Annotation+3


 * Full citation? **

The Test Score Gap


 * Where are the author/s located, what are their backgrounds and what kinds of expertise do they have? **

Frontline


 * List of at least three details or examples from the text that point to something important about culture, education and/or the challenge of environmental sustainability in the United States. **

The article starts by talking about the large test score gaps between different demographics--male/female, whites/asians, whites/blacks. The most significant is the white-black gap, where black students on average score 93 points below white students on verbal, and 106 on math.

Research explained by Meredith Phillips suggests that the income of the parents has little to do with the test scores. She says that is more a result of the grandparents' generation--who were still experiencing the full extent of racism and segregation and were not given the same opportunities as their white counterparts. The parent generation (the children of the grandparents) can correct this and provide all of the same things as white parents, but their own upbringing has a trickle-down affect on the children.

They also bring up the point that there is no evidence to suggest that blacks are inherently incapable of achieving the same scores as whites.


 * What three quotes capture the critical import of the text? **

"... a student who feels he is part of a group that has been negatively stereotyped is likely to perform less well in a situation in which he thinks that people might evaluate him through that stereotype than in a situation in which he feels no such pressure."

"I n another experiment, Steele brought in white and Asian men who were strong in math. He told them the math test they were about to take was one in which Asians do slightly better than whites. The white men performed less well when they were told this, than when they were not. Another experiment showed that stereotype threat also brought down the performance of strong female math students."

In __ The Black-White Test Score Gap, __ David Grissmer and his colleagues attribute the narrowing gap (they focus their attention not on SAT scores, but rather on reading and math tests given to 9-,13- and 17-year-olds) to anti-poverty efforts, school desegregation, class-size reduction and more demanding coursework implemented in the 1960s and early 1970s. The researchers suggest that teenage violence among blacks might have contributed to the widening of the gap starting at the end of the 1980s, but they warn that this is insufficient to explain all of it.


 * What is the main argument of the text? **

The text mainly addressed that there is a significant test-score gap between whites and blacks but that no one really knows for sure why this is. There is speculation on different theories but it seems insufficient information to make a conclusion.


 * Describe at least three ways that the main argument is supported. **

The text discusses hard data showing that blacks score lower than whites.

The text brings up data that shows stereotypes have an effect--when a group is expected to perform less well, they do.

The text discusses multiple theories that would account for the widening and narrowing of the test score gap.


 * What parts of the argument did you find most and least persuasive, and why? **

I think the part about stereotyping was most persuasive, although it didn't say if Steele reversed the roles to see if Asians would perform less well than whites or if males would perform less well than females if they were told they would. I do feel that being stereotyped has a significant effect on people, usually not in good way.

I found the evidence for why blacks perform less well not convincing, I believe that the reasons they give are contributors but there was just not enough data to show this is exactly why the test scores are this much lower.


 * Explain how the argument and evidence in the text relates to our effort to conceptualize, design and deliver EcoEd? **

We haven't really discussed racial gaps in terms of what we are doing in EcoEd, but I am sure the lower test scores have an affect on what black students become later in life. There is a push to bring more black students into STEM education and this is relevant to us trying to get students excited about having career goals that are focused on environmental issues.


 * What additional information has this text compelled you to seek out? (Describe what you learned in a couple of sentences, providing at least two supporting references). **

I would love to find out how to narrow the gap--it seems unfair that while minorities are not at an inherent disadvantage, the environment they are exposed to throughout education significantly alters their abilities to do well.