ERIC Number: EJ1021010
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Apr
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0038-0407
EISSN: N/A
Threat in Context: School Moderation of the Impact of Social Identity Threat on Racial/Ethnic Achievement Gaps
Hanselman, Paul; Bruch, Sarah K.; Gamoran, Adam; Borman, Geoffrey D.
Sociology of Education, v87 n2 p106-124 Apr 2014
Schools with very few and relatively low-performing marginalized students may be most likely to trigger social identity threats (including stereotype threats) that contribute to racial disparities. We test this hypothesis by assessing variation in the benefits of a self-affirmation intervention designed to counteract social identity threat in a randomized trial in all 11 middle schools in Madison, Wisconsin. We find that school context moderates the benefits of self-affirmation for black and Hispanic students' grades, with partial support among standardized achievement outcomes. Self-affirmation reduced the very large racial achievement gap in overall grade point average by 12.5 percent in high-threat school contexts and had no effect in low-threat contexts. These self-affirmation activities have the potential to help close some of the largest racial/ethnic achievement gaps, though only in specific school contexts.
Descriptors: Self Concept, Academic Achievement, Achievement Gap, Ethnicity, Middle School Students, Racial Differences, Grades (Scholastic), African American Students, Hispanic American Students, Standardized Tests, Educational Environment, Stereotypes, Racial Composition, Student Characteristics, Writing Exercises, Language Arts, Intervention, Disadvantaged, Experimental Groups, Prediction, Statistical Analysis, Grade 7, Regression (Statistics)
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Publication Type: Reports - Research; Journal Articles
Education Level: Middle Schools; Grade 7
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Wisconsin
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A