OCTOBER 13 , 2010SCHOOL OF EDUCATION RESEARCH

SEMINAR SERIES

Natasha K . BowenUNC Schoo l o f Soc ia l Work

Too Good to Be True: Can a Brief Writing Intervention

Really Close the Achievement Gap?

Acknowledgments

Kate M. Wegmann and Kristina C. Webber orchestrated the intervention at the middle school.

Funding for teacher incentives was provided by a Pfouts grant from the School of Social Work.

Previous Research

Cohen, Garcia & Apfel, 2006, Science, 313, 1307-1310.Report on two studies involving 119 African American and

124 European American 7th graders, over 1 school termRandom assignment; 2 conditions

treatment students were asked to indicate their most important value

control students their least important value.Regression analyses

2-way interactions Dummy codes representing 3 teachers

Repeated measures, & means tests also presented

Previous Research

Cohen, Garcia & Apfel, 2006, Science, 313, 1307-1310.

Showed race by condition effects .26 and .34 in GPA metric in the 2 studies;

claimed 40% reduction in grade gap between African and European American students

Bigger effect for lower performing students No effect for European American students Conducted additional tests to demonstrate that

psychological threat was the mechanism

Previous Research

Cohen, Garcia, Apfel, & Master. (2009). Science, 324, 400-403. Follow-up of 2006 study (but now 3 cohorts and

different sample sizes from those reported earlier) Original study took place at beginning of 7th grade Follow-up examined effects on performance at end of

8th grade Booster treatments provided in 7th grade 385 total subjects Regression 3 way interaction among race, condition, prior

performance

Previous Research

Cohen, Garcia & Apfel, Purdi-Vaughs, Apfel, & Brzustoski. (2009). Science, 324, 400-403. Race by condition effects continued through 8th grade

Better performance for African American students in TX No change for European American students

In sum, long-term effects of a brief writing intervention on performance, with biggest effect on low achieving African American students

Theory of Psychological Threat

Worry about reinforcing a negative stereotype about a group one belongs to represents a threat that may cause stress and interfere with performance.

Strong empirical evidence of (a) the existence of stigma-based threat, (b) the ease with which threat can be manipulated, and (c) the magnitude of the potential impact on performance

Across groups, ages, situations

Transactional Developmental Processes

Long term effects due to changing trajectories of performance.

Durham Study

SAMPLE:Population of students at the middle school—622 students, --

Quarterly grade data on 585 students (absences and moves)

African American 70% (407)Hispanic/Latino 20% (117)White 5% (30)Multi-racial 3% (17)Asian 2% (14)

Other

Durham Study

DESIGN: 3X2 ExperimentalRandom assignment of students to 3 writing

promptsNeutralSelf-affirmingGroup-affirming

Random assignment of teachers to 2 reading conditionsRead essays of all studentsDon’t read essays of any students

Durham Study

MEASURES: Gender: 0=female; 1=male Race/ethnicity: Examined AA and HL subsets Teacher condition: 0=did not read essays;

1=did read essays Child condition: self=1 0; group=0 1;

neutral=0 0 Quarterly grades in Math, Language Arts, and

Social Studies (100 point scale) (pre- and post-EOG scores in math and reading)

PROCEDURES:Random assignment of students and teachersPreparation of envelopes for studentsDistribution of envelopes and writing exerciseTeachers in reading condition, read essaysEnd of year preparation of grade data linked to study codes (anonymous data provided to researchers)

Durham Study

Durham Study

HYPOTHESES:1. Students whose teachers read their essays will have

better grades.2. Students who receive the self-affirming prompt will

have better grades than those who receive the neutral prompt.

3. Students who receive the group-affirming prompt will have better grades than those who receive the neutral prompt.

4. Students who receive an affirmation prompt and whose teachers read their essays will have the best grades.

ANALYSIS:3-Level Hierarchical Linear ModelingQuarters at level 1 (nested in individual students)Individual students at level 2Classrooms at level 3Random intercept and slope (quarters)Tested all 3-way interactions and lower termsTo avoid 4-way interactions and to identify within- group effects, analyzed AA and HL separately

Durham Study

Results Overview

Four significant treatment effects were found All involved 3-way interactions 2 for African American students 2 for Hispanic Latino students Generally in hypothesized direction Language arts and social studies No effects found on math

Interaction for African American Students Among Time, Teacher Condition, and Writing Prompt: Social

Studies Grades ……………….

Quarter1 Quarter2 Quarter3 Quarter484

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

Teacher Read, Self PromptTeacher Read, Group PromptNo Read, Neutral PromptNo Read, Self PromptNo Read, Group PromptTeacher Read, Neutral Prompt

Interaction for African American Students Among Time, Gender, and Writing Prompt : Language Arts Grades

Quarter1 Quarter2 Quarter3 Quarter478

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

Boy, Group PromptGirl, Group PromptBoy, Neutral PromptGirl, Neutral Prompt

boys

girls?

Interaction for Hispanic/Latino Students Among Time, Gender, and Writing Prompt: Social Studies Grades

Quarter1 Quarter2 Quarter3 Quarter482

84

86

88

90

92

94

Boy, Self PromptGirl, Self PromptBoy, Neutral PromptGirl, Neutral Prompt

Interaction for Hispanic Latino Students Among Time, Teacher Condition, and Writing Prompt: Language Arts Grades

Quarter1 Quarter2 Quarter3 Quarter484

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

Teacher Read, Group PromptTeacher Read, Neutral PromptNo Read, Group PromptNo Read, Neutral Prompt

Hypotheses

1. Students whose teachers read their essays will have better grades.African American students whose teachers read their essays had better Social Studies grades than students with teachers who did not read their essays, even when they wrote on the neutral prompt.

Hispanic/Latino students who wrote on the group prompt AND whose teachers read their essays had the best language arts grades.

Otherwise, teacher reading was not associated with better grades.

Hypotheses

2. Students who receive the self-affirming prompt will have better grades than those who receive the neutral prompt.Hispanic/Latino boys who wrote on the self-affirming prompt had higher grades in Social Studies than did H/L boys who received the neutral prompt.

H/L girls with the self-affirming prompt had higher SS grades after Quarter 2 than boys and all those with the neutral prompt, and a positive grade trajectory.

African American students who wrote on the self-affirming prompt AND whose teachers read their essays had better grades than students who had other prompts and whose teachers did not read their essays.

3. Students who receive the group-affirming prompt will have better grades than those who receive the neutral prompt.

Hypotheses

AA students with the group prompt had higher Social Studies grades than those with the neutral prompt at all time points IF their teachers also read their essays.

The same was true for HL students with the group prompt for Language Arts grades.

African American Girls with the group prompt had Language Arts grades BELOW those with the neutral prompt.

4. Students who receive an affirmation prompt and whose teachers read their essays will have the best grades.

Hypotheses

Significant interactions between child and teacher conditions occurred for Hispanic/Latino students and for African American students.

--For African American students, Social Studies grades were the highest when the child and teacher conditions were combined (teacher read essay, child wrote on self-affirming prompt).

--For Hispanic/Latino students, Language Arts grades were the highest when the child and teacher conditions were combined (teacher read essays, child wrote on group-affirming prompt).

Implications

Language Arts and Social Studies grades of African American and Hispanic/Latino students appear to be positively affected by a brief writing intervention across middle school grade levels. The intervention affected both intercepts and slopes of quarterly grade trajectories.

For African American students, the combination of affirming prompt and teaching reading essays was most effective.

For Hispanic/Latinos, the self-affirming prompt was associated with better grades even without teacher reading the essays. Group prompt most effective when combined with teacher reading essay.

No effect on Math in current analyses.

Implications

Classroom factors that can be easily manipulated may have a notable effect on performance.

Consistent with stereotype literature Writing intervention per se probably less

important that teacher learning more about students, seeing positive side of student, in combination with student experiencing positive sense of self and identity in the learning location

Still to Do

Initial test with incomplete data shows strong effect of the self affirming prompt on Hispanic Latino EOG scores, controlling for prior year EOG scores.

Compare grade levelsExamine effects within subject area taught by

teaching administering the interventionSee if there were effects for Other

racial/ethnic groups at the school (closing the gap or improving performance of all?)