Specific Learning Outcomes

1. Specific Learning Outcomes Marla Yi Donoy Walters PPS 6010 March 3, 2011

2. Topic • “Demonstrate through discussion and writing knowledge of factors that impede or limit pupil development including stereotyping, socioeconomic status, inadequate language development, negative school climate, and discrimination.”

3. So, we can all agree… (I’m assuming) • Stereotyping students = bad • Discriminating against students = bad • Negative school climate = bad • Lower socioeconomic status = typically lower academic achievement • Inadequate language development = EL students have 5x higher dropout rate

4. Definitions • A stereotype is an exaggerated belief, image or distorted truth about a person or group • A generalization based on images in mass media, or reputations passed on by parents, peers and other members of society. • Stereotypes can be positive or negative. • A prejudice is an opinion, prejudgment or attitude about a group or its individual members. A prejudice can be positive, but in our usage refers to a negative attitude. • Prejudice is often aimed at "out-groups." • Discrimination is behavior that treats people unequally because of their group memberships. • Discriminatory behavior, ranging from slights to hate crimes, often begins with negative stereotypes and prejudices.

5. But what if… • Educators do not discriminate or stereotype students, but instead students stereotype themselves • This is called “Stereotype Threat” • As a result, their performance decreases

6. Stereotype Threat • Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's group    • First developed by social psychologist Claude Steele (1995). • Basically: a self-fulfilling prophesy

7. Caucasian Stereotypes • Can’t dance • Less athletic than other ethnicities • “White men can’t jump” • Dumb blonde jokes • Redneck • Plastic surgery/Botox • Score higher on academic tests than other minorities, except Asians

8. African-American Stereotypes • Poor • Lazy • Criminals • Very religious • Athletic • Score less than Whites on academic tests

9. Asian-Americans Stereotypes • Bad drivers • High achievers in math and science • Geeks/Nerds • Long Duk Dong from 16 Candles • Data from The Goonies • Submissive women • Small masculinity • “Rice Rockets”

10. Hispanic/Latino Stereotypes • Illegal immigrants • Many children • Cholos/Gangs • Bad tempers • Low-wage jobs • Score less than Whites on academic tests

11. Stereotype Threat Research • Recent research shows that students’ knowledge of stereotype-based negative expectations about their test performance can depress their actual performance • If a student is aware of their culture’s negative stereotypes and the expectations of those stereotypes, it can actually decrease their test performance.

12. Stereotype Threat Research • One study conducted found that Caucasian men performed poorly compared to African-American men in a miniature golf task when the task was presented as a test of natural athletic ability • When the task was presented as a test of “sporting intelligence,” performance by African American suffered compared to Caucasian men.

13. More Research… • Stereotype: females perform worse than males in math • College women performed worse than their male counterparts when completing a very difficult math test • This difference was eliminated when the test was presented as not showing gender differences

14. How it works Awareness of these negative stereotypes may produce distracting thoughts about confirming group stereotypes, and these anxieties, in turn, may lead to the very failure that is feared

15. When do people experience Stereotype Threat? • Designating a test as diagnostic of intellectual ability • When told a test was diagnostic of verbal ability, Black students scored a full standard deviation lower than Whites. • When the same test was presented as nondiagnostic of ability, the Black and White students performed equally well (Steele & Aronson, 1995) • Bringing attention to students’ ethnicities prior to testing • A performance difference was found when students had to specify their race on a demographics form before testing, even when the test was presented as nondiagnostic of ability

16. Why does stereotype threat occur in students? • Anxiety/physiological arousal • Blood pressure • Heart rate • Intrusive thoughts • Intrusive worries about fulfilling the group stereotype or being judged according to it • Vicious cycle

17. What determines strength of stereotype threats? • Test characteristics (real or purported) • More difficult tests produce greater stereotype threat effects • Stereotyped groups show decreased performance when a test is presented as showing intergroup score differences or diagnostic of ability • Beliefs about intelligence • When 7th grade female students were told intelligence is due to effort and not inherent, they did better on math tests than girls in the control group and performed as well as the boys in their class.

18. What determines strength of stereotype threats? • Concerns about stereotypic evaluations by others • In situations where the evaluator is vague about performance criteria, stereotype threat effects increased in students • If performance criteria were specifically delineated, it helped to reduce stereotype threat effects • Social identity salience • The more that a testing environment promoted awareness of one’s social identity, the more performance decreased. • Study: Women completed a math test in a room with 0, 1, or 2 other women and several men. • Women performed best on the math test when they had two other females in the room, and performed worst when they were the only woman in a room with several men.

19. How to reduce stereotype threat in students • Let students know that challenging but attainable standards are present • More relevant in lower grades, before students are aware they can judge their own competencies accurately • Let them know importance of high expectations • Makes the general point that students who think others expect them to do poorly are more likely going to perform worse

20. How to reduce stereotype threat in students • Give age-appropriate information about the nature of the assessment instruments and the reliable objectives with which they will be scored • Assure students that scorers of tests will not have access to students’ demographic characteristics • Long term goal: lobby for test developers to move demographic information to the end of examinations (SAT, GRE, etc)

21. How does this pertain to us as School Psychologists • Do not inadvertently induce stereotype threat effects by asking questions about topics related to a student’s demographic group (eg: music preferences) • Don’t ask demographic questions • Ability/Achievement measures should be placed at the beginning of assessments, before less formal self-report activities (clinical interview, family background, current home environment, self-perceptions of academic functioning) • Achievement/ability tests firsts, self-report second

22. How does this pertain to us as School Psychologists • Do not describe tests as diagnostic of intellectual ability • Don’t say it is a test of intellectual ability • Consider the possibility of stereotype threat effects when interpreting scores of vulnerable group members. • Keep in mind that students may still have stereotype threat effects

23. Discussion • How did you feel when I listed the stereotypes? • Have you ever felt the (intrinsic) pressure to try to break your ethnicity/culture’s stereotype?

24. References • http://www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/definition.html • http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.pitts/stereotype_threat_ • Jordan, A.H., Lovett, B.J.,(2007). Stereotype threat and test performance: A primer for school psychologists. Journal of School Psychology, 45, 45-59.