On May 8, 2009 Education Week published an article by Debra Viadero which gives us insight in to addressing the achievement gap.
"White and African-American students can perform dramatically differently in the classroom, depending on how their teachers structure their learning groups, a new study suggests."
Teaching techniques and staff development are essential in creating success for all of our students. The study goes on to say:
"African-American children tend to relate to others in ways that are more communally oriented than they are competitive or individualistic. Mr. Hurley said that tendency may be due in part to the large, extended families in which many black children grow up and the socialization children experience in their churches and other community institutions."
Students were presented with the same mathematics material but using different techniques.
"The black students scored highest­—getting 9.63 out of 15 questions correct—after having taken part in the “communal” group lessons. They turned in their worst group performance following their time in the group that emphasized individual rewards, answering only 6.41 of 15 questions correctly.
The individual-reward group, on the other hand, turned out to be the most optimal setting for white students, as a group, with white students getting 10.19 of those questions correct. In comparison, the white students got only 6.72 right answers—their worst performance—following lessons in the “communal” group."
One of the conclusions drawn by an outside observer drives the point home.
“Clearly, we’re showing by these findings that social context actually matters in ways that we should be thinking about,” said Edd Taylor, an assistant professor of learning sciences at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., who was not involved in the study."
We are not suggesting that we should segregate our students so that they have optimal learning environments. What we are suggesting is that we consider two points. First, we need to recognize that communal learning activities are no longer a novelty. Teacher centered learning will not create the results we need in a diverse school district and will not impact the achievement gap. Second, we need to understand that work in the global economy is done by teams. All children must be able to perform in this environment. We need to vary our teaching techniques and creatively meld the two approaches. They are not mutually exclusive.