There are three assumptions made at the beginning of the study:
- People are motivated to maintain self-integrity
- Group memberships are an important aspect of self-integrity, so negative group characterizations can be a threat to self-integrity
- If a psychological threat is too severe, it can undermine performance

- On average, African Americans' stress levels in the academic setting are raised to a crippling level, which can hinder performance because of the psychological threat associated with the negative stereotype regarding the intelligence of their race. 
- People in minority groups might worry that performing poorly could confirm the negative stereotype of their minority group, which can create chronic stress.

Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention- Introduction

These pre-conditions were required to successfully conduct the study:
- Schools have the proper materials, social, and psychological resources to allow for these positive academic results.
- Students must have the skills needed to perform significantly better.

Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention- Pre-conditions

This double-blind, field experiment consisted of over 200 seventh-grade students, who were taking the same class subject, ranging from lower-middle-class families to middle-class families. Half of the students were African Americans, and half were European Americans. This experiment took place at the beginning of the fall semester when evaluative stress is assumed to be high. Students in the class were assigned to either be in the control group, or the treatment (affirmation) group, and all students were given an exercise to complete individually and silently. The exercise contained a list of (personal) values (such as being good at drawing), and the students in the affirmation group were instructed to indicate their most important value, while students in the control group were instructed to indicate their least important value. The students in the treatment (affirmation) group then wrote a paragraph indicating why their chosen value is important to them. The students in the control group also wrote a paragraph but indicated why the chosen value might be important to someone else. Finally, students in the treatment group indicated their level of agreement with the statement "I care about these values", while students in the control group indicated their level of agreement with the statement "some people care about these values" (Cohen, 2006). The data from this experiment was combined with data from a replicative study, the only difference being how many values the student indicated. 

Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention- Procedure

African American students in the treatment (affirmation) condition earned a higher fall-term GPA in the targeted course, compared to those in the control condition, where there was no effect on performance. The affirmation treatment proved to be equally as effective for poor and moderate performing students but was not as effective for high performing students. The impact of the treatment benefited almost 70% of African American students in the study. The average performance gap between African American and European American students in this study was a .75 grade point difference, for the fall term in the targeted course. The treatment effect for African American students in the affirmation group was .26 grade points (in study 1), and the chance of observing two effects of this magnitude by chance is 1 in 5000. The treatment effect lowered this racial achievement gap by 40% in the targeted course. The rate of poor performance, in the targeted course, amongst African American students in the control group was 20%, while it was 9% in the treatment group. Because of these effects, the effect on overall GPA was virtually as significant as it was on the grade in the targeted course (P < .02). There was no treatment effect for European Americans and no variance between condition groups.


Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention- Findings

This study demonstrates how psychological threats and poor academic performance are related and build off of each other. The findings show that diminishing psychological threat based on race can positively impact academic achievement in the targeted minority group, while not hindering the performance of the non-targeted group. Just as psychological threats can be a catalyst for the cycle of poor performance, a reduction in psychological threats can be a catalyst for the cycle of improving performance. The treatment in this study can create an accumulation of smaller improvements that can turn into a larger improvement on the student as a whole. The researchers concluded that the treatment of affirmation reduced the psychological availability of stereotypes in the targeted students' minds, which can lead to a change in African American students' views about academic success and defeat in the long run.

Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention- Conclusion

The goal of this study is to improve minority students' performance and to better understand how psychological threats can undermine self-integrity, leading to poor academic performance. Researchers tested whether psychological threats can be lessened by reaffirming self-integrity, thus improving academic performance amongst negatively stereotyped minority students. 

San Jose State University

University of Georgia

Persistent and significant gaps in academic performance and/or educational attainment between white and minority students.

Race Achievement Gap

The achievement gap is a persistent disparity in academic outcomes, such as grades, test scores, and graduation rates, observed among students from different demographic groups. These groups are often defined by ethnicity, race, and, in certain subjects, gender.

Definition of the Achievement Gap in Education

Cohen, G. L., Apfel, N., Garcia, J., & Master, A. (2006). Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention. Science, 313(5791), 1307-1310. DOI:10.1126/science.1128317

Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention

This article focusses on research about racial and ethnic patterns in school sanctions and considers how disciplinary practices might contribute to achievement among students of color (focussed on Black, Latino and American Indian students). 

Discipline Gap and the Race Achievement Gap 

There is a statistically significant difference that can be labeled the racial achievement gap between white and African-American students. Whether it is the graduation rate of high schools or standardized test scores, the educational outcomes tend to be in favor of white students. This article suggests that part of the reason for this achievement gap is that the intervention from teachers for struggling students tends to be in favor of white students while African-American students are rarely noticed. 

Politics of the Black-White Achievement Gap

This study examined whether having African-American student (seventh to eighth grade), write essays affirming their personal values, improves their academic performance. These subtle interventions would lessen minority students' psychological threat related to being negatively sterotyped in school. 
Ending results show that over 2 years, the grade point average of African Americans was on average, raised by .24 grade points, and those who were low-achieving, benefited the most, improving their average .41 points. 

Recursive Processes in Self-Affirmation: Intervening to Close the Minority Achievement Gap 

Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention- Goals of Study

- The study analyzed underrepresented racial minority students (URM)'s grades over 2 years in comparison to white/asian students 
- They found that a multicultural approach to diversity ideologies help to improve URMs grades (and does not affect white/asian students), and thus helps to close the racial achievement gap 
- main takeaway-colleges cannot simply acknowledge diversity and inclusion-the specific way that they go about it matters 

multiculturalism vs colorblind diversity ideology-reducing the racial achievement gap 

One research study looked at the different kinds of achievement gaps that were present in science classes, such as gender and minority gaps. A sample of students were studied based on their demographic (gender, ethnicity, SES). Through an assessment that involved testing students based on their knowledge of physics, biology, chemistry, and earth science, this study tried to identify the how and why behind these achievement gaps and to see if teacher involvement could mitigate said gaps. 

Gender and Minority Achievement Gaps in Science in Eighth Grade- Summary

Growing concern surrounding the framing of the "achievement gap" stems from the unintended consequences that result from the use of the term. In the context of race, it can imply that white achievement is the norm. It also focuses on student performance rather than on structures of racial inequality, and thus may lead to perpetuation of racial stereotypes regarding intellect/work ethic. This framing may lead people to deprioritize the issue of the achievement gap, as well as to short-term solutions that do not target the root of the problem, due to framing effects associated with the term.

Issues with language in context of Racial Achievement Gap

Using OLS and regression models, Xu & Jaggars found that students' performance and persistence in online courses were overall worse in comparison to in-person classes. Data analysis of students enrolled at Washington State (p=40,000) found that:
- Previously existing disparities and achievement gaps found between student subgroups were exacerbated; students that were male, African American, or low-performing would continue to perform worse in an online setting.
- The degree of difference in performance varied by major, with some majors (i.e English) being more negatively impacted by being online when compared to other majors (i.e natural sciences)

Online vs In-Person Learning - Xu & Jaggars

STEM faculty who believe ability is fixed have larger racial achievement gaps and inspire less student motivation in their classes

This paper looks at the problematic trend of students that come from underrepresented minorities (URM) or are a first-generation college student (FG) who tend to give up on courses of science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM). It then goes on to explain not only the factors that lead to a lack of motivation in succeeding in these classes but potential interventions that could mitigate these problems, leading to success. The research study discussed in this article looks at how these interventions are used in a biology course with students of various backgrounds (minority, majority, first-generation or not, and combinations of both racial and social backgrounds) to see what the results are (in the form of class grades) from using the interventions to address lack of motivation.

Closing Gaps with A Utility-Value Intervention: Disentangling Race and Social Class

This study looked to see if having a teacher with the same race would positively impact student growth and achievement in the classroom for math and reading

The effect of own-race teachers on student achievement study 

Goal-setting intervention decreases the gap between ethnic minorities and majorities. 

The effects of goal-setting on the ethnic minority achievement gap 

- This study looked at the impact of spacing and self-testing on final student outcomes for both URM and non-URM students
- URMs were less likely to employ self-testing which might contribute to the achievement gap 
- The intervention helped to close the self-testing gap for URMs in one of the years that they completed the study 
- Reported self-testing and spacing did better, but especially those who continued to use the practice over the entire course period, meaning that these techniques need to be consistently practiced 


Spacing and Self-testing impact on URM students study

Social identity threat’s contribution to racial achievement gaps in schools depends on the context of the school. For high-potential-threat-context schools, the effect of social identity threat is about 12.5%. This means that social identity threat makes up significant portion of the reason for a race achievement gap in high-potential-threat-context schools.

Social Identity Threat and Race Achievement Gap Relationship

Marginalized students were found to have lower GPAs in high-potential-threat-context schools than their counterparts in low-potential-threat-context schools. 

Race Achievement Gaps Between School Contexts

A variety of socio-economical variables may not be properly taken into consideration, or accounted for in intervention based studies. More specifically, these variables affect both the teacher, the target student population, and the surrounding/incidental student population. These variables may be:
- Ethnicity
- Gender
- Location

Confounding Effects in Intervention Studies

Käser, T., Hallinen, N. R., &amp; Schwartz, D. L. (2017). Modeling exploration strategies to predict student performance within a learning environment and beyond. Proceedings of the Seventh International Learning Analytics &amp; Knowledge Conference. doi:10.1145/3027385.3027422

Modeling Exploration Strategies to Predict Student
Performance within a Learning Environment and Beyond

- "Reducing the Racial Achievement Gap: A Social-Psychological Intervention" by Geoffrey L Cohen, Nancy Apfel, Julio Garcia, and Allison Master (2006)
- "Modeling Exploration Strategies to Predict Student Performance within a Learning Environment and Beyond" by Käser, T., Hallinen, N. R., & Schwartz, D. L. (2017)
- Matthew Effects in Education and Culture. The Matthew effect: How advantage begets further advantage. by Rigney, D. (2010). 
- "The Achievement Gap and the Discipline Gap: Two Sides of the Same Coin?" by Gregory, Anne & Skiba, Russell & Noguera, Pedro (2010)
- "Latino English Language Learners: Bridging Achievement and Cultural Gaps Between Schools and Families." by Good, M. E., Masewicz, S., & Vogel, L. (2010). 
- "Multicultural Education." Great School Partnership. (2013)
- A diversity ideology intervention: Multiculturalism reduces the racial achievement gap. by Birnbaum, H. J., Stephens, N. M., Townsend, S. S., & Hamedani, M. G. (2020). 
- "Reducing the Gender Achievement Gap in College Science: A Classroom Study of Values Affirmation" by Miyake, A., Kost-Smith, L.E., Finkelstein, N.D., Pollock, S.J., Cohen, G.L.,
- Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
- Outliers by Malcom Gladwell
-  Experiences and Outcomes of First-Generation Students in Community Colleges by Pascarella et. al 
-  Closing the Social-Class Achievement Gap: A Difference-Education Intervention Improves First-Generation Students’ Academic Performance and All Students’ College Transition by Stephens et. al 
-  Speed and Studying: Gendered Pathways to Success by Iman YeckehZaare and Paul Resnick

Achievement Gap References

Doris B. Chin, Kristen P. Blair, Rachel C. Wolf, Luke D. Conlin, Maria Cutumisu, Jay Pfaffman & Daniel L. Schwartz (2019) Educating and Measuring Choice: A Test of the Transfer of Design Thinking in Problem Solving and Learning, Journal of the Learning Sciences, 28:3, 337-380, DOI: 10.1080/10508406.2019.1570933

Educating and Measuring Choice: A Test of the Transfer of Design Thinking in Problem Solving and Learning

- Race
- Gender
- Income
- Language
- Disability
- Parent Education Level
- Nationality
- Technology
- Traditional
- Cultural differences
- The Impact of Coronavirus

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