Yup. Studies have shown that just reminding a student that they are black or female before taking a test will make them do worse on the test.
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As an alternative talk to a librarian at a library that subscribes to the cited journals. Most will be happy to help.
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Or you could give us your college library login detailsâŚ
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We have SSO, which is short for Such a Shit Outside-chance of that happening. 
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That seems like a classic case of priming.
Another thing I think that poor students in general suffer from is lack of parental involvement. The childâs education is seen as the school and teacherâs responsibility and they are less likely to be involved in their education, (e.g. helping study in for spelling tests, math flash cards, helping with home work in general, etc)
There is evidence this sort of thing also is partly responsible for the difference in performance in black and white students, as there is still a marked difference between races even in upper class schools. I recall a study done by a Berkley professor that has insight into this and is an interesting read (though not an open/shut case, itâs a complex issue). If anyone wants me to dig it up I will.
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Please do dig it up. I want to see if they address the fact that poor people have significantly less free time with which to do said homework, reading, flash cards, etc. Its super hard to make time for those things if youâre a single parent working low paying jobs, possibly more than one, just to get by. I want to see the demographics of the kids they studiedâŚ
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Well the study I am talking about was for a wealthy school. But I could see how his findings would carry on to lower class.
But all your other points are important too. If you work 2 jobs, night shift, etc you donât have the time. The poor tend to have more kids as well, which means you have less time to spend with anyone kid.
I think this was originally published in the Atlantic, but I believe this is the same article. It is the same professor. And again, one personâs findings donât mean it applies across the board and further study is needed. But the dynamic he talks about and its effects make sense.
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That article seems strongly to be arguing âblack kids donât do well in school because of their culture,â and it seemed like the evidence for that was terribly shoddy. When I read articles about the âlone researcherâ who is facing criticism on all sides, I tend to wonder if all those critics donât have a point.
As there is plenty of evidence that itâs outside factors expectations that greatly affect success, to attribute it all to âcultureâ is just straight-out weird.
Hereâs another article, again by Steele in The Atlantic, describing how a calculus class just like the school described in your article â black kids falling to the bottom despite apparent similar advantages â completely reversed itself by being âmade to see value and promise in black students.â By explicitly focusing on the value of individual students, instead of continuing with the teacherâs and schoolâs existing stereotypes, those students quickly out-performed their white counterparts.
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Whether is is culture, personal attitude, or societyâs expectations, I think we are looking at the same issue.
If the parents expect and tell their kids they can do well, and the teacher and their peers say the same thing, they are priming for success.
If the parents are uninvolved and say it doesnât matter, and the students peers and teachers expect them to do poorly, that is priming for failure.
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Yeah, the non-white and female kids I love are constantly being told that they are not âprivilegedâ and therefore they will always be held back from being all they could be. Itâs a sad and infuriating drumbeat of despair, mainly propagated by people who claim they want to help, but who generally will refuse to moderate their rhetoric no matter what you say to them.
As several here have pointed out, the more people that provide positive priming, the better the results are likely to be, but even just one caring teacher or parent can make a huge difference. Thankfully, with kids, itâs often harder to hold them back then to spur them forwardâŚ
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I think that many of us in academia would very much like for our work to be more readily available to the public. However, many journals, which we have access to through our schools, are owned by large corporations that are attempting to make a shit ton off them by having people either pay for individual articles, pay for a subscription to the journals in oneâs field, or from libraries buying their databases. It sucks and many of us would like to find alternatives to that, but itâs a slow going process.
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Thereâs a big difference between being told that âthe world isnât fair, so itâs likely that youâre going to have to work harder than others to get as far as they do,â and being told, âyou will always be held back from being all you can be.â
I think itâs better to be realistic about how society works, rather than (if Iâm reading you right) telling black or Hispanic or Native American kids (or girls) that thereâs just as much opportunity out there for them to be whatever they want to be as there is for white kids (or boys).
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To be clear, I was complaining about the paywalls, but the real beef with the article (and the reason I characterized it as extremely poor journalism) is because the summaries of the referenced articles donât seem to support the conclusions the author portrays as established Scientific Fact. It reads like an article where someone started with a conclusion they wanted to arrive at, then went digging for articles that could be strung together to appear to support that conclusion.
And by the way I agree with 95% of what everyone else here is saying in the comments - Iâm not arguing that everythingâs lovely in american public education. But, I think articles like this detract from having an honest conversation (like the conversation occurring in the comments that Iâm agreeing with).
A similar thing often occurs in conversations about global warming. People (on both sides) feel like they need to protect the conclusion they have decided they âsideâ with and refuse to abide any nuance, counterargument, or fact that doesnât agree with it. The result is fiercely-argued polemics that alienate anyone not already predisposed to agree.
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I understood that, but was just letting you know why things are paywalled. I havenât had a chance to read the article yet so wasnât commenting on what you said in that regard. Itâs very likely that the author of the article might have had access to the full articles, which may very well support their arguments, but I donât know.
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My experience (outside the US) is that when people see schools as solely responsible for their childâs education its because they themselves donât have as much education to pass on (not always, but most of the time), if they donât get involved is because they feel they cannot help. And yes, its an especially vicious cycle for poor people.
Its a sad reality that if schoolâs or teachers arenât prepared/set up/well funded enough to elevate people above their parents education then it should come as no surprise when nothing changes.
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I very strongly agree. The former is what I tell every single kid, because itâs true. The latter may well also be true, in any one specific case, but I donât choose to be a part of spreading that message.
A forest is not made of identical trees, unless we go in with a chainsaw and make them that way. Priming is objectively real; words really do matter.
WHAM! You may as well drop the mic, dude. Youâve encapsulated modern political discourse!
Gotta go, peoples, good night.
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I completely agree. There are way too many issues that shouldnât be politicized that are and both sides fight the party line with little understanding of their position.
That, and they usually insist that to be âusâ it means to take all the issues in a block, and disagreeing with a subset is enough to put you to the âthemâ camp with the âother sideâ. Which is equally liable to eject you out of their midst for similar disagreements. So what is left for you is the no-manâs-land crater-pocked with âargumentsâ lobbed from one side to the other, falling on ears long ago deafened by the overly polarized discourse. Better bring a blanket and a pair of earplugs; the nights there are cold and noisy.
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I think what parents can provide is a level of importance, of expectation, to your kids education.
Instill into them that this actually matters and putting in effort is a valuable thing. Instilling the value of Giving a Shit.
