Achievement Gap and Students

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Students, Prejudice and Risk

Students learn to be prejudiced through experience with other persons; prejudice by others can lead to prejudice in students, especially if they feel that representatives of a group, such as teachers or persons of authority speak for the whole and express basically biased views. In this way students can become prejudiced against certain groups; or news reports in the media, for example, of the way that police officers are portrayed, can lead to prejudice in students. Peers and family members can also pass on prejudice to students, so it is something that can be handed down by background and culture, too (Koonce, 2016).

Approaches that might help develop appropriate tolerance and acceptance in students could be for schools to adopt a Zero Tolerance policy, in which no form of prejudice or bias is accepted and if it is displayed by students they are immediately disciplined without any second warnings (Koonce, 2016). However, this approach is an ironically intolerant approach towards tolerance, so can be perceived as hypocritical, especially if students do not see how they are being prejudicial (they may not realize it) or if they believe their perspectives are based on good reason and experience; so the Zero Tolerance approach may not be the best method of dealing with intolerance among students.

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A better approach might be to teach tolerance through tolerance -- and rather than strictly disciplining a policy of political correctness instead promoting and embracing differing opinions and allowing students the free speech to voice their perspectives. This would allow students to voice themselves, feel that they are being heard rather than forced to accept a position they may not believe, and it could lead to healthy dialogue and true rather than forced conversion of attitudes from intolerance and bias to love and acceptance (Koonce, 2016). It will, at least, prevent attitudes from becoming bottled up which can lead to explosions of violence down the road.

What should be done to improve the achievement and adjustment of "kids at risk" is to help close the achievement gap. As Barton and Coley (2010) note, the achievement gap saw the most closure in the 1970s and 1980s -- but "since then, overall progress in closing the gaps has slowed" (p. 8). Part of the reason for this slow down process is that the nuclear family since the 1980s has begun to disintegrate, with divorce rates….....

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