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Closing the Black-White Achievement Gap: Strategies for Michigan Connections Academy

By: Erin Barger

It is no secret that at Michigan Connections Academy (MICA) that there exists an

achievement gap between African American and White students, as evidenced by state test scores.

As a school we want all students to be able to succeed, and it is a concern that a specific group of

students is struggling to reach proficiency. Thankfully, this gap is not impossible to close, and it

all begins with shifting our school's attitudes and actions about culture, gifted students, and

mastery. Once teachers become educated on the cultures of their students, edit the gifted and

talented policy to bring in a greater diversity of students, and focus on mastery more than

performance, the achievement gap between African American and White students can close.

In order to begin closing the gap between African American and White students at our

school, teachers need to become more educated on the culture of our African American students.

The vast majority of our staff is White, but about 16% of our student population is African

American (Great Schools, n.d.). According to Carter (2013), teachers are less effective at engaging

students when there is a difference in social background because most teachers are unable to grasp

their students' realities. MICA should provide teachers with professional development in order to

educate us on the cultures of minority students in our school, especially those of African American

students, so that we are better able to cultivate relationships and mutual understanding. This will

also enable us to understand how their culture influences their educational needs and how we can

differentiate instruction and improve achievement. These changes are important because these

students can have a cultural mismatch with their curriculums which produce negative effects.

According to Carter (2013), minority students are more likely to become bored and underachieve

when their curriculum ignores their heritage and teaches from a White cultural viewpoint that they
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often cannot relate to. Armed with new knowledge, teachers at MICA could add lesson

modifications, extra resources, and LiveLesson content to incorporate the cultures of all students

in our school to increase engagement and achievement. These actions will make MICA a more

inclusive and culturally responsive school where students of all backgrounds feel important,

understood, and engaged, closing the achievement gap between ethnic groups.

Another strategy for addressing the achievement gap between African American and White

students is to reevaluate MICA's gifted and talented policy to include more students of color.

Studies show that across the country White and Asian students make up a disproportionately large

percentage of students in gifted, honors, and AP courses, while other ethnic groups are

underrepresented (Tyson, 2013). Students who are given a more challenging curriculum typically

perform better academically, so if "minority students and White students are not exposed to the

same learning opportunities, racial gaps in achievement on standardized tests will follow," (Tyson,

2013, p. 176). If the statistic holds true at MICA that White students are overrepresented and

African American students are underrepresented in our GT courses, this imbalance is a contributor

to the gap in student achievement. As a staff we need to analyze the ethnic makeup of our GT

classes and make necessary changes to equalize it. Adding more African American students will

increase their achievement and contribute to closing the achievement gap between them and White

students, as evidenced by the results from an elementary school in Durham, North Carolina.

According to Tyson (2013), this school added more African American students to their GT

program and created a "guest" GT program to expose more students to the challenging curriculum.

As a result, passage rates on the end-of-year test increased and the achievement gap between

African American and White students was narrowed over time, and even disappeared in one cohort

after just three years. If more African American students are enrolled in GT courses, I am hopeful
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that our school will experience increased success, too; however, we must come up with a plan for

increasing student numbers.

At MICA the process for identifying GT students is highly reliant on learning coach and

teacher recommendations, which can lead to missed opportunities for African American students

due to unintentional bias. In a study conducted by David Card and Laura Giuliano in Broward

County Schools in Florida, it was discovered that high-ability Black and Hispanic students, as well

as English language learners, were less likely to be referred by parents and teachers for I.Q. testing

in order to enter GT programs (Dynarski, 2016). There are many potential causes of this. "Teachers

may have lower expectations for these children, and their parents may be unfamiliar with the

process and the programs. Whatever the reason, the evidence indicates that relying on teachers and

parents increases racial and ethnic disparities," (Dynarski, 2016). Training teachers to properly

identify gifted students and be aware of their own unintentional biases could help increase the

number of all students, including African Americans, in GT courses, but that is not enough -- at

MICA we need to develop a screening program that does not rely so heavily on teachers and

learning coaches to get the ball rolling.

In the fall, winter, and spring of each school year, all students take Measures of Academic

Progress (MAP) tests in math and reading, and the results can be a helpful tool for identifying

gifted students, but I would further recommend we add more data to support or encourage teacher

and parent referrals. According to Dynarski (2016), Broward County Schools in Florida found

success when they required all second graders to undergo universal screening with a short

nonverbal test; students with high scores were referred for I.Q. testing to see if they qualified for

the district's gifted program. Due to this screening and further I.Q. testing, Broward County was

able to double the number of Black and Hispanic students identified as gifted. MAP testing
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provides us with data about our students, but perhaps the school could take it a step further and

choose (or add) a different test, such as an I.Q. test, that would be even more helpful for identifying

gifted students, testing additional knowledge and skills outside of just their math and reading

abilities. By identifying a more diverse group of students as gifted we will shift the culture of our

school toward equality and reduce the achievement gap between ethnicities.

Another large shift of school and classroom culture that needs to take place is an emphasis

on mastery-based goals instead of performance-based goals. Throughout this past school year we

have focused professional development time on visual learning where students observe where they

are now, where they want to go, and how they will get there. Homeroom teachers ask students to

set goals during each biweekly call that focus on this process; however, these goals are not

necessarily mastery-based. Many students, teachers, and learning coaches focus on performance

(earning a certain letter grade or percentage), but this emphasis can lead to self-handicapping

behaviors in students. According to Toshalis (2015), self-handicapping involves a student planning

ahead to create circumstances that would cause them to underperform on a school task in order to

avoid the appearance of being incapable or dumb. Instead of a student's academic abilities being

to blame, they can point the blame at something else, such as staying up late the night before a test

or simply not putting enough effort into a project.

It may appear on the outside that these students do not care about school, but it is actually

the desire to appear independent, capable, and successful that drives their behavior to purposefully

fail. "If the possibility exists that their failings will be attributed to their innate qualities over which

they have no control, then they will create circumstances they can control to shift attention

elsewhere," (Toshalis, 2015, p. 127). Students with lower achievement are more likely to self-

handicap and direct the causes of their performance away from their abilities, leading them into a
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cycle of lower achievement and more self-handicapping behaviors (Toshalis, 2015). It can be

assumed with the achievement gap between African American students and White students that

many lower-achieving African American students are likely to self-handicap and continue the

cycle, increasing the achievement gap; however, self-handicapping behaviors of all students can

be reduced by focusing less on performance and more on mastery. According to Toshalis (2015),

in schools where students feel they are being assessed for their progress, growth, effort, and

mastery, they are less likely to self-handicap than if they feel they are judged by their abilities

compared to other students. When schools and students focus on demonstrating learning, students

worry that mistakes and failure are indicators of their ability. As a staff we need to work to shift

our focus, as well as the focus of our students and learning coaches, toward students developing

their academic knowledge over time through learning from mistakes and making progress toward

mastery goals. As all students feel this shift they will reduce self-handicapping behaviors, increase

learning, and reduce gaps in achievement between ethnicities.

The solutions I have suggested here are not the only strategies that can be used to address

the achievement gap between African American students and White students, but they are a great

place to start. Closing the gap begins with bringing it to the attention of the staff, shifting our

mindsets, brainstorming solutions, and focusing on making changes. We need to attend

professional development to learn about our students' cultures, edit our gifted and talented policy

to bring more African American students in, and focus as a school on mastery instead of

performance. If we work together to actively tackle this gap, we can help all students reach their

full potential.
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References

Carter, P.I. (2013). Student and school cultures and the opportunity gap: Paying attention to

academic engagement and achievement. In P. L. Carter & K. G. Welner (Eds.), Closing

the opportunity gap: What America must do to give every child an even chance (pp. 143-

155). New York: NY: Oxford University Press.

Dynarski, S. (2016, April 8). Why talented black and Hispanic students can go undiscovered.

The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/upshot/why-

talented-black-and-hispanic-students-can-go-undiscovered.html?_r=0

Great Schools (n.d.). Michigan Connections Academy School Profile. Retrieved June 30, 2016

from http://www.greatschools.org/michigan/okemos/9053-Michigan-Connections-

Academy/details/#Students

Toshalis, E. (2015). Make me! Understanding and engaging student resistance in school.

Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Tyson, K. (2013). Tracking, segregation, and the opportunity gap: What we know and why it

matters. In P. L. Carter & K. G. Welner (Eds.), Closing the opportunity gap: What

America must do to give every child an even chance (pp. 169-180). New York: NY:

Oxford University Press.