The Achievement Gap Initiative

June 2007 Conference Papers


Title	Adaptation of Preventive Interventions for a Low-Income Culturally Diverse Community
Submitted By	Beardslee, William
Abstract		Objective: To describe essential elements in the adaptation of a prevention approach with a high-risk urban sample, chosen to contrast sharply with the primarily middle-class sample in which it had been originally tested. Methods: Key elements of a preventive intervention for families with parental depression were adapted for use in the new context. Results: A sequence of alliance-building events was implemented, involving engagement at three levels – community, caregivers and family. The prevention approach was modified to include: an expanded approach to defining depression; greater flexibility on the part of the clinician; more intensive engagement between clinician and family, with a focus on immediate daily concerns; awareness of cultural issues and responsiveness to the subject\'s experience of violence. Conclusion: Core principles of helping family members to discuss the effects of depression and adversity on family life were affirmed. <br /> <br />	view the paper

Title	A Family-Based Approach to the Prevention of Depressive Symptoms in Children at Risk: Evidence of Parental and Child Change
Submitted By	Beardslee, William
Abstract		Objective. Depression in parents is a prevalent and impairing illness that is encountered frequently in medical practice. Children of depressed parents are at risk for psychopathology and other difficulties. A series of recent national reports have recommended the development of prevention efforts targeting children of depressed parents. Yet, to date few controlled prevention studies of depression in children and adolescents have been conducted. In this study, we report the evaluation of two preventive intervention strategies that target children living in homes with depressed parents. Both are public health approaches that were designed to be used by a wide range of practitioners from a variety of disciplines, including pediatricians, internists, school counselors, nurses and mental health practitioners. We adopted a developmental perspective and intervened with families when children were entering the age of highest risk for depression onset (i.e., adolescence).We chose a family-based approach to prevention and sought to reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors for early adolescents by increasing positive interactions between parents and children, and by increasing understanding of the illness for everyone in the family. Our prevention approaches were designed to provide information about mood disorders to parents, to equip parents with the skills they need to communicate information to their children, and to open a dialogue with their children about the effects of parental depression. We hypothesized that participation in these prevention programs would result in parental change in child-related behaviors and attitudes about depression and its impact on the family. In addition, we hypothesized that this parental change would produce change in children’s self-understanding, and in children’s depressive symptomatology. Methodology. We conducted a large scale efficacy trial of two manual-based preventive intervention programs that were designed to be used widely in public health settings. These interventions target the relatively healthy children (ages 8 to 15) of parents with mood disorder. Ninety-three families (88.5% of our initial sample), including 121 children, participated in this study through the fourth assessment point. These families were assigned randomly to either a lecture or a clinician-facilitated intervention. Both interventions were specified in manuals. The lecture condition consisted of two separate meetings delivered in a group format without children present. The clinician-facilitated condition consisted of 6-11 sessions, including separate meetings with parents and children and a family meeting in which the parents led a discussion of the illness and of positive steps that can be taken to promote healthy functioning in the children. In addition, telephone contacts or refresher meetings were conducted at 6 to 9 month intervals. In both conditions, psychoeducational material about mood disorders, risk and resilience was presented and efforts were made to decrease feelings of guilt and blame in children. Parents were helped to build resilience in their children through encouraging their friendships, their success outside of the home, and their understanding of parental illness and of themselves. In addition, in the clinician-facilitated condition efforts were made to link the psychoeducational material presented to the family’s own unique illness experience. To address directly how their lives had changed, all family members in both conditions were assessed for psychopathology and for overall functioning at intake, and for psychopathology, functioning, and response to intervention immediately post-intervention, approximately 1 year post-intervention, and again approximately 2.5 years post-intervention. Results. We examined the outcomes of child understanding and internalizing symptomatology, and a number of predictor variables, using repeated measures analyses with generalized estimating equations. We found that parents in both conditions reported significant change in child-related behaviors and attitudes, and that the amount of change reported increased over time from time 3 to time 4 (÷21 = 18.1, p < .001). Moreover, relative to parents in the lecture program (mean number of changes = 6.3), parents in the clinician-facilitated program reported more change in child-related behaviors and attitudes (mean number of changes = 9.8). Children in both conditions reported increased understanding of parental illness due to participation in our intervention programs. There was a positive association between the amount of change children reported in their understanding of parental illness and the number of changes couples reported in child-related behaviors/attitudes (÷21=37.3, p < .0001) (i.e., parents who had changed the most in response to intervention had children who also changed the most). Finally, internalizing scores for all children decreased with increased time since intervention (÷21=7.3, p=.007). In addition, females had higher internalizing scores than males (÷21=5.3, p = .02). There was no significant effect of group on children’s change in internalizing symptomatology (÷21=0.2, p=.69). Conclusions. We enrolled families with relatively healthy children, administered carefully designed preventive interventions that are manual-based and relatively brief, and found that these programs do have long-standing positive effects in how families problem solve around parental illness. Our results show significant benefits from both interventions. Moreover, changes in parents’ perceptions translated directly into changes in children’s own understanding of parental illness. Parental behavior and attitude changes and their connection to child changes in understanding identify an important mediating variable: family change. By increasing children’s understanding of parental mood disorder, our interventions were found to promote resilience-related qualities in these children at risk. This presentation represents the first and only longitudinal primary prevention study of relatively healthy children at risk for psychopathology due to parental mood disorder and demonstrates a significant reduction in risk factors and increase in protective factors in these families over a long time interval – two and a half years. Our results provide support for a family-based approach to preventive intervention.<br />	view the paper

Title	Review of Key Findings from the 2006 AGI Annual State-of-the-Research Conference
Submitted By	Ferguson, Ronald
Abstract		This paper is a summary of research presented at the 2006 AGI annual conference. The paper was presented at the opening of the conference in June 2007.	view the paper

Title	Hip-Hop Folk Theories of Social Mobility Without Formal Education: “Drugs, Basketball, & Hip-Hop”
Submitted By	Gosa, Travis
Abstract		Despite concerns that hip-hop is having a negative impact on the educational achievement of black youth, little is known about achievement-related messages in this youth culture. To investigate, I employ John Ogbu’s “I-R-S” cultural ecological model of student achievement. Using Ogbu’s “oppositional culture” framework, qualitative content analysis is conducted on a large random sample of hip-hop lyrics (n=3,030). My focus is on what lyrics say about social mobility and education (“Instrumental Beliefs”), appropriate and experienced relationships with schools and other societal institutions (“Relational Beliefs”), and issues of race-gender identity and achievement (“Symbolic Beliefs”).<br /> <br /> In this dissertation chapter, I delve deeper into oppositional instrumental themes in the music by exploring hip-hop’s folk theories of social mobility. I examine what rap lyrics say about “making it” in life, the opportunity structure, definitions of success, role modeling, community and parental influences, and general work norms. I find that hip-hop’s dominant folk theory of mobility holds that black youth have only three viable routes to success: drugs, sports, and hip-hop. This narrow vision of the opportunity structure reinforces claims that education does not lead to success in the adult labor market, and that academic achievement is not necessary for getting ahead in life. I argue that these stories of mobility without formal schooling help normalize and legitimize academic disengagement and anti-school norms. While rap lyrics tend to mock working hard at school or regular 9-to-5 jobs, there is a strong work ethic that encourages success in the three spheres through hard work, dedication, and sacrifice.<br />	view the paper

Title	Hip-Hop’s Counter-Narrative & Pro-Schooling Messages
Submitted By	Gosa, Travis
Abstract		The purpose of this chapter is to explore hip-hop’s pro-schooling messages, when and where they can be located in the historical development of hip-hop, and how these voices of dissent challenge aspects of hip-hop’s oppositional “I-R-S” discourse. In doing so, I examine the growing divisions within the hip-hop community(ies). I address increasing concerns that hip-hop is becoming more negative by exploring how achievement-related judgments have changed in the music.<br /> I find that earlier “old school” lyrics appearing before 1994 contain powerful messages about the importance of education and the consequences of dropout. In what I call hip-hop’s pro-schooling parables, these now “old-school” lyrics warn against academic disengagement and leaving school to pursue the street life. While I caution against romanticizing hip-hop before the mid-1990s, I attempt to show how hip-hop’s “gangster turn” has altered the overall tone and achievement-related messages in the music.<br /> In addition to exploring these old school parables, I examine hip-hop’s current countermovement. Armed with autobiographic life lessons, witty insults, hip-hop infused cinema, and logic, these voices of dissent warn about the destructive ideas about achievement and authenticity that are now commonplace in hip-hop. Diverging from pack, these artists warn that eschewing education, selling drugs, and acting like a thug is unwise. Sometimes calling themselves “underground” or “real hip-hop,” these lyricists believe that hip-hop has been hijacked by major label artists and music executives willing to ignore the consequences of selling “lies” to young listeners. Often, these newer artists are teaming up with emcees from the 1980s to reform hip-hop from within. While some high profile artists are vocally opposing the destructive themes in the music, there are reasons to believe that positive messengers are not resonating with black youth.	view the paper

Title	The Construction of Oppositional Culture in Hip-Hop Music: An In-depth Case Analysis of Kanye West and Tupac Shakur
Submitted By	Gosa, Travis
Abstract		Given the prominent, yet controversial theory of oppositional culture used to explain the poor academic achievement of black youth and recent concerns that hip-hop is leading black youth to adopt anti-school attitudes, we examine the construction of oppositional culture in hip-hop music. Through a qualitative case study of song lyrics (n=250) from two of hip-hop’s most influential artists—“conscious” rapper Kanye West and “gangster” rapper Tupac Shakur, we find oppositional culture in both artists’ lyrics. However, our analysis reveals important differences in how the two artists describe the role of schooling in adult success, relationships with teachers and schools, and how education is related to authentic black male identity. Our findings suggest a need for reexamining the notion that oppositional culture means school resistance.	view the paper

Title	Teachers at Risk: Preparing Effective Teachers for 21st Century Schools
Submitted By	Jongewaard, Steven
Abstract		This paper was presented at an Oxford Roundtable series on at-risk students held at Oriel College, Oxford University, March 21-26, 2004. It represents a synthesis of pertinent research and a description of an actual program to train teachers for success with urban learners. I am posting it here for those of you in the AGI group interested in teacher preparation. I welcome your questions and feedback. Teachers At Risk: Preparing Effective Teachers for 21st Century Schools (original Oxford abstract) What essential knowledge, skills and dispositions are required to successfully meet the needs of students in our highly diverse, urban school classrooms? What does research tell us about the critical components of a teacher preparation program designed to prepare teachers for both competence and confidence in such complex educational settings? This session will focus on the characteristics of the urban districts of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota and the program at Hamline University designed to prepare teachers to succeed in those schools. Participants will learn about the urban learner framework used by the Center for Excellence in Urban Teaching at Hamline and our approaches to the operationalization of this theoretical framework. Further, participants will learn about several ongoing research projects designed to measure the efficacy of our efforts. A closing discussion will focus on the universality and transferability of this training model. A working bibliography of resources available in 2004 is attached.	view the paper

Title	High Poverty Schools and the Distribution of Teachers and Principals
Submitted By	Ladd, Helen
Abstract		Although many factors combine to make a successful school, most people agree that quality teachers and school principals are among the most important requirements for success, especially when success is defined by the ability of the school to raise the achievement of its students. The central question for this study is how the quality of the teachers and principals in high poverty schools in North Carolina compares to that in the schools serving more advantaged students. A related question is why these differences emerge. The consistency of the patterns across many measures of qualifications for both teachers and principals leaves no doubt that students in the high poverty schools are served by school personnel with lower qualifications than those in the lower poverty schools. Moreover, in many cases the differences are large. Additional evidence documents that the differences largely reflect predictable outcomes of the labor market for teachers and principals. Hence, active policy interventions are needed to counter these forces if the ultimate goal is to provide equal educational opportunity.	view the paper

Title	Understanding Trends in the Black-White Achievement Gap: The Importance of Decomposition Methodology
Submitted By	Murnane, Richard
Abstract		We revisit the work of Cook and Evans (2000) to examine the decomposition of trends in the black-white achievement gap into trends in within- and between-school differences. Taking advantage of recent improvements in data and advances in scholarship on decomposition methodology, we find that previous research has overstated the extent to which the narrowing of the achievement gap through the 1970s and 1980s can be attributed to the narrowing of within-school differences between black and white students. Further, we find that trends in between-school differences become more important in explaining the widening of the gap that is observed through the 1990s.	view the paper

Title	Identity-based motivation and health
Submitted By	Oyserman, Daphna
Abstract		Content of important social identities influences beliefs about health, including belief in the efficacy of taking action to promote health. We describe why this happens using our identity-based motivation model. We demonstrate that racial-ethnic minority participants view health promotion behaviors as “White, middle class” and unhealthy behaviors as in-group defining (Studies 1-2) and that priming race-ethnicity (and low SES) increases fatalism about health and reduces access to health knowledge (Studies 3-4). These main effects are moderated by differences in identification of unhealthy behavior as in-group defining and salience of in-group to broader society comparison (Studies 5-7). Perceived efficacy of health promotion is low when unhealthy behavior is identified as in-group defining and similarities to (middle class) Whites are made salient.	view the paper

Title	Everyday Antiracism in Education
Submitted By	Pollock, Mica
Abstract			view the paper

Title	The Tripod Project: Intellectual Engagement Plan (PPT)
Submitted By	Sampson, Randall
Abstract		If we as a team are on the same plan, and can work as a unit, we can place the responsibility for learning where it belongs: on the student. We believe that well-designed homework assignments relate directly to class work and extend students’ learning beyond the class, and that student achievement correlates to teacher expectations.	view the paper

Title	The Tripod Project:Cultivating An Ambitious And Industrious Love For Learning
Submitted By	Sampson, Randall
Abstract		This study analyzed a learning community’s quest to collectively cultivate students’ love for learning, scaffold upon the Tripod Project research framework. The Tripod Project is an essential framework for learning communities seeking to foster a stimulating learning culture for ALL students. The Tripod Project is constructed upon the essential concepts of content, pedagogy and relationships.The implementation of Tripod surveys and student-teacher focus groups can foster a robust data driven learning culture, which is focused on establishing a surplus of intellectual capital to be shared between students and teachers; therefore, the Tripod Project is as an important conduit between instructional research and practice when schools centralize the students’ learning experiences as the core foundation for continuous academic improvement.	view the paper

Title	Code-switching: Insights and Strategies for Teaching Standard English in Dialectally Diverse Classrooms
Submitted By	Wheeler, Rebecca
Abstract		When African American students write "I have two sister and two brother," "Dad jeep out of gas," or "My mom deserve a good man," teachers traditionally diagnose “poor English,” finding that the students are “having problems,” or making “errors” with plurality, possession, or verb agreement, etc. In response, the teacher “corrects” the child’s writing, showing them the “right” way to convey these grammatical points. However, research and longstanding student performance have demonstrated that the traditional correction methods fail to teach African American students the requisite Standard English skills. Linguistic research offers an explanation and a solution. When traditional approaches assess student language as “error-filled,” they misdiagnose student writing performance: students using vernacular language ("My goldfish name is Scaley," etc.) are not making errors in Standard English -- they are following the grammar patterns of the home dialect. This paper documents and illustrates how and why traditional English techniques miss-assess African American students' writing performance. It then a) details a linguistically-informed approach to fostering Standard English mastery in African American classrooms -- contrastive analysis (CA) and code-switching (CS), b) identifies key contrasts between the traditional and the code-switching classroom and c) includes a transcript of one urban educator using contrastive analysis to teach Standard English possessive forms. The paper then sketches a range of scenarios, suggesting how code-switching positively transforms the dialectally diverse classroom. It concludes by reporting NCLB results from a code-switching classroom. An appendix of “graphic organizers” and lesson plans for code-switching is included.	view the paper