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Leveling the Playing Field and Raising African American Students'
Achievement in Twenty-nine Urban Classrooms
It is no secret. There is considerable research that confirms that dramatic increases in African American student achievement can come from dramatic changes in student-teacher interactions (Bernstein, 1990, in Gallego et al., p. 983). This article highlights the results of a two-year study to examine those interactions to identify and describe the specific and common instructional and management strategies and contextual features used by 29 teachers whose African American students closed achievement gaps. Analyses of the data in that study suggest teachers enhanced their pedagogy to meet their students' needs. Teachers and principals agreed that teachers "leveled the playing field" for students as they applied 42 strategies, related to three areas: curriculum and instruction, contextual features and environment, and classroom assessments.
Research on teacher practices to close achievement gaps has long been a compelling area of study. The teacher effectiveness research from the 1960s through the 1980s led to school reforms to better meet society's needs and to teaching approaches that correlated to high achievement on standardized tests. Unfortunately, those approaches have not contributed to consistently improved performance for students of color, particularly African Americans. Contemporary educators have conducted considerable social science and education research over the past forty years to provide explanations on the causes of and strategies for the possible convergence, or narrowing, of achievement gaps.
Comprehensive studies by Pasch and colleagues (1991) and Irvine and Armento (2001) have documented the efficacy of reflective approaches drawn from teacher effectiveness research and culturally responsive pedagogies to make instructional variations in response to students' culture, race, gender, and class. Thus, effective teachers of children of color adapt their knowledge, strategies and philosophy and modify instructional and contextual features to meet students' culture, needs, interests, learning preferences, and prior experiences.
The aim of this study was to systematically identify and describe those common strategies used by 29 teachers in an urban school district of 2,175 elementary and middle school teachers and over 47,500 students. These teachers were selected because five or more of their African American students achieved at or above state and district standards and those achieved by White students on two standardized assessments–the 2001 Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) and the 2001 Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). Given principals' roles as instructional leaders who observe, support, and evaluate instructional practices in their schools, the 20 principals' insights on teachers' practices were sought and valued.
To examine these teachers' classroom practices, data were collected from February 2002 through June 2003 using 29 teacher and 20 administrator surveys, structured in-person and phone interviews, and 28-videotaped naturalistic observations. Strategies observed in classrooms were compared with teachers' and principals' reports on the frequency of use and effectiveness with African American students of 121 strategies and contextual variations drawn from seven comprehensive reviews (Banks et al., 2000; Cole, 1995; Irvine & Armento, 2001; Ladson-Billings, 1994, 1995; Shade, Kelly, & Oberg, 1997; Wang & Walberg, 1991; Zeichner, 1996).
Analyses were conducted using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), discriminant and classification analyses, and one-sample t tests. Similarities and differences between the principal and teacher groups were determined through discriminant and classification analyses of the effectiveness and frequency of use ratings in the survey and frequencies of strategies reported in the interviews. One-sample t tests on the frequency of strategies observed in two to four 55- to 120-minute videotaped sessions identified which strategies occurred at significantly greater frequencies than the average for all the study's strategies (test mean = 6). Ultimately, these analyses identified 42 strategies on which teachers and principals agreed and whose frequencies were significantly greater than the test mean.
Key findings: A framework for 42 common strategies and contextual features
Analyses suggest teachers enhanced their pedagogy to meet student needs through decision-making and reflection. Teachers and principals agreed that they applied strategies pertaining to three areas: curriculum and instruction, contextual features and environment and classroom-based assessment. Teachers in this study carefully designed curriculum and instruction and used multicultural approaches, such as interdisciplinary teaming, demonstrating cultural competence and maintaining active participation.
These teachers shaped their student-teacher academic interactions through cultural congruence by providing culturally relevant curriculum and materials, using constructivist approaches, providing meaningful and challenging instruction, and responding to students' traits and needs. They used cooperative group instruction strategies, set and maintained high standards and clear mastery expectations, and set the stage for scaffolding instruction to meet students' prior learning through careful attention to contextual features and the environment. Participants attributed teachers' effectiveness not to variations in response to race, but to providing equitable learning opportunities regardless of students' traits, academic gaps or needs.
Student-teacher social interactions, classroom management and climate were key attributes of these teachers' effectiveness. They demonstrated particular efficacy in structuring social contexts through positive relationships, often extending relationships with and caring for students beyond the classroom. Notably, they held students and themselves to maintaining familial climates and standards of respect, fairness and appropriateness through explicit coaching on norms and environmental variations that promoted collaborative democratic classrooms. Figure 1 graphically depicts the categories and 42 strategies extrapolated from the data analyses.
Figure 1
Frequently Used, Observed, and Effective Strategies for High Performing African American Students
Part A
Part B
A closer look: Teachers and principals report common strategies and contextual features
As predicted in comprehensive reviews, empirical, quasi-experimental and correlational studies by Banks and colleagues (2000), Cole (1995), Irvine and Armento, and other researchers on reflective approaches, teachers and principals agree that these teachers varied instruction to meet student needs. They applied changes to classroom interactions that research suggests weaken the relationship between socioeconomic class and educational achievement. Thus, they balanced students' abilities, learning preferences, and prior experiences with their personal philosophies and role perceptions to make 42 instructional and contextual variations.
Analyses suggest that these teachers designed curriculum and instruction aligned to standards, used multicultural approaches to demonstrate cultural competence and knowledge of the diversity of groups in their classrooms, provided curriculum that offered varied cultural perspectives, and individually and team-taught interdisciplinary lessons. They maintained active student participation with questioning and recitation, thus incorporating students' preferences for verbal expressiveness. Teachers shaped academic interactions through clearly structured lessons that balanced teacher- and student-centered activities.
Key to academic interactions was cultural congruence in instruction. Teachers achieved cultural congruence by using culturally relevant curriculum and materials, ensuring learning tasks were complex and meaningful to students' lives, and using constructivist approaches. Teachers also responded to students' needs by extending instruction beyond the classroom and the school day and by using procedures and tools such as graphic organizers for rehearsing, processing and transferring new concepts. They used cooperative group instruction strategies, and set and maintained clear expectations regarding students' roles in content mastery.
Contrary to selected findings in the literature on culturally responsive pedagogies, teachers and principals did not universally attribute teachers' success to altering their pedagogy in response to race. Teachers and principals alike asserted that their adjustments were in response to "differences in students' backgrounds. We have to level the playing field." Referring to schools and classrooms, participants stated that they provided scaffolding to adjust to student needs and prior experiences and accelerated students' learning by using complex, content-rich, challenging lessons and tasks and current technology.
Teachers attended to the inextricable links between instruction, social context, power relationships, and knowledge creation in their academic interactions with students. They made explicit instructional variations that promoted collaborative democratic classrooms and shared decision-making. For example, they shared teaching responsibilities with students through reciprocal teaching, during which students took ownership for their own and their peers' learning in cooperative groups. During cooperative group work, students shared important roles and information, and demonstrated their expertise on important content and procedures.
The social context for learning
The social context for learning appears to be a key determinant of teachers' success with students. In fact, 40 of 49 respondents attributed teacher success with African American students to their efficacy in building positive relationships with those students. Consistent with the research on the fundamental role of contextual features and social interactions in learning environments, these teachers emphasized social interactions exemplifying fairness and respect, low favoritism, caring, and low friction. Teachers and principals invariably discussed the power of first establishing caring and respectful relationships with students, varying the features of the classroom environment to meet student needs for social engagement and movement, for instance, and fostering familial and communal climates. One teacher asserted, "There are certain strategies that work for African Americans. They are: relationships, multiple intelligences, and cooperative learning." Said another teacher, "It's about relationships," while one principal opined, "One of the most important things is to connect and bond with kids.
Classroom management and climate
Relationships also featured prominently in classroom management and climate. When asked how they varied the features of their classroom environment to meet student needs, invariably teachers and principals talked about management that relied on caring and respectful relationships. High student engagement through verbal and kinesthetic channels, low apathy, concern and interest in what goes on in class, and a safe and orderly environment characterized these teachers' classroom management approaches.
Teachers also took care to prevent students' loss of peer respect and provided explicit coaching on appropriate behavior and school norms. They point out the effectiveness of setting norms in class meetings and coaching young males in private conversations in the halls. Teachers also pointed out the power of "solving [their] own discipline problems", providing "consistency," and "balancing routines and rituals with excitement." For instance, in several classrooms, teachers led students in daily pledges asserting their commitment to their personal academic growth and to the classroom community, which contributed to cohesiveness.
Participants asserted that collegial relationships among the group influenced teachers' sense of efficacy and their "belief in their capacity to make a difference in student's learning." While on the one hand, teachers held and expressed high expectations for mastery and described the support they provided students in achieving tasks and standards, they also credited powerful teaching teams and collegial and personal relationships with strengthening their practice and beliefs that they could ensure students achieved those high expectations.
Classroom-based assessment
Finally, analyses suggest that these effective teachers used frequent and continuous classroom-based assessments aligned to standards and authentic methods, and appropriate to diverse learners, such as performances and observations, to augment standardized tests. They used those classroom-based assessments to develop skills based interventions, and provide feedback on goals attainment.
Conclusion: Enhancing teacher practice
Fundamental to democratic principles of education is the expectation of ensuring the highest possible educational attainment for every student. Current researchers, such as Bernstein, suggest that one key to weakening the relationship between socioeconomic status and achievement and closing achievement gaps between African American and White students is changing classroom interactions. The findings in this study contribute to an understanding of how 29 teachers balanced student abilities, needs, learning preferences, and prior experiences to make appropriate instructional and contextual changes that contributed to students' meeting success standards. Joyce, Wolf, and Calhoun (1993) reported that less than 10% of kindergarten through university teachers consistently use more than one of 20 or more strategies that historically have improved student achievement. The framework of 42 strategies and contextual features from this study implies ways to expand teachers' repertoire of strategies and content for collaborations that might close gaps between African American and White students' achievement.
References
Banks, J. A., Cookson, P., Gay, G., Hawley, W., Irvine, J.J., Nieto, S., Schofield, J. W., & Stephan, W. G. (2000). Diversity within unity: Essential principles for teaching and learning in a multicultural society. Seattle, WA: Center for Multicultural Education, College of Education, University of Washington.
Cole, R.W. (Ed.). (1995). Educating everybody's children: Diverse strategies for diverse learners: What research and practice say about improving achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Gallego, M. A., Cole, M., and the Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition (2001). "Classroom cultures and cultures in the classroom". In V. Richardson (Ed.). Handbook on research on teaching (4th ed., pp. 951-997). Washington, D. C.: American Educational Research Association.
Irvine, J. J. & Armento, B. J. (2001). Culturally responsive teaching: Lesson planning for elementary and middle grades. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Joyce, B., Wolfe, J., & Calhoun, E. (1993). The self-renewing school. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers for African American children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Multicultural teacher education: Research, policy, and practices. In J. A. Banks, & C. M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research on multicultural education (pp. 747-759). New York: McMillan.
Marzano, R. J. (2003). What works in schools: Translating research into action. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Pasch, M., Sparks-Langer, G., Gardner, T. G., Starko A. J., & Moody, C. D. (1991). Teaching as decision making: Instructional practices for the successful teacher. White Plains, NY: Longman Publishing.
Shade, B. J., Kelly, C., & Oberg, M. (1997). Creating culturally responsive classrooms. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Wang, M. & Walberg, H. (1991). Teaching and educational effectiveness: Research synthesis and consensus from the field. In K. J. Rehage (Series Ed.) & H. C. Waxman & H. J. Walberg (Vol. Ed.), Effective teaching: Current research (pp.63-80). Berkeley, CA: McCutchan Publishing.
Zeichner, K. M. (1996). Educating teachers to close the achievement gap: Issues of pedagogy, knowledge, and teacher preparation. In B. Williams, (Ed.), Closing the achievement gap: A vision for changing beliefs and practices (pp.56-77). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Johnnie McKinley is the Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning in Puyallup Schools in Puyallup WA where she manages district professional development and teacher certification and induction programs. She has more than 25 years of experience in organizational development, training, conference presentation and planning, marketing, and program management. She has received the Channel 9 KCTS Excellence in Education Award for leadership in teacher development.
She has served as a presenter and consultant to scores of professionals and educators in private and public entities throughout the U.S. on organizational change and statewide and national school reform programs. In 1996 and in1997, she was recognized as a teacher whose African American students closed achievement gaps on standardized assessments. Her implementation of a validated adolescent drug-use prevention program, which over four years correlated with reduced disciplinary actions and absenteeism among over 1100 middle school students, led to nomination for the 1995 Seattle Committee for Excellence in Education Award.
She received her Ed.D. from Seattle University in Educational Leadership with a Business Administration cognate. Her research has focused on the practices of teachers who have effectively closed achievement gaps between African American and White students. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and English and a Masters degree in Applied Behavioral Science with an emphasis in Organizational Development. Email: nfolinks@earthlink.net
©2003 by Johnnie McKinley, Ed.D.
Graphic Images © 2003 by Johnnie McKinley, Ed.D.
Posted with permission, December 2004
by New Horizons for Learning
http://www.newhorizons.org
info@newhorizons.orgFor permission to redistribute, please contact the author.