Abstract
The preponderance of the research on African American students has generally focused on issues of school failure and underperformance. While the literature on high achieving Black students is sparse, very little is known about these students’ school experiences and the meanings that they assign to achievement. Using student-based inquiry research, this study investigates the meaning of school achievement among high-performing African Americans. The findings reveal that the students were not convinced that standardized examinations, and to a lesser extent course grades, were accurate or valid measures of achievement. Thus, they challenged the dominant achievement paradigm and created their own sense of school success, which included social dimensions such as community involvement and personal growth and development. Although collectively the students concluded that standardized exams and grades were not achievement or accurate measures of achievement, yet they clearly knew how to ‘play the game.’ While students must meet the norms of standardized measures and end-of-course testing related to the Common Core, schools can respond to their diverse assessment needs by incorporating broader measures that include, but are not limited to standardized tests. The findings of this study and student recommendations have great implications for teacher education and student assessment.
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Appendix: Achievement
Appendix: Achievement
What did student achievement mean to you in high school?
Probes:
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Do you think that your teachers were able to accurately determine how well you were learning? How so?
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Do you believe that grades and standardized test scores were good measures of your performance? Why?
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Were there students in your classes who you believe knew a lot more than their tests scores indicated? If yes, why was this the case?
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What grades were you happy or unhappy with? Why?
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How did you approach school? Were you very serious in your studies?
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Did you study very hard for your exams? Why?
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Did you wish your teachers had created some other measures of your performance other than test scores? (Yes, No) How could your teachers have assessed your performance differently?
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Wiggan, G. Student Achievement for Whom? High-performing and Still ‘Playing the Game,’ the Meaning of School Achievement Among High Achieving African American Students. Urban Rev 46, 476–492 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-014-0300-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-014-0300-y