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"A new study from Stanford shows that a simple teaching tactic may help close the achievement gap between Latino American students and their white peers...The matter comes down to overcoming the negative effects of “stereotype threat,” a phenomenon that researchers have identified and documented over the last two decades. What they have found – in numerous studies – is that the stress and uncertain sense of belonging that can stem from being a member of a negatively stereotyped group undermines academic performance of minority students as compared with white students."
I rarely quote extensively from posts I have read, but in this case I am going to quote a section that appears in this post.
"Cohen and his colleagues have been looking for remedies to stereotype threat. In the first study described in the article, the researchers devised well-timed “values-affirmation” classroom assignments given to both Latino and white students as a part of the regular classroom curriculum. In one exercise, middle schoolers were given a list of values, such as “being good at art,” “being religious” and “having a sense of humor.” They were asked to pick the ones that were important to them and write a few sentences describing why. In a second exercise, they reflected in a more open-ended manner on things in their life that were important to them, and in a third they were guided to write a brief essay describing how the things they most consistently valued would be important to them in the coming spring.
Students completed several structured reflection exercises in their class throughout the year. The tasks were given at critical moments: the beginning of the school year; before tests; and near the holiday season, a period of stress for many people."
The post goes on to note that there was a control group and that there were significan differences between the two groups with the Latino students obtaining higher grades and that the effects of this affirmation exercise lasted for three years.
I posted an article about this a few weeks ago, but this article (which is actually a reprint of one published in the Stanford Graduate School of Education website) provides a more in-depth look at some of these studies. If you have a large Latino population in your school it is worth your time to check out this article.