George L. Wimberly, ACT Policy Report
2002
Like Ronald Ferguson's piece [see "Addressing Racial Disparities in High Achieving Suburban Schools" above], this report focuses on student relationships as key to the success of African American students. Unlike Ferguson's analysis, however, this ACT report places a higher value on personal relationships that help students "see the importance of education" than on raising standards and teacher expectations for black students. While it acknowledges "a positive relationship between teachers' expectations and student achievement," the author believes that teachers' expectations should be used to "influence the type of information they convey, the opportunities they create for their students, and the values they help perpetuate" - fuzzier stuff than simply raising standards and expectations. And while the ACT study admits that "schools appear to help African Americans develop educational goals and expectations," it suggests that a lack of access to information, rather than low teacher expectations and less demanding curricula, is what keeps African American students out of college. For those interested in learning how high expectations and hard work can help reduce the black-white achievement gap, read Ferguson's piece. For those more interested in cultivating warm relationships between teachers and students, see http://www.act.org/research/policy/pdf/school_relation.pdf.
