 "Photo: Megan Shelby")
Scholarly and political attention directed at the gap between whites and Latinos in educational achievement can be divided into two categories of bias, said educational psychology graduate student Rick Sperling.
Cultural background and schooling structure are the strongest influences on public opinions regarding the Latino-white achievement gap, said Sperling, a doctoral candidate. Research on these two opinions to predict attitudes toward several school reform initiatives at the Texas Union Wednesday.
Sperling presented his current study as a part of the Doctoral Portfolio Program of the Center for Mexican-American Studies. He introduced his two-dimensional scale called Attributions for Scholastic Outcomes Scale for Latino and recommended policy makers use the information to design education strategies.
"My goal of this study is to help reduce the gap between whites and Latinos," Sperling said. "I would like to uncover the biases affecting people's explanations for the Latino-white achievement gap, particularly with regards to race-based prejudices and group interest."
According to the Web site for the National Center for Education Statistics, 48 percent of eighth-grade Latino students scored below basic achievement level in mathematics in 2005, and 65 percent of the same group of students reported below basic level in science. Both percentages are double the percentages of white students scoring below basic level standards.
In Sperling's study, he concluded that the public has two incorrect biases to justify the gap, which are the belief that cultural norms lead to educational outcomes and that the school system treats students differently based on race and class. He categorized these attitudes as either culture-blaming or structure-blaming.
Resource redistribution, parent education, English-only initiatives and standardized testing are four policies measured in the study, Sperling said.
"I have 299 college students to do a pilot-testing started last year. People have better opinions on parent education overall, and they had the least opinion toward the school finance reform or resource redistribution," he said.
According to Sperling, Both Latinos and whites engage in culture-blaming and structure-blaming to explain the gap.
"It is important for policy makers to review their inside motivation before making a reform," Sperling said.
Luis Guevara, graduate program coordinator of the Center for Mexican-American Studies, said Sperling faced several challenges during the research process.
"He looked at this question through different approaches. What he has done does not catch enough attention in the past," Guevara said. "His presentation generated audience interest. In my view, structure factors are really important in [the] school system, but culture can be traced regardless of ethnic background."
Government junior Chelsea Fosse said Sperling's study could give policy makers new angles to design educational policy with an explicit procedure and clear motivation.
Sperling said he will further test the validity of his scale through focus-group discussion and by using a broader sample of Latinos. Another study targeting the black community will use the same method in future research, he said.
Be the first to comment on this article!