q. testing to see if they qualified for
the district's gifted program. Due to this screening and further I.Q. testing, Broward County was
able to double the number of Black and Hispanic students identified as gifted. MAP testing
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provides us with data about our students, but perhaps the school could take it a step further and
choose (or add) a different test, such as an I.Q. test, that would be even more helpful for identifying
gifted students, testing additional knowledge and skills outside of just their math and reading
abilities. By identifying a more diverse group of students as gifted we will shift the culture of our
school toward equality and reduce the achievement gap between ethnicities.
Another large shift of school and classroom culture that needs to take place is an emphasis
on mastery-based goals instead of performance-based goals. Throughout this past school year we
have focused professional development time on visual learning where students observe where they
are now, where they want to go, and how they will get there. Homeroom teachers ask students to
set goals during each biweekly call that focus on this process; however, these goals are not
necessarily mastery-based. Many students, teachers, and learning coaches focus on performance
(earning a certain letter grade or percentage), but this emphasis can lead to self-handicapping
ahead to create circumstances that would cause them to underperform on a school task in order to
avoid the appearance of being incapable or dumb. Instead of a student's academic abilities being
to blame, they can point the blame at something else, such as staying up late the night before a test
It may appear on the outside that these students do not care about school, but it is actually
the desire to appear independent, capable, and successful that drives their behavior to purposefully
fail. "If the possibility exists that their failings will be attributed to their innate qualities over which
they have no control, then they will create circumstances they can control to shift attention
elsewhere," (Toshalis, 2015, p. 127). Students with lower achievement are more likely to self-
handicap and direct the causes of their performance away from their abilities, leading them into a
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cycle of lower achievement and more self-handicapping behaviors (Toshalis, 2015). It can be
assumed with the achievement gap between African American students and White students that
many lower-achieving African American students are likely to self-handicap and continue the
cycle, increasing the achievement gap; however, self-handicapping behaviors of all students can
be reduced by focusing less on performance and more on mastery. According to Toshalis (2015),
in schools where students feel they are being assessed for their progress, growth, effort, and
mastery, they are less likely to self-handicap than if they feel they are judged by their abilities
compared to other students. When schools and students focus on demonstrating learning, students
worry that mistakes and failure are indicators of their ability. As a staff we need to work to shift
our focus, as well as the focus of our students and learning coaches, toward students developing
their academic knowledge over time through learning from mistakes and making progress toward
mastery goals. As all students feel this shift they will reduce self-handicapping behaviors, increase
The solutions I have suggested here are not the only strategies that can be used to address
the achievement gap between African American students and White students, but they are a great
place to start. Closing the gap begins with bringing it to the attention of the staff, shifting our
professional development to learn about our students' cultures, edit our gifted and talented policy
to bring more African American students in, and focus as a school on mastery instead of
performance. If we work together to actively tackle this gap, we can help all students reach their
full potential.
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References
Carter, P.I. (2013). Student and school cultures and the opportunity gap: Paying attention to
the opportunity gap: What America must do to give every child an even chance (pp. 143-
Dynarski, S. (2016, April 8). Why talented black and Hispanic students can go undiscovered.
talented-black-and-hispanic-students-can-go-undiscovered.html?_r=0
Great Schools (n.d.). Michigan Connections Academy School Profile. Retrieved June 30, 2016
from http://www.greatschools.org/michigan/okemos/9053-Michigan-Connections-
Academy/details/#Students
Toshalis, E. (2015). Make me! Understanding and engaging student resistance in school.
Tyson, K. (2013). Tracking, segregation, and the opportunity gap: What we know and why it
matters. In P. L. Carter & K. G. Welner (Eds.), Closing the opportunity gap: What
America must do to give every child an even chance (pp. 169-180). New York: NY: