- The racial achievement gap might be due to subtle cues from professors 
- This can cause a student to be worried about being judged causing a decrease in performance 
- Hypothesis-fixed mindset faculty can demotivate URM students, causing an achievement gap between white/Asian students and URM 
- Hypothesis-fixed mindset faculty would lead to lower motivation amongst their students-aligns with stereotype threat theory (the idea that students are inhibited by preexisting stereotypes that are imposed upon them by society)


Motivation of the Mindset and racial achievement gap Study

- 150 stem faculty-astronomy, biology, biochem, biotech, chem, cog science, CS, economics, geological science, informatics, math, physics, and stats 
Decide fixed/growth 
- To decide if each individual faculty member had a fixed or growth mindset, they conducted a survey
- Faculty rated these statements from strongly agree to strongly disagree on a scale of 1-6: “to be honest, students have a certain amount of intelligence, and they really can’t do much to change it” & “Your intelligence is something about you that you can’t change very much”
- Higher scores on the scale indicate a growth mindset 
- URM-under represented minority- black, hispanic, native american/alaska native, and native hawaiian/pacific island 
- Used course grades and records from the university to analyze student achievement

Study Design of the mindset and racial achievement gap study 

- On average, all students performed more poorly in fixed mindset classes 
- Fixed mindset faculty were linked more to underperformance in URM students (black, latino, and native american) than white/asian 
- The achievement gap was about twice as large in the fixed mindset vs growth mindset courses (.19 GPA difference vs. .1 GPA difference)
- Demographics of fixed mindset faculty-the proportion of fixed mindset faculty (in comparison to growth mindset faculty) was not not affected by gender, race, age, tenure, years of college teaching experience, or in specific STEM areas
- Fixed mindset beliefs were just as bad on the student when the professor was white or URM, either gender, age, any teaching experience and tenure status 
- In fixed mindset classes, “students reported less ‘motivation to do their best work’”
- Fixed and growth mindset faculty demanded the same amount from students but students were less likely to recommend fixed mindset faculty to other students
- Individual faculty beliefs are more impactful to the students than faculty beliefs across the specific stem field 


Results of the mindset and racial achievement gap study 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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

Race Achievement Gap

Canning, E. A., Muenks, K., Green, D. J., & Murphy, M. C. (2019). STEM faculty who believe ability is fixed have larger racial achievement gaps and inspire less student motivation in their classes. Science advances, 5(2), eaau4734.

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 

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. 

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. 

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