Later, the researchers played recordings of the lessons to white students. When the "teachers" had higher levels of implicit racial bias, their black (but not white) students scored more poorly on a history test based on the lesson. The researchers recruited white college students to prepare and present a history lesson to either a white or a black student. White teachers' implicit prejudices or stereotypes can also make them less effective when teaching black students, suggests a study by Drew Jacoby-Senghor, PhD, at Columbia University, and colleagues. That can tip the scale and lead to a positive bias," Harber says. "Add the issue of race and teachers might worry they're displaying a lack of racial sensitivity. Teachers must strike a balance between being assertive and respectful. Giving feedback is difficult for teachers in any circumstance, Harber points out. In their attempts to be egalitarian, however, they might avoid constructive criticism that would benefit black students. In other words, white instructors might go easy on their black students in order to avoid appearing racist, if only in their own minds. What's more, Harber can essentially turn that bias on or off by enhancing or allaying the teachers' concerns that they might appear prejudiced. He found that when white teachers give feedback on a poorly written essay, they are more critical if they think the author was a white student rather than a black one ( Journal of Educational Psychology ®, 2012). In a series of studies, Rutgers University psychologist Kent Harber, PhD, studied white middle-school and high-school teachers in mostly white, upper-middle-class districts and more diverse, working-class districts in the northeastern United States. Teachers' expectations for themselves also come into play. Seth Gershenson, PhD, at American University, and colleagues reported that when black and white teachers evaluate the same black student, white teachers are 12 percent less likely to predict the student will finish high school, and 30 percent less likely to predict the student will graduate from college ( Economics of Education Review, 2016). Such disparities might have something to do with teachers' expectations for students. But black students were three times more likely to be referred for the programs if their teacher was black rather than white ( Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2016). Using national data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Sean Nicholson-Crotty, PhD, at Indiana University, and colleagues found black students were 54 percent less likely than white students to be recommended for gifted-education programs, after adjusting for factors such as students' standardized test scores. Teachers might be less likely to spot black students who excel academically, for instance. "Maybe we can't eliminate them, but we can do all we can to avoid acting on them." Evidence of DisparitiesĪ variety of recent studies help to illustrate the differences in the ways black and white students experience a school day. "Everyone holds biases of one kind or another," says University of Maryland psychologist Melanie Killen, PhD. Some disparities arise from cultural misunderstandings or unintentional "implicit biases" that unknowingly affect our thoughts and behaviors. Yet in many cases, such differences in treatment aren't malicious or intentional. "There's this idea that if we name the phenomenon, it's teacher blaming." The disparities can be tough to discuss, says Anne Gregory, PhD, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University. Research shows that compared with white students, black students are more likely to be suspended or expelled, less likely to be placed in gifted programs and subject to lower expectations from their teachers. But one dynamic is becoming impossible to ignore: Notable differences in the way black students are treated by teachers and school administrators. To be sure, many factors contribute to the achievement gap, including home and neighborhood environments and school factors unrelated to teachers' performance. For black students, the rate was 73 percent. In 2014, the high school graduation rate for white students was 87 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. For decades, black students in the United States have lagged behind their white peers in academic achievement.
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