What are We Talking about When We Talk about “Closing the Achievement Gap”?

Understanding elementary teachers' perceptions of students of color and low socioeconomic status students

“…This type of stereotyping established and maintained a hierarchy of power, characterizing subgroups of students as inferior and holding less cultural capital than the ruling class (Borrero, Yeh, Cruz, & Suda, 2012;Riley & Ungerleider, 2012). This stereotyping was consistent with Books (2007) where she outlined the societal and systemic issue of pinpointing variances in academic achievement by blaming parenting practices of African American parents and a failure to produce an academic achievement culture within schools due to the lack of focus on academics by certain subgroups of students and their families. Because schools are social and cultural contexts, societal stereotypes can be used to categorize and label students, placing them within existing hierarchical power structures (Borrero, Yeh, Cruz, & Suda, 2012).…”

“…When Students of Color and poor students' cultural practices, values, and characteristics were viewed as deficient, those students were believed by their teachers to be less likely to attain higher levels of academic success than their peers from the dominant cultural group (Tomlinson & Jarvis, 2014). Because of this, teachers tended to overestimate the skills of White students and underestimate the abilities of Students of Color students (Books, 2007;Ready & Wright, 2011). This use of stereotyping and deficit thinking by individuals in an influential position could have lasting effects on student achievement (Riley & Ungerleider, 2012).…”