C&T 4010 Sooyoun Won Short Essay II As a student of the Math Education program at Teachers College, one of the most popular topics is American students’ low math achievement, particularly of inner-city African American and Latino students. Most of the research indicated that these economically disadvantaged minority students mark the lowest math test scores even among American students. Therefore, we can easily assume that the low socioeconomic status of the students adversely influenced their schooling as well. According to numerous scholarly research papers and case study articles, one of the main reasons to cause the prevalent and problematic situation of the minority students’ math scores was a ‘stereotype threat’. “Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as a self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one’s social group” (Steele & Aronson, 1995, cited by Stroessner & Good, 2011). Walker (2003) addressed that most African American and Latino students stereotyped themselves as students who cannot be good at math because they were not born with enough ability for the subject. However, regarding this matter, there is the critical aspect that we as educators should not neglect. As most of the research data indicated, the minority students’ low self-esteem significantly increased when they actually confronted the races of other students, such as White or Asian students. Furthermore, the ‘stereotype threat’ noticeably appeared not only among diverse students with different racial backgrounds but also between genders. So, we as educators and researchers, want to know how this mechanism of the stereotype threat can actively work. Many researchers have conducted various experimental tests in order to figure out the systematic factors what provokes the stereotype threat. And they found that one of the major features to trigger the stereotype threat is whether the students were informed before the test about the demographic information or their counterparts on the test. In other words, even though the students acknowledged the stereotype treat subconsciously, it would not occur to them until certain types of prompts appeared. For example, when researchers announced to white student groups that their test scores will be compared to Asian student groups, then the white student group significantly underperformed on the test. Meanwhile, if the research did not mention anything about their comparison to the group of the students, their math test scores were noticeably higher compared to the previous case. Correspondingly, if female student groups were informed that their math test scores will be compared to the scores of male student groups, the female students’ test scores were significantly lower than their average math test scores. Otherwise, the female students achieved the average test scores on their math exam. The results of a similar experimental test related to the stereotype threat showed that if the test takers marked their ethnicity and gender before the math test, their test scores were most likely lower than their average test scores. However, if they checked their demographic information as well as their gender after the test, their test scores were almost as same as their average scores. These research data indicated how the stereotype threat could actually influence students’ academic achievement, and at the same time, it showed that how test designers and school administrators should try to diminish the adverse impacts of the threat on the students’ achievement. Considering these possible remedies, I was surprised that on any kind of state level of examinations in the United States, students still have to check their demographic information before the test. The research and case study results listed above came out many years ago, and clearly, the students were significantly affected by the stereotype threat if they had to mark their demographic information before the test. Thus, simply relocating these questions to the end of the test they could remarkably reduce the undesirable impact of the stereotype threat on the students’ academic achievement. Based on this situation, I suspect that one of the reasons for not redesigning the test yet is because most of the privileged student groups, such as white students would not be benefitted by the changes. This kind of suspicion could be overly exaggerated and controversial but this is why it might be considered as the ‘color-blind ideology’ (Roberts et al., 2008). Since most privileged white students would not be adversely influenced by marking their ethnicity before the test, the change does not matter to them. This kind of situation could be related to neocolonialism because in the United States the people with the power to determine those critical decisions are still predominantly a white male group. Therefore, in order to pursue ‘social justice’ in our daily lives, we should ask for their help with these matters. Unfortunately, this sort of paradoxical situation is pervasive in American society, and even in the education system. As an international student as well as a student teacher, I feel extremely vulnerable and powerless to these matters. I want to ask anyone, “Is there anything I can do?”. Reference Roberts, R., Bell, L. A., & Murphy, B. (2008). Flipping the script: Analyzing youth talk about race and racism. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 39 (3), 334-354 Stroessner, S., & Good, C. (2011). Stereotype threat: An overview. Retrieved from http://www.arizona.edu/sites/arizona.edu/files/users/user14/Stereotype%20 Threat%20Overview.pdf. Walker, E. N. (2003). Who Can Do Mathematics?. Activating Mathematical Talent, edited by B. Vogeli and A. Karp. Monograph Series for Leaders in Mathematics Education. Boston: Houghton Mifflin and National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics
