High-level achievement among minority students is a goal that eludes many educators. Yet some consistently succeed in raising the scores of students from minority and low-income backgrounds. What's their secret and how can other educators learn from their successes?
Many principals say that connecting with individual students, building relationships with them and their families, and expecting good performance are key elements.
Understanding students' different backgrounds is vital, says Belinda Williams, a cognitive psychologist and editor of the ASCD book Closing the Achievement Gap: A Vision for Changing Beliefs and Practices. As an African American girl growing up in a middle-class white neighborhood, Williams recognized differences in her classmates that could not be attributed to socio-economic issues.
Based on research, Williams argues that there are different cognitive patterns inherent to different cultures. Educators must become attuned to variations in understanding, belief systems, and values that people bring from home, she says. "If these issues are ignored," she warns, "you might improve achievement, but you won't close the gap."
Teachers must form a "more powerful and intense relationship" with their students from poverty environments to encourage an increased focus on academics, Williams asserts. Such a bond, she says, can help students "develop a vision for what they can become."
Culture and Expectations
At Francis Bacon School in St. Albans, England, minority students have such a vision. These students feel they are allowed to be themselves and that "their ethnic diversity is celebrated rather than obscured," says Stella Berry, assistant head teacher. About 40 percent of the 11- to 19-year-old students come from a minority ethnic background, mostly Bangladeshi, Moroccan, and Pakistani.
The school's good practices are recognized in a video and report titled Removing the Barriers: Raising Achievement Levels for Minority Ethnic Pupils, produced by the British government's Department for Education and Skills. Francis Bacon is one of three schools celebrated for raising minority achievement by "increasing their expectations of what each student is capable of, and by introducing small but significant changes in their ethos and approach," the report says.
One of the challenges at Francis Bacon was low cultural expectations for girls. Parents of the school's minority students often are happy if their daughters stay in school up to age 16, Berry says. "We've been very successful in raising girls' expectations" beyond their role in the home to career aspirations, she says.
Getting to know students and focusing on their individual needs can be easier at a smaller school, notes Laurie Jeffers, co-principal of South Beaver Elementary Magnet School in Flagstaff, Ariz. Jeffers and her partner principal, Frank Garcia, lead a K–6 school that has 333 students, many of whom are from Hispanic, Navaho, and Hopi families. With a majority of students eligible for free or reduced price meals, South Beaver has a schoolwide Title 1 program.
The school has historically had a positive culture, Jeffers says, noting that "a small population helps with the character component." High academic expectations are also important at the school. "Any child can learn, and it needs to be expected that they will learn," she stresses. Jeffers acknowledges the need to support students personally when they're having a bad day but at the same time "let them know that you expect them to do their spelling and score well."
Principal Bernice E. Whelchel's approach also involves hard work as well as praise. When she came to City Springs Elementary in Baltimore, Md., seven years ago, the staff worked together to identify strategies for improvement. First they focused on behavior management. Then, after researching strategies for raising academic achievement, they embraced Direct Instruction, a highly structured method of teaching reading via phonics.
Achievement levels have risen, Whelchel said, because "everyone is focused on on-task behaviors." At City Springs, most students are African American and eligible for free or reduced price meals, and they have performed well on Maryland's Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills.
The principal must set high goals for teachers as well as students, says Ossie Brooks-James, principal of Lyndale Community School in Minneapolis, Minn. Lyndale's minority population includes African American, Somali, and Asian students, and the 11 different languages spoken by students pose a challenge. "You won't know what children are capable of until you provide lessons that tap into it," she argues. The results can produce an upward spiral. "Success breeds success. If you've never had it, you never expect it," she notes.
A Focus on Reading
Several principals point to their school's reading strategies as an important element in raising minority achievement. Thomson Elementary School moved away from basal instruction to guided reading, says Principal Donald Davis. His expertise comes not only from leading a school where many students are African American and live in poverty, but also from his role as facilitator of the ASCD African American Critical Issues Network, which connects educators interested in those issues.
Because many students at the Thomson, Ga., school have been exposed to very little literature at home, teachers give them books to keep. In the classroom, students are assigned to fluid groups according to their current reading levels, Davis notes, and "we do cross-grade grouping if necessary."
Toquam Magnet School in Stamford, Conn., takes a different tack to improving reading achievement. "We have totally heterogeneous groups," says Principal Eileen Swerdlick. "Our teachers account for the differences in the classroom" and address all students' varied needs. About half of Toquam's 460 K–5 students are African American or Hispanic, and about a third are eligible for free or reduced price meals.
Involving Parents
Minority student needs vary as greatly as their neighborhoods. In Baltimore, Whelchel depends on positive expectations and recognition of individual achievements. Each day, she holds a morning assembly that students, parents, and teachers attend. "We talk about successes," she says. "It's like a brag session." As a result of the staff's efforts, parent involvement has doubled over the past six years.
Berry says Francis Bacon also has worked hard to involve parents, some of whom do not speak English and find themselves disadvantaged at school meetings. Often an older sibling will come along to translate, she notes.
Brooks-James stresses communication with Lyndale parents. When discipline or behavior is involved, she never allows a child to translate for the parent. She has five translators at the school, and uses them in such situations. "You can't disempower the parent," she asserts.
Lyndale's population includes immigrant children who were nomadic or in refugee camps in Somalia. When the immigrant population grew, Brooks-James found that the teachers, and sometimes parents, "were having trouble handling children who had never been asked to sit down in a classroom." She scheduled training sessions for the staff—and invited parents—on teaching discipline with love and logic. "It has helped the climate immensely," Brooks-James says, because students realize that their choices have consequences.
Teacher Expertise
Professional development and collaboration are key, principals say. At Lyndale, a teacher mentor comes in and works with less-experienced teachers two days a week. At Baltimore's City Springs, a coach works along with the teachers, modeling lessons or observing and providing feedback. At Toquam, Swerdlick says her teachers do a lot of collegial sharing. "An isolated teacher can't be successful. Teacher collaboration and teacher training are critical," she notes.
Another element that promotes high achievement, principals say, is close contact among administrators and teachers. "I'm a hands-on principal," Swerdlick says. "I'm in the classroom all the time."
Many of the schools find that extra help is vital to improving the performance of disadvantaged students. Highland Renaissance Academy in Charlotte, N.C., gets extra funding through the Charlotte-Mecklenberg district's EquityPlus II program, and Principal Jenelle Bovis uses the money to pay her teachers to provide tutoring. The after-school program is "absolutely critical" to raising achievement levels, she says, and Highland teachers know the students' individual needs. "Without this, most of our kids would come back without their homework done."
Thomson Elementary critically needs such an after-school program, Davis says, but because the students live in a widely dispersed rural area, transportation costs would be high. "Many children do come to us behind, and our goal is to accelerate them." If teachers only remediate, he notes, the students will always be behind.
Swerdlick also views extra attention for at-risk students as vital. Toquam previously had a preschool program at the school, she notes, and that "had a big effect." The achievement gap is smallest when staff at the school know the student from an early age and can diagnose problems at age 3 rather than 5.
Looking ahead, much work remains to be done in understanding at-risk students, says author and researcher Williams. When students get the right encouragement from a caring person, research shows, they can defy the odds.
Jeffers too, emphasizes caring. "For everyone within the building there needs to be a compassion for children."
Davis agrees. "Keep what's best for children in the forefront. You might generate more work for yourself, but you can see the payoff."