achievement

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

The Term ‘Achievement Gap’ Fosters A Negative View Of Black Students

Despite long-standing efforts to close the racial “achievement gap” in education, the term does more to trigger racist stereotypes and causes a lower sense of urgency than when the issue is presented as the need to “end inequality in educational outcomes.” Those are the key findings of a new study in which we examined the effect that the two different terms had on teachers and others. To reach this conclusion, we conducted two different survey experiments – one with teachers and one with nonteachers. In the experiments, we randomly asked respondents to answer one of two versions of a question on a survey. Some were asked how important it was to “close the achievement gap” between Black and white students. Others were asked how important it was to “end inequality in educational outcomes ...

Hire A Black Principal To Improve Student Achievement

Tamara Littlejohn has been a Chicago Public Schools principal for a decade. As a Black woman in that role, she’s part of a small minority. “I really do this work because I want to make sure that, No. 1, the children have somebody who looks like them,” she said. As a child, Littlejohn’s mother was her role model, having served as both a Chicago Public Schools teacher and an assistant principal. “I saw just, like, the dedication and love that she had for her school community,” Littlejohn said. Fifteen years ago, Littlejohn received an opportunity from the national nonprofit New Leaders to train to become a school administrator like her mother. Since 2001, the organization has developed teachers into administrators through its principal preparation program, Aspiring Principals. Littlejoh...

At The Forefront Of Black Achievement For More Than A Century Have Stood Black Sororities

In her speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention Kamala Harris saluted seven women who “inspired us to pick up the torch and fight on.” All but two of them, one of whom was her mother, belonged to Black sororities. Harris also mentioned her own Black sorority, saying: “Family is my beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha.” Many Americans may have wondered why Harris would invoke sororities on such an occasion. But not me. Like her, I am a proud member of a Black sorority: Delta Sigma Theta, which I joined as a student at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. If I were in Harris’ shoes, accepting such an unprecedented leadership role, I, too, would have paid homage to my sorority as a way to thank those on whose shoulders I stand. This shoutout also resonated with me because I have resea...