Stereotype Threat and Academic Achievement Gap

November 29, 2012

A major issue in the school system that has impacted students' education and learning is the achievement gap. The achievement gap has been growing due to standardized test scores among different types of groups in schools. Due to the ranging test scores, an unconventional problem has appeared, and that is stereotype threat. According to an interview on PBS with Claude Steel, a social psychology professor, he describes stereotype threat as "the idea that students who belong to groups that have been negatively stereotyped are likely to perform less well in situations such as standardized tests when they feel they are being evaluated through the lens of that stereotype" (Steele, 1999). Factors such as socioeconomic status and racial differences play a major impact in these stereotypes because a certain group becomes familiarized with their status hence affecting their scores.

Richard Rothstein in his article, "The Achievement Gap", believes that the problems leading to lower academic achievement are "problems based on poverty that children bring with them to school and that influence their abilities to learn" (Rothstein, p. 362). A common misconception according to Rothstein is that "well-intentioned people blame the achievement gap on 'failing schools' (Rothstein, p. 362). A school should be an institution where students come together to learn skills and qualities that can help them grow as a person but if a school system is unable to equalize students due to poverty and test scores, the question lies in whether the school is doing its job or not.

The scores that students receive on standardized tests are often used to judge the achievements of both children and their schools; children with low-test scores are put on the remedial track (Janet Currie and Duncan Thomas, 1999). This is saying that scores have a major impact on how much an individual child has learned and in what direction their education is heading hence causing a separation between the smart and not-so smart students. Alfie Kohn says that according to research, standardized tests "tell us how big the students houses are. Research has repeatedly found that the amount of poverty in the communities where schools are located... account for the great majority in the difference in test scores from one area to the next" (Alfie Kohn, p. 4, 2000).

Bowles and Gintis argue that in order to "reproduce the labor force, the schools are destined to legitimate inequality, limit personal development to forms compatible with submission to arbitrary authority, and aid in the process whereby youth are resigned to their fate." In this case, standardized test scores aid in legitimizing inequality because test scores are being affected by the racial differences and socioeconomic status of a student's family hence increasing the achievement gap and maintaining the stereotype threat among students.

Another perspective is that Mary Heywood Metz, suggests the notion that the United States functions as a meritocracy, that "equality of opportunity, mostly through education, is a central tenet of our social and economic system." In other words, according to Metz, the United States school system obliging to merit is what measures students potential fairly and without bias. Metz would believe meritocracy in schools should help prevent stereotype threat because of the belief that schools offer equal opportunities for all types of students and that all students are judged based on merit and hard work and not factors such as poverty and socioeconomic status.

Bowles and Gintis believe that schools mirror social status by educating the students to fit into their social class (Bowles & Gintis, p. 40). What this means is that if a student comes from a poor family, he or she has fewer advantages hence less opportunity for better education; the opposite is for an advantaged student because he or she will have access to better schools. Due to differences in poor verses wealthier kids impacting their education variability, the achievement gap becomes greater and stereotype threat arises. Once the students are classified into groups such as the low status underachieving and higher-class overachieving students, this stereotype becomes a part of the students' mentality that prevents the desire for success in the future. "In a test taking situation, members of a stereotyped or otherwise devalued group are unable to perform up to their full potential due to a performance-inhibiting pressure not to fail" (Appel & Kronberger, 2012). Bowles and Gintis would say that the fear among students for doing well is the schools fault because schools are grouping the students into different categories for them to be judged and viewed. Rothstein has a similar view because he believes that "policy makers universally conclude that this gap must result from ineffective school policy and practice" (Rothstein, p. 368). The blame here is on the schools incapability to efficiently help students do better.

In particular ethnic groups, the underperformance has been a major concern. Especially, Black and Hispanic students compared to White and Asian students have been according to Jencks & Phillips (1998), obtaining lower scores on standardized tests (Jencks & Phillips, 1998). Recent research in these gaps "suggests that individuals may suffer negative performance outcomes (lower standardized test scores and less engagement with academics) because they are burdened by the prospect of confirming cultural stereotypes impugning their intellectual and academic abilities" (Good, Aronson, Inzlicht, 2003). Bowles and Gintis would agree that personal development is limited due to stereotyping because the pressure on particular ethnic groups has been focused on. If schools started convincing test takers that the test is not being used to measure abilities, this can improve performance and narrowing the race gap (Good et al. 2003).

Also another study was done and results showed that when socioeconomic identity is made noticeable before taking a test, low socio economic status students perform worse and have less self-esteem (Spencer & Castano, p. 418, 2007). So in this case, Bowles and Gintis would want schools to stop having students identify race and status on exams because that would help decrease the pressure and result in doing better in school. If this will increase scores, the stereotype threat will stop being a major problem and help the achievement gap come closer.

According to Spencer and Castano (2007), even though some people believe the achievement gap between low and high socioeconomic status students is because of resources, parental support, or lack of role models, others believe this underperformance