From the the lecture reading, describe three different factors that help to explain why poor and/or minority children suffer worse educational outcomes than do their class and race-privileged peers?
Transcribed Image Text: When the "teachers" had higher levels of implicit racial blas, their black (but not white) students scored more poorly on a history test
based on the lesson. Later, the researchers played recordings of the lessons to white students. Those who watched recorded lessons
originally presented to black students also did more poorly on the history test, suggesting that the quality of the lesson itself, and not the
student's aptitude, was to blame. Teachers who gave lectures to black students appeared more nervous, the researchers found, which
seemed to impair the quality of their lesson (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002210311530010X), 2016). Although the study didn't evaluate actual teachers, it does
suggest that student performance can be significantly influenced by the way that lessons are taught.
The discipline divide
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/cover-inequality-school
Inequality at school
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Racial blas doesn't just influence how teachers teach. Blas also affects whether and how they discipline students for misbehavior.
According to 2013-14 data collected by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, black K-12 students are 3.8 times as
likely as their white peers to receive one or more out-of-school suspensions.
And that's not necessarily because black students are causing more problems, Gregory notes. A variety of studies have found that even
after taking achievement, socioeconomic status, self-reported behavior and teacher-reported behavior into account, black students are
still punished disproportionately.
Transcribed Image Text: Evidence of Disparities
A variety of recent studies help to illustrate the differences in the ways black and white students experience a school day. Teachers
might be less likely to spot black students who excel academically, for instance. Using national data from the Early Childhood
Longitudinal Study, Sean Nicholson-Crotty, PhD, at Indiana University, and colleagues found black students were 54 percent less likely
than white students to be recommended for gifted-education programs, after adjusting for factors such as students' standardized test
scores. But black students were three times more likely to be referred for the programs If their teacher was black rather than white
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (http://jpart.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/04/16/jopart.muw024.abstract), 2016).
Such disparities might have something to do with teachers' expectations for students. Seth Gershenson, PhD, at American University,
and colleagues reported that when black and white teachers evaluate the same black student, white teachers are 12 percent less likely
to predict the student will finish high school, and 30 percent less likely to predict the student will graduate from college (Economics of
Education Review (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775715300959), 2016).
Teachers' expectations for themselves also come into play. In a series of studies, Rutgers University psychologist Kent Harber, PhD,
studied white middle-school and high-school teachers in mostly white, upper-middle-class districts and more diverse, working-class
districts in the northeastern United States. He found that when white teachers give feedback on a poorly written essay, they are more
critical if they think the author was a white student rather than a black one (Journal of Educational Psychology
(http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2012-10763-001/), 2012).
What's more, Harber can essentially turn that blas on or off by enhancing or allaying the teachers' concerns that they might appear
prejudiced. In other words, white Instructors might go easy on their black students in order to avoid appearing racist, if only in their own
minds. In their attempts to be egalitarian, however, they might avoid constructive criticism that would benefit black students.
Giving feedback is difficult for teachers in any circumstance, Harber points out. Teachers must strike a balance between being assertive
and respectful. "Add the issue of race and teachers might worry they're displaying a lack of racial sensitivity. That can tip the scale and
lead to a positive blas," Harber says.
White teachers' Implicit prejudices or stereotypes can also make them less effective when teaching black students, suggests a study by
Drew Jacoby-Senghor, PhD, at Columbia University, and colleagues. The researchers recruited white college students to prepare and
present a history lesson to either a white or a black student.