Positive Bias? Black, Latino Students Get Less Critical Feedback From Teachers, Study Suggests

By: Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
Published: 05/05/2012 06:28 PM EDT on LiveScience

Black and Latino students may be getting less critical, but helpful, feedback from teachers than their white counterparts, a new educational study indicates.

"The social implications of these results are important; many minority students might not be getting input from instructors that stimulates intellectual growth and fosters achievement," study researcher Kent Harber, a Rutgers-Newark psychology professor, said in a press release.

This positive bias in feedback to minority students may be contributing to the achievement gap between white and minority students, a stubborn national problem, Harber said.

The study "tested" 113 white middle-school and high-school teachers in two public school districts, one middle class and white, and the other working class and racially mixed. Both are located in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state area.

Harber and colleagues developed a poorly written essay that they gave to the teachers to grade, under the pretense that it was the work of a student. In some cases, the teachers believed the student was white, in others black and in others Latino.

The teachers believed their feedback would go directly to the student. [Poll: Were Your Teachers Tough Enough?]

The researchers found that, indeed, the teachers were prone to give more praise and less criticism if they believed a minority student had written the paper, as opposed to a white student.

The researchers also considered the support the teacher received from colleagues and administration. This turned out to be an important factor if the teachers believed the student was black, with only teachers who lacked support showing the bias. However, when teachers thought the student was Latino, they showed the bias toward positive feedback regardless.

"These results indicate that the positive feedback bias may contribute to the insufficient challenge that undermines minority students' academic achievement," the researchers conclude.

The study appeared online April 30 in the Journal of Educational Psychology.

You can follow LiveScience writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

• Understanding the 10 Most Destructive Human Behaviors
• 10 Facts Every Parent Should Know about Their Teen's Brain
• Top 5 Myths About Girls, Math and Science

Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[rickjames77]

06:50 PM on 05/08/2012

this is interesting research, but it should have been focused on earlier grades. high school is way too late to worry about educational interventions. black-white gaps are present when schooling starts. even equal feedback (especially that late in the academic career) would not close that gap. minorities need more stimulation (i.e. more teaching and learning time).

the stated implications of the research can also be dangerous. the authors are only guessing about how this differential feedback could matter.

[Katherine Conner]

03:34 PM on 05/08/2012

During the Summer of 2009, my then 17 yr. old son, African American, was accused of indecent exposure by a 51 yr. old African American administrative educator. He had worked a during Summers since age 15, with no incidents. There were others in the building, including his supervisor. She didn't report this to police until 4 days later, after I met with her and raised suspicions. I asked to see school cameras, but was ignored. My son maintains his innocence. When I contacted the superintendent about my suspicions, she filed charges. When my son attempted to return to school after Summer break, she applied for a restraining order? then a teacher in the Middle School (senior citizen) claimed she had saw him exposed tool, but didn't say anything at the time, because she thought it would be one isolated event? Yet this is a zero tolerance school. Again when I asked to see cameras, or witnesses, I was ignored. She filed charges 2 months later. Why senior citizens? old enough to be his grandmother? Both filed for restraining orders? To make a long story short he was convicted 4-24-2012 of 2 counts of Felony Attempted Obscenity. Although he graduated from his school, these charges had been pending against him since age 17. He is 20 now. What real educator would destroy a young persons life this way??? See their statements on US ATTORNEY GENERAL SAVE MATTHEW MOORE on Facebook. And Marylovesjustice Trayvon Martin, Matthew Moore blog on google.

[papapj]

08:17 PM on 05/08/2012

You have my utmost sympathy....There's a lot of self-hate and pain in the AA community and we always seem to direct it inwardly..towards Black men, principally...These women should know better, but they are probably in a world of pain themselves...misery loves company. Read this, and you'll pick up on the analogy...

Put two rats in a large cage with adequate food and water. The rats will co-exist peacefully. Then, send an electric shock through the metal floor of the cage. The rats will attack each other. They know nothing about the forces that are causing their pain; all they know is that they are suffering and there is another rat in the cage.

[Katherine Conner]

08:01 PM on 05/16/2012

Lol, sad but true.

[oldwolf49]

03:22 PM on 05/08/2012

Yes, we knew this again. I will accept there are exceptions but, especially now, it is true. I work support staff for a school and see it.

[MHB48]

10:00 AM on 05/08/2012

My mother taught school for close to 30 yrs. She began teaching when segregation was in full force and she was teaching when the transition to full intergration took place. I can say with absolute certainty that my mother didn't have a racists bone in her body. She taught each of her students as individuals and treated each of them with the respect that they deserved. She gave up teaching career when she started being called a racists by some of her students. She was also told she had to hand her grade book in at the end of the semester. That meant that she wasn't going to be the person that assigned HER students the grade they had earned in HER class. It really upset her. She just told me "They don't need me anymore. I'm of no use to these students now". And that's a shame, because she LOVED teaching. Up until she passed away she had many, many students, of both races, the ones that truely appreciated her, come by to visit her LONG after she had given up teaching.

[ricchh]

09:37 AM on 05/08/2012

Teachers are afraid to get sued, so they treat minorities and women with kid gloves. There will be a lawyer at their door in ten minutes if they correct or discipline a minority child. This is why bullying is out of hand because teachers are afraid to correct students.

[simsum]

09:47 AM on 05/08/2012

Teachers are afraid of many things. It's not the teachers. It's the entire public school "system" that needs a complete overhaul. I was just speaking with someone from Europe this weekend, and he explained that in his country, Holland, education is a guaranteed right, and all schools meet the same high standards across the country. When you graduate from high school you automatically are accepted into university, and all the universities have the same high quality. And universities are basically for free. No tuition costs. You just pay your room and board (or study from home). The same is true for many other European countries. Europeans don't understand what in the world is going on with America's failed educational system.

[Crisdean Wulver]

11:07 AM on 05/08/2012

I agree with you. America should adopt that kind of system, for one simple reason: Education is important to the future of America. Not educating our citizens has a cost for society that can't accurately be measured in dollars and cents. But the net effect boils down to dollars and cents in terms of our future competitiveness in the world marketplace.

[imonlyhereforthelaughs]

11:28 AM on 05/08/2012

The Netherlands is a tiny country with a population size roughly 5% that of the US.

Not all forms of social norms fit all populations. While it works for the Dutch, and it sure would be nice if it did in the US, the fact remains the US is far too diverse in culture, population size and densities, and land mass to effectively utilize a European-style system. The only way it could possibly work is to completely remove all federal control and mandate from education and turn the entire system over to the states. Then the setup would be commensurate with Europe, and might have a chance of succeeding.

[simsum]

09:15 AM on 05/08/2012

A black all-male school in Chicago for the 3rd year in a row has 100 percent of the graduating class going to university. I guess they didn't read about this theory. Oh well.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-03-30/news/ct-met-urban-prep-20120330_1_students-graduate-graduation-rate-urban-prep-academy

[imonlyhereforthelaughs]

11:30 AM on 05/08/2012

You're comparing apples and bananas. The study showed white teachers in predominantly white or mixed schools showed the bias.

[simsum]

02:28 PM on 05/08/2012

Actually I'm not making any comparison at all. I'm just stating a fact. The psychologists, on the other hand, are trying to promote an unproven theory.

[simsum]

08:47 AM on 05/08/2012

One of the best proofs of the failure of race supremacists is that they have to work so hard to convince people. They are like door-to-door salesmen offering stuff that nobody wants. A second proof is that they never say they believe in race supremacy, at least not here on Huffington Post. LOL

[Crisdean Wulver]

11:18 AM on 05/08/2012

This is what's known as a double-bind communication.

1. Race supremacists work hard to convince people of race supremacy.
2. Race supremacists say they don't believe in race supremacy.

That means people are damned if they do and damned if they don't, because if they say they DON'T believe in race supremacy, you take that as EVIDENCE of race supremacy.

[simsum]

02:47 PM on 05/08/2012

I disagree that it "means people are damned if they do and damned if they don't." It means that they are unwilling to come out of the closet. And we've had plenty of people like that in recent years, such as high-ranking GOP officials who opposed homosexuality tooth and nail, and yet were in the closet themselves .

Racists are advocating a viewpoint, and yet they don't want to be public about it. Why? I mean, why don't they present their case openly in the media, like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins? The other point is that usually racists do not offer strong evidence but quite skewed arguments with flimsy statistics. They may be trained scientists, but suddenly they turn off all rational thinking and ignore evidence contradicting their argument, which only weakens them further. It's strange. But I think of racism like a superstition: it is very hard to break someone out of a superstitious cult, and it needs a lot of time, patience, and loving care, with friends and family to help.

[ThirdRAILKink]

05:13 AM on 05/08/2012

Makes sense, because whites can't help but feel self-concious around blacks and hispanics. We hear about racism too much.

[Teresiya Sigmund]

04:28 AM on 05/08/2012

lf this is true it must stem from the fact, that everyone screams racism as soon as you are stern with a person of a minority race. l should not even admit to this but l put my child under 'black' for two reasons. One: l believe in the one drop theory and l am sure htere is some sort of melanin rich member in the family somewhere in the past and secondly we moved into a very prissy neighbourhood and the school made it sound so hard so l put him down as black so he would be less pestered by the teachers. Of course l wish for my kid to advance but not in a manner where he is constantly being put on overdrive. A big part of my child's education rests on me. For example learning a second and third language happens at home not in school and lots of other valuable knowledge is not offered in school. Perhaps it did not matter but l tried to give my kid a break, because our mentality is not all that 'white'. I find that in my race it has become a bit too PC and a little too unreal. Plus it was priceless the face of the school lady that said 'excuse me, you made a mistake' and my ice cold stone faced back at her saying 'really?'

[ThirdRAILKink]

05:12 AM on 05/08/2012

You believe in the One Drop theory? Based on what? It's not based in Science. It's nonsense.

[Teresiya Sigmund]

05:37 AM on 05/08/2012

meaning, that if there is one ancestor who was melanin rich that there is a lineage established and thus you got that i you as well. But essentially the reason l put that is because l am vehemently opposed to the division on paper into races, unheard of in Germany after you know what. It instinctively feels 'hostile' or grouped apart, no matter how sugarcoated and well meaning the explanation. lt's not who we are in my family it does not sit well with me. NOT BUYING. You think the theory is nonsense. l think the whole segregation is. Based on my butt size therer got to be a melanin rich ancestor my melanin rich friend said. Can not believe people pay for getting wobble implants.

[Seattle Noir]

08:57 AM on 05/08/2012

As a black woman I hate the one drop rule as it forces black folks to accept people in a manner that has been very distructive to our race (light enough to play white, but pretending to keep your "roots"), so unless you kid would actually be called the n-word walking down the street please stop! Also no decent mother of an minority child would do this, as this keeps the learning experience away from the child and in america we need our kids to move forward.

"secondly we moved into a very prissy neighbourhood and the school made it sound so hard so l put him down as black so he would be less pestered by the teachers."

Me and the black women in my family are disgusted! Thanks for helping to bring down the black race even more!!

[Teresiya Sigmund]

11:23 AM on 05/08/2012

Being from Europe coming here l refuse to be checking a box about a race that implies major differences between me and other races. We all stem in my faith from the same set of parents thus melanin content will not be a divider. l am not sure how many people you would share a post with but you can be collectively disgusted if it pleases you. l am not going to go through an egg race with having the snobbery rub of on my child. l prefer us being categorized with people who seem more basic to the ground like us. Your idea of bringing a race down is worlds apart from mine. IThe n-word is completely meaningless unless you allow it to be. A person using that as a insult is a looser who sucks his thumb at night and feels empowered over what exactly? My approach to race is the end of putting people in boxes.

[Teresiya Sigmund]

11:29 AM on 05/08/2012

the point l was trying to make was that l do not like the competitive nature in which the school portrayed themselves in the brochure. It seemed to lose perspective of what an education is all about lt is not the easiest to put in short sentences. The kids my son ends up being friends with are more often then not minorities, not sure why. So if l am supposed to check him off in a box, then l am a believer of checking him based on other criteria then skin colour. l find that a dangerous road to go down. maybe it has to do with my own countries background, perhaps. lt surely appears odd to me to have such a box to check off. All under the cover of diversity, l do not buy into it. l am suspicious of the purpose of such numbers.

[luapmi2]

03:53 AM on 05/08/2012

It is NOT PC to provide critical feedback to blacks.......you'll be before the school board with racism allegations in about 12 seconds....

[Ty2010]

01:03 AM on 05/08/2012

Affirmative action affirms inaction?

[project cooper]

12:13 AM on 05/08/2012

I bet the libby libs. are less critical because they don't think that the are as good as white students.

[Surberuhs]

11:21 PM on 05/07/2012

Ok, What? I'm black and I've always been in advanced classes. I've always received criticism that made me do better in classes. I receive A/Bs in all of my science/engineering courses because I'm interested in them..Cs in courses I'm not interested in like writing and humanities. I have a degree in electronics engineering and I'm almost done with my Medical Lab Science Degree, plan on getting my PhD/Masters in pharmacology......I've had to struggle the same as my "White Counterparts"...I just don't understand the science behind this article. Just from reading the article it looks as though the experiment was flawed on so many levels. This just adds to my list of reasons why, I think psychology and sociology are almost complete BS, so many flaws and assumptions.

[Remy Arrr]

04:44 AM on 05/08/2012

Nah, since the study was done recently, it could be the new polito-cultural climate. And as a potential tendency. The results won't generalize to the point where they can say that it's True, with the capital, but that a tendency may exist.

[rexy640421]

04:55 AM on 05/08/2012

I'll disagree with that very last statement.

[Surberuhs]

11:11 AM on 05/08/2012

I did say almost. Some of the info learned from psychology and sociology seems valid, other aspects seem to only take into account college level students. Instead of a multicultural and diverse socioeconomic view. Then its generalized for the entire population of humans which is a major assumption. In their experiment they had NO controls. Without controls its flawed science period.

[simsum]

10:41 PM on 05/07/2012

We have to give some sympathy to the white male believers in racial superiority on this thread. They are having a very hard time these days, what with stereotype after stereotype being shredded before their very eyes. They feel like losers because they don't have much belief in themselves. Meanwhile, a black man is the president, Asians are everywhere taking plum jobs, women are surpassing white males in most academic fields, and they feel like their world is collapsing - which it is. As long as they cling to such old-fashioned beliefs their world will continue to collapse. They are living in a dark closet and refuse to come out.

[ThirdRAILKink]

05:02 AM on 05/08/2012

As if only white males are racist. That's okay, buddy, you're going to see that more racial diversity really just means more racial tension to go around. Already, there are violent tensions between latino communities and black communities, and black communities and Korean communities, etc, in certain parts of the U.S. That's all diversity really means, is more ways to slice the hate pie. Around the world, the most racially homogenous societies tend to have the least problems with crime and violence. Wonder why?

[White Diamond]

08:57 PM on 05/08/2012

Fanned.

[OC Surfer]

10:16 PM on 05/07/2012

So the headline should have been "Affirmative Action is Counterproductive."

[hawaiianstile]

02:01 PM on 05/08/2012

learn to read. affirmative action has nothing to do with this article. if thats too hard have your mommy help you sound out the words.