鈥淎re you sure you belong here?鈥�
There is perhaps no more critical question for a disadvantaged student entering an advanced class, none more likely to rattle in the back of even the most gifted student鈥檚 brain.
And when coming from a teacher or student, it鈥檚 also just one example of a 鈥渕icroaggression,鈥� an incident of everyday discrimination that students encounter that may contribute to lower performance and disengagement. But educators and researchers are fighting back, with efforts to both curb microaggressions and buffer students against them and help them cope.
Gabrielle 鈥淓llie鈥� Bennett moved to the mostly white St. Louis suburb of Rockwood, Mo., in 2nd grade, after being in a gifted program in Buffalo, N.Y. When her mother, Debby Bennett, who is white, asked to enroll her biracial daughter in the gifted program, Ellie鈥檚 teacher waffled. 鈥淪he asked if I was in gifted [education] in a predominantly black school before,鈥� Ellie said. 鈥淪he assumed I couldn鈥檛 read and wouldn鈥檛 know the difference between a triangle and a square. She assumed I wasn鈥檛 up to her standard.鈥�
Ellie persisted, getting separately tested to prove her IQ, but said she knows other bright students who disengage. 鈥淵ou deal with these assumptions and racism even when you are 7,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f people already have expectations of you from when you are a little kid鈥攁nd kids are aware of what teachers expect鈥攂y the time you get through all those years of school with those assumptions piling up, it鈥檚 like, what鈥檚 the point of taking an honors class?鈥�
While Ellie, now a junior at Eureka High School, takes several Advanced Placement courses, she said she still 鈥渋s a little jaded when it comes to new teachers. Whenever there is a substitute, even if other kids are talking, I鈥檓 always not talking and doing my work because I don鈥檛 want to feed into any misconceptions about me.鈥�
Tracking 鈥楳icroaggressions鈥�
Classroom interactions that teachers intend to be inclusive can instead make students feel vulnerable if they are singled out based on race, disability, or income level.
For example, in a 2010 study, Georgia Southern University researcher Mary Anne Meeks tracked microaggressions experienced by 342 students in a large, diverse high school over four years. Students reported they had experienced a majority of 21 types of microaggressions at least once during their high school careers, such as teachers assuming a black student was poor without asking, or acting surprised or giving outsize praise for being articulate.
Students of color were called on to speak on behalf of their race during class discussions, while white students were the least likely to fill that role. Hispanic and Asian students said they were asked to teach words in their 鈥渘ative鈥� language, even if they spoke only English.
Interactions like these have been shown in hundreds of studies to trigger what鈥檚 known as stereotype threat, the fear that one鈥檚 actions could confirm a negative stereotype held about his or her group. Ironically, top-performing students can be particularly vulnerable to performing worse under stereotype threat.
Learning Under Threat
Under normal, nonthreatening circumstances, a student learning to solve a linear equation gets a little jolt of dopamine, a 鈥済ood feeling鈥� chemical, when he or she answers a problem correctly. It helps the new method stick in the brain. Learners generally 鈥渇orget鈥� wrong answers quickly.
This yearlong series will examine efforts to recognize and overcome discrimination in schools. View the complete series.
Stereotype threat can make that system misfire, studies have found. Say that same student is a girl in a mostly male calculus class, and her teacher seems surprised when she answers a difficult question correctly. The student fears that the teacher or other students believe women are not good at math, and any mistake she makes will confirm that stereotype. This fear takes up mental energy鈥攎aking it harder to think on the spot鈥攁nd emotionally charges her reaction to errors, making her remember the wrong answer as strongly as she would the right answer, found a 2014 study. Students under stereotype threat can end up brooding, not reflecting, on mistakes.
In a school with academic tracking, taking honors classes can come to seem risky for low-income and minority students, particularly those who already have top grades in standard classes, said Alycia Sato, a counselor at Laguna Creek High School in Elk Grove, Calif. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the fear factor,鈥� Sato said. 鈥淭hey are scared of the B.鈥�
Tracy Oliver-Gary, a 10-year veteran Advanced Placement teacher and current content specialist in the Montgomery County, Md., district, said her approach to teaching AP changed after a conversation with one Black History class about why AP classes were disproportionately white.
鈥淭hey began to talk about, 鈥極h, I was in another AP class and I dropped it. I was the only black student and I felt dumb,鈥� 鈥� Oliver-Gary said. 鈥淭hose conversations shocked me; I started to really think about ... the role of the class environment, what does it feel like to know you belong and are not isolated?鈥�
Educators in the nearly 1,700-student Laguna Creek High found they needed to boost social and emotional, not just academic, supports for students when the school changed its entry requirements for honors and International Baccalaureate classes to bring in more students from minority and low-income backgrounds. The school is highly diverse; nearly half of its students are low-income, and white, black, and Hispanic students each make up 22 percent to 23 percent of the population, with the rest composed of Asian, Pacific Islander, Filipino, and multiracial students.
Illustration: Microaggressions in the Classroom
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just run these programs,鈥� said Doug Craig, the principal. 鈥淭hese are teens; they don鈥檛 know how to cope with stress yet. And kids from [disadvantaged backgrounds] need to be told over and over that they can do it.鈥�
The school now provides a four-year support course for students entering honors or IB courses, according to Sato. In addition to academic issues like time management and college planning, students learn to recognize signs of stress, speak out in class, and advocate for themselves with teachers, she said.
The school is trying to help students see themselves as successful learners, a strategy that studies suggest can help counter stereotype threat, particularly for low-income students.
Focus on Empowerment
At Northwestern University, first-generation college students became more likely to ask for help and more comfortable discussing academic challenges with a professor after completing a five-minute writing assignment about who they would be after college and how people would think of them. By contrast, students who wrote about who they were and how they were perceived before attending college became more anxious and less comfortable asking a professor for help.
鈥淭he lower your income, the more anxious you felt even going to a professor,鈥� said Vida Manzo, the lead researcher and a social psychology doctoral student at Northwestern University, who discussed the study of first-generation students. 鈥淔or low-[socioeconomic-status] students thinking about their future identity, they performed better and were more confident in a high-pressure social situation鈥� after writing about their visions for themselves.
To counter the effects of racial or gender microaggressions, schools can focus on building the social support for students coming into an advanced class. 鈥淪ince African-Americans don鈥檛 see a lot of black faces in advanced classes, they may have internal feelings of inadequacy,鈥� said Eliza Brooks, a senior and one of three black girls working toward the two-year IB diploma at Laguna Creek. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I love the Black Student Union, because I can use my position as a black girl in advanced classes dominated by white and Asian students as a way to empower other minority students.鈥�
In a series of studies led by Gregory Walton of Stanford University, students from different stereotyped groups鈥攂lack college students and women in engineering classes, among others鈥攚ent through a 鈥渟ocial belonging鈥� intervention that identified common feelings of frustration and isolation among new students. 鈥淭he worry that 鈥榩eople like me鈥� might not belong in a school setting sensitizes students鈥� and leads them to interpret interactions through that lens, Walton concluded. Students who participated in the intervention, by contrast, were more likely to 鈥渟ee adversity as normal for all students as they enter a new school and as lessening with time.鈥�
For black college students, a half-hour social-belonging intervention in freshman year was associated with halving the gap in GPAs between black and white students over three years. An intervention adapted for science majors all but eliminated gaps between men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 GPAs in the male-dominated engineering major.
At Eureka High, Ellie Bennett helps lead East Square, an equity club that partners with teachers to address bias issues on campus.
Problems can be subtle: One teacher, after hearing about a fight at lunch, incorrectly assumed aloud it had been triggered by a group of mostly black teenagers who often stood together in the cafeteria.
鈥淭eachers often don鈥檛 understand that saying stuff like that is racist, because it is coming from a place of implicit bias,鈥� Ellie said. 鈥淭eachers often don鈥檛 know what microaggressions are ... and they don鈥檛 know that when they are committing them, they are making problems worse.鈥�
