Borman et al., 2015: Affirming values reduced the achievement gap for racial-ethnic minority middle school students
Reference:
Rozek, C. S., Hanselman, P., Feldman, R. C., Quast, E. A., Crawford, E. P., & Borman, G. D. (2015). Inside the Black Box of Self-Affirmation: Which Parts of Affirmation Exercises Are Critical for Treatment Efficacy?. Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness.
Download PDFSummary:
In a district-wide scale-up extending Cohen et al., 2006, 2009, a values-affirmation intervention was delivered to 6th-, 7th-, and 8th- grade students in all 11 middle schools in Madison, Wisconsin. The intervention raised cumulative 7th grade-point-average for racial-ethnic minority students, reducing the racial achievement gap by 10%. The greatest benefits were in schools in which African American students were poorly represented and where the achievement gap was highest, where identity threat may be highest (Hanselman et al., 2014).
Psychological Process:
What Desired Meaning is At Stake?
What is the Person Trying to Understand?
To See the Self as AdequateApproach to Desired Meaning
What about it?
Remedy Threats to Self-Integrity that Undermine FunctioningHow?
Psychological Question Addressed
Am I under threat, because could I be seen or treated negatively because of my group identity?Am I under threat, because could I be seen or treated negatively because of my group identity?Psychological Question Addressed
Am I under threat, because could I be seen or treated negatively because of my group identity?Psychological Process 2:
Psychological Process 3:
Social Area:
Education
Intervention Technique:
Active reflection, values-affirmation