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Founded in 1943, ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) is an educational leadership organization dedicated to advancing best practices and policies for the success of each learner. Our 175,000 members in 119 countries are professional educators from all levels and subject areas--superintendents, supervisors, principals, teachers, professors of education, and school board members.

"If we are serious about closing achievement gaps, we will have to move beyond the simplistic rhetoric of "It's the family," or "It's the schools," or "It's poverty"-or "It's stereotyping," for that matter. " In this article, the author argues that stereotype threat, an invisible factor, negatively impacts the performance of affected students, ranging from African American males to girls in math-oriented domains. It may account for some of the achievement gap. Stereotype threat occurs when others have negative expectations of the student's performance based on some external stereotype. The student then has to overcome the inherent negative threat, thereby facing two potential failures - actually performing poorly and the perception of performing poorly because of the stereotype. Research by the author and a colleague demonstrates that due to this additional stress and pressure, the student does more poorly precisely because he or she tries too hard in a situation in which a more relaxed concentration leads to success, particularly in high-stakes evaluations. Because stereotype threat is partly situational, the author believes that students can be taught to overcome it and that teachers and others can learn to avoid it. (WestEd)

Intelligence, Motivation, and Intellectual Curiosity are the three pillars of intelligence, and yet, it is very fragile. "Most of my work seeks to understand and remediate race and gender gaps in educational achievement and standardized test performance. Often, the low performance of blacks in particular, but other minorities as well, gets casually chalked up to genetic or cultural differences that supposedly block acquisition of skills or values necessary for academic achievement. In sharp contrast, my students, colleagues, and I have uncovered some exciting and encouraging answers to these old questions by looking at the psychology of stigma - the way human beings respond to negative stereotypes about their racial or gender group. What we have found suggests that being targeted by well-known cultural stereotypes ("blacks are unintelligent", "girls can't do math", and so on) can be very threatening, a predicament my mentor and I called "Stereotype Threat." Stereotype threat engenders a number of interesting psychological and physiological responses, many of which interfere with intellectual performance and academic motivation. I have conducted numerous studies showing how stereotype threat depresses the standardized test performance of black, Latino, and female college students. These same studies showed how changing the testing situation (even subtly) to reduce stereotype threat, can dramatically improve standardized test scores. This work offers a far more optimistic view of race and gender gaps than the older theories that focused on poverty, culture, or genetic factors. We have found that we can do a lot to boost both achievement and the enjoyment of school by understanding and attending to these psychological processes, thereby unseating the power of stereotypes and prejudice to foil the academic aspirations of the young people who, just by virtue of being born black, brown, or female, are subjected to suspicions of inferiority.   A particular focus of m

"Stereotype threat is the experience of anxiety in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about his or her social group. In school, stereotype threat can cause underrepresented students to perform below their potential. It can cause them to focus less on learning and more on the worrisome prospect of performing poorly. The sting of stereotype threat can be felt by anyone male or female, black or white, Asian or Latino, young or old. But when the threat is chronic, it can contribute to enduring patterns of inequality in school and beyond. What can be done to reverse the effects of stereotype threat? "

Read Chapter 1 and Chapter 5. "Teaching Adolescents To Become Learners summarizes the research on five categories of noncognitive factors that are related to academic performance: academic behaviors, academic perseverance, academic mindsets, learning strategies and social skills, and proposes a framework for thinking about how these factors interact to affect academic performance, and what the relationship is between noncognitive factors and classroom/school context, as well as the larger socio-cultural context. <br /> <br /> It examines whether there is substantial evidence that noncognitive factors matter for students' long‐term success, clarifying how and why these factors matter, determining if these factors are malleable and responsive to context, determining if they play a role in persistent racial/ethnic or gender gaps in academic achievement, and illuminating how educators might best support the development of important noncognitive factors within their schools and classrooms. <br /> <br /> The review suggests some promising levers for change at the classroom level, and challenges the notion that hard work and effort are character traits of individual students, instead suggesting that the amount of effort a student puts in to academic work can depend, in large part, on instructional and contextual factors in the classroom. <br /> <br /> In addition, the review also presents challenges for future research on noncognitive factors. "

"The fear of confirming derogatory stereotypes can hinder academic performance. Researchers are scaling up relevant interventions to statewide programs"

Sian Beilock's blog on "brain science behind "choking under pressure" and the many factors influencing all types of performance: from test-taking to public speaking to your golf swing. "

Recent work suggests that stereotype threat (ST) harms perfor- mance by reducing available working memory capacity. Is this the only mechanism by which ST can occur? Three experiments examined ST's impact on expert golf putting, which is not harmed when working memory is reduced but is hurt when attention is allocated to proceduralized processes that normally run outside working memory. Experiment 1 showed that well- learned golf putting is susceptible to ST. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that giving expert golfers a secondary task elim- inates ST-induced impairment. Distracting attention away from the stereotype-related behavior eliminates the harmful impact of negative stereotype activation. These results are con- sistent with explicit monitoring theories of choking under pres- sure, which suggest that performance degradation can occur when too much attention is allocated to processes that usually run more automatically. Thus, ST alters information process- ing in multiple ways, inducing performance decrements for different reasons in different tasks.

Peer beliefs and expectations about gender identity, gender role and gender role conformity can limit participation in school activities and reduce performance potential. Adolescent males in choirs often seem to be reluctant to perform in front of their peers. On the other hand, adolescent females who sing in choirs have quite a contrasting experience. The first of three studies comprising this thesis investigated whether gender stereotype threat contributed to adolescent male choristers' performance decrement, and whether salience of stereotype threat could affect awareness of it. The findings of a second study triangulated those of the first, and revealed common attributes which enabled adolescent male choristers to remain engaged in choral music. This study revealed however, that these traits did not protect the adolescent male choristers from the effects of stereotype threat. Whereas previous extant research on stereotype threat had concentrated on helping the targets of stereotype threat alleviate its effects, the third of the present studies aimed to reveal the perceptions of gender held by non-targets of stereotype threat as well as by the targets, preparing the way to challenge deep-seated beliefs which lead to gender stereotyping and prejudice. The findings of the studies identified how beliefs and expectations about gender identity related to attitudes towards gender role and genderrole conformity within different school cultures, and ultimately limited choice of school-based activities for adolescents. This evidence revealed implications for change to practices which may currently augment gender-role conformity in schools and limit student outcomes. As well, it added to research conducted in the field of stereotype threat in a real-world setting and, importantly, exposed a link between stereotypical beliefs and wider held prejudices.

Steele discusses how students who belong to groups that have been negatively stereotyped are likely to perform less well in situations such as a standardized tests in which they feel they are being evaluated through the lens of that stereotype.

Stereotype threat arises from a fear among members of a group of reinforcing negative stereotypes about the intellectual ability of the group. The report identifies three randomized controlled trial studies that use classroom-based strategies to reduce stereotype threat and improve the academic performance of Black students, narrowing their achievement gap with White students.

"Stereotype threat-performance-crippling fear of being judged based on cultural stereotypes-that often proves a heavy burden. Being an outsider, a Mexican woman in a mostly white business world, 'is always in the back of my head,' she says. 'I wonder, Am I not being heard because of who I am and how I am speaking? Am I being overlooked?"

Dr. Aronoson's talk will focus on the ways that we as individuals and as a university community might reduce the effects of stereotype threat. Aronson asserts, "We have found that we can do a lot to boost both achievement and the enjoyment of school by understanding and attending to these psychological processes." Aronson got his Ph.D. in Psychology at Princeton and currently is an Associate Professor of Psychology at NYU. His research has concentrated on"stereotype threat, and in particular the impact of well-known cultural stereotypes on the intellectual performance and academic motivation in black, Latino and female college students. You can learn more about Aronson at his website. Sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, and African and African-American Studies at Elon, with financial support from the Fund for Excellence in the Arts and Sciences. Special thanks to Dr. Buffie Longmire Avital, Department of Psychology.

"Grading college students on quizzes given at the beginning of every class, rather than on midterms or a final exam, increases both attendance and overall performance, scientists reported Wednesday." "Testing effect" was particularly strong in students from lower-income households.

"Teaching Adolescents To Become Learners" summarizes the research on five categories of noncognitive factors that are related to academic performance: academic behaviors, academic perseverance, academic mindsets, learning strategies and social skills. It examines whether there is substantial evidence that noncognitive factors matter for students' long-term success, clarifying how and why these factors matter, determining if these factors are malleable and responsive to context, determining if they play a role in persistent racial/ethnic or gender gaps in academic achievement, and illuminating how educators might best support the development of important noncognitive factors within their schools and classrooms. The review suggests some promising levers for change at the classroom level, as well as challenges for further research.

Women taking a math test will perform worse when reminded that women aren't expected to do well in math. Social psychologist Claude Steele calls this an example of the "stereotype threat." In his book, Whistling Vivaldi, he lays out a plan to reshape those expectations. An interview with Claude Steele.