In the biology course, students were separated into different groups based on their status (FG, URM, majority, CG) and were given either a UV intervention (what relevance the course material had to their life) or a control assignment (summarize course material). A VA intervention was also used (writing about personal values).

• usually, the majority students performed better than URM students, possibly because of a higher confidence based on past performance and encouragement
• the UV intervention helped improve course performance and grades for URM students compared to control students and especially for URM-FG students in the intervention group compared to the control group
• there was no effect on the UV intervention for solely FG students (who came from majority backgrounds)
• the VA intervention had no discernable effect

The UV intervention gave URM and URM-FG students motivation to engage with the course material by making it relevant to their goals, in contrast with FG-majority students who were worried about their identity and belonging in college to be concerned with the classes and how learning from them would affect their goals.