Exploring Achievement Values Among Ethic Minority Early Adolescents

Social/Cultural Aspects of Motivation

Summary

For more than the thirty years, researchers have been looking at the achievement gap between Black and White students in the school setting. Other disciplines such as anthropologists and sociologists have been addressing the question of low performance of Black students in school and it is only recently that the discipline of psychology has become involved. In this research article, three Psychologists look at the gap, not only between Blacks and Whites, but other ethnic groups as well. Sandra Grahm, April Z. Taylor, and Cynthia Hudley, devised two studies in which achievement values were looked at across the ethnic spectrum in terms of examining achievement values.

One must look at some issues plaguing the Black population before embarking upon the studies in this paper. Most African Americans are still experiencing persistent school failure in very high numbers. Sociologists and anthropologists agree that because of low achievement in school, the African American students have low expectations for future successes and they see themselves as unable to live up to the idea that they are not intelligent. Due to disproportionate economic and social mobility that the African Americans experience, they feel that even if they did well in school, it will have no affect on their economic status or their place in society.

Doing well in school for an African American can also become a stigma for them. Often times when a Black student does well, they are thought to be acting white or trying to become white. These impressionable students feel that they are betraying their culture. So, in order to feel good about themselves they devise a self- protective mechanism where by they do not try in school because to not try is to not fail.

Because of this attitude found in the African American adolescent student, two studies were devised. The first study looks only at African Americans. Peer nomination procedures were used and the students were to nominate classmates who fit into different behavioral descriptions. The participants were to nominate other students whom they most admired, respected, and wanted to be like. By using this approach, the researchers could identify the traits that the students felt were important and that they valued.

Another section of the questionnaire was for students to nominate other students that they felt tried hard and got good grades, those who did not try and got bad grades, those who follow or do not follow school rules, those who were good at sports and also who was wearing nice clothes. These questions allowed the idea finding the relationship between being valued and other behaviors that are normally exhibited during these adolescent years. Then, data was collected about the students answering the questions such as academic standing and achievement level.

Teachers were also given questions to be able to concretely and objectively measure the student’s achievement levels. The rating scale was that of a nine- point scale. The researchers found that there were three achievement levels, which ranged from low (1-3), average (4-6) and high (7-9). In the classrooms, the low achievers averaged 30%, the average was 42% and the high achievers were 28%.

When the data was put together, it was astounding that the African American girls totally value academic effort and success. These girls consistently chose the classmates that were high achieving (based on teachers ratings) and also the same gender students that they admire, respect, and want to model themselves after. So, this shows that the African American girls show that they prefer the female students that they perceived as high achievers, worked hard, and follow the rules (socially responsible).

These results were completely opposite to the results of the data retrieved from the African American male students. It appears that the male students are more complex in terms of their answers. Although some of the male students chose high achieving girls, most of the nominees were male and they least admired the high achieving boys. The low achievers were nominated more which shows that academic achievement is less important to the male students than to the female students. Although these results are significant, one must also take into consideration that students of this age, but not necessarily because of the ethnic group they are in, may just be exhibiting generalized feelings of adolescence. The way in which male students were nominated could be just normal behavior of this adolescent age group.

So, in order to see if the above statement was true, another study was initiated. In this study, not only African American students were used, but Whites and Latinos as well. All the same questions were asked of the students that were stated previously. Due to the complexity of the answers, the researchers only looked at the nominations that girls made for girls and the boy’s nominations of the other boys.

For girls, the data showed that they were similar across the ethnic groups. The African American girls continued to choose the high achieving, behaving, and responsible African American girls but they also did choose a large amount of White girls with the same characteristics. The Latino girls were the same in terms of nominating like the African American girls but stayed within their ethnic group. The White girls stayed within their ethnic group but tended not to nominate the African American girls.

With regard to the males, the African American boys chose the low achieving boys in the same ethnic group. This stays on track with the results from the other study. The Latino group followed in the footsteps of the African American boys in terms of nominating the low achieving boys as being most admired. In contrast, the White boys stayed in sync with the girls of the ethnic groups. They chose within ethnic group and mostly chose male students that were high achievers and rule followers.

So, with all this information, what can be made of the data that has been collected? Well it certainly is fair to say that minority boys are stereotyped. African Americans and Latino boys are thought of as the bad boys who act out, disobey rules, and do not try to achieve high academic levels in school. These male students are most likely very well aware of the image they project and the fact that people think of them in a negative way. They disengage and deny the importance of school. The minority male student not only has to deal with the stress of being in school and trying to achieve, but they must cope with the negative stereotype as well. It is certainly not easy for them.

With the knowledge that we have regarding the way in which minority male students are viewed, it is very evident that more information needs to be gathered. However, because of the evidence shown in these studies, it is certainly a problem that can at least begin to be tackled. Educators need to take an active part in dealing with the problem of achievement gaps before it gets worse. Although more research is warranted, measures can be taken now to show all students the positives that can occur through achieving more in education. We are the role models, so therefore, we can be the answer!