The "Obama Effect" on Black Student Test Scores-
Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 12:44PM The Blogmother So we have yet another study. It says that Barack Obama is raising academic test scores for Black students. File this under"Let Me Marinate On This For a Minute." You mean to tell me that there were some Black children who were intentionally testing lower on academic tests because of an anti-academic racial stereotype? :
Educators and policy makers, including Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, have said in recent days that they hope President Obama’s example as a model student could inspire millions of American students, especially blacks, to higher academic performance.
Now researchers have documented what they call an Obama effect, showing that a performance gap between African-Americans and whites on a 20-question test administered before Mr. Obama’s nomination all but disappeared when the exam was administered after his acceptance speech and again after the presidential election.
The inspiring role model that Mr. Obama projected helped blacks overcome anxieties about racial stereotypes that had been shown, in earlier research, to lower the test-taking proficiency of African-Americans, the researchers conclude in a report summarizing their results.
“Obama is obviously inspirational, but we wondered whether he would contribute to an improvement in something as important as black test-taking,” said Ray Friedman, a management professor at Vanderbilt University, one of the study’s three authors. “We were skeptical that we would find any effect, but our results surprised us.”New York Times
So assuming this tiny sample size holds up on a larger scale. Do you believe that Barack Obama's election could raise student test scores in a matter of months? and Why? Is it because academic excellence is no longer stigmatized? Is it because the students are more confident in their abilities?
<rant>Standardized tests have been very good to me over the years. My ability to figure them out at an early age meant going to college for free. However, I revile them for any other purpose other than diagnosing areas for improvement. I think that high stakes standardized test taking will lead to the destruction of American civilization where we value having the right answer on a multiple choice test above all else.-Squelching creativity, innovation, and problem solving. </rant>
I suspect we'll see an "Obama Effect" study about once a month for the next four years.
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Reader Comments (18)
All I have to say is GOOD GRIEF!
Its like Dorothy in the Wiz. All she had to do to get was she wanted was Believe! I'm clicking my ruby slippers right now.
I think the sad thing about this is that it makes African American students seem lazy. I mean really, do you need someone to inspire you to make you want to to well. What happened to doing well for the sake of doing well? I'm only 28, so I'm not too far removed from high school, and college, but really this is disappointing. To quote Bill Cosby, "Come on people!"
I suspect they will have "obama effect" test also. But I don't think it'll all be as "benign" as they put it out to be.
and lol @ tags.
lol at tags, I mean.
why to turn this into a negative?
just speaks to the power of having high expectations. as a former smart kid, now dumber adult. all of my smart friends got picked on for being smart, not just the black kids.
the difference, i was encouraged to also see value in running fast, jumping high, dancing well, etc, taught that being smart wasn't enough
Listen, President Obama cannot work miracles (e.g. walk on water, turn water to wine, turn chitlins' to pork chops and inject a viable brain in the skull of most black youngsters). President Obama is no replacement for lazy and corrupt teachers, principals, parents and students. Enough with the Obama effect! I'd rather see the work.
I think his whole family will have a positive effect on students realizing it can be kool to do well in school. Regarding the job he'll do I hope we all give him time I think highly of how he is staying in contact with us. There appears to be no need to wonder what he's trying to accomplish on all fronts and it feels great...no guessing in addition to how he's treating everyone he comes in contact with..
I didn't vote for him however I'm convinced he was the right choice for our country..
Dorothy from grammology
grammology.com
This will be great news for the Obama worshippers. It was the one thing that bothered me about being in DC. So many Black people there to celebrate but where are they collectively for everything else that negatively impacts the community.Esp the ones determined to get in w/o tix.It was a little scary!
Very interesting.
It's hard to dispute the power of being inspired. It seems to me, though, that with these standardized tests, inspiration is not what gets you higher scores. It's understanding the test, knowing test strategies and then knowing the material well. Now, inspiration could theoretically drive a student to pay more attention in class, give a little extra time to homework. Inspiration could theoretically drive a teacher to try just one more strategy to help his/her students get the concept she's teaching. But there's no magic jump from inspiration to higher test scores. I would more readily believe a study that said that since Obama came into office, class participation amongst Black students increased as parents took more of an active interest in their childrens' academic lives. But test scores suddenly shooting up? I think it takes something really changing and not symbolically changing for that to happen.
All I can say is L.M.A.O.
The kool-aid pitcher will be overflowing the next four - eight years. And y'all know how black folks love Kool Aid.:)
Barack's presidency will come and go and the black community will still be in shambles. I read an article a few weeks ago about how single black mothers are getting their sons to "straighten out" by taunting them with "WWOD" (what would Obama do/have done?). The way those women were carrying on about how they were so "hope"ful that their boys will start "acting right" nearly broke my heart.
Now I am not at all saying that Obama's presence isn't a positive. A lot of young people "on the bubble" can be nudged in the right direction by seeing him and his accomplishments. But let's be real - when a child has to look to someone so far outside of their daily life (POTUS) for self-affirmation and a sense of direction that child has legions of damaged folk in between him/her and Barack/Michelle.
I wonder what this means for us who achieved before Obama blessed us with his ascension.
While I don't question that black students may be doing better, I do question any connection to Obama as POTUS. He's a bright man but I'm afraid that he'll get too much credit where it's not due.
LMAO, I know some teachers, while they say their kids love Obama, there has not been any difference in their behavior and school work. What really counts is if they had parents or even a parent who at least half way cared.
The Obama Effect, huh?
That means that all we ever needed were black leaders in order for our children to do well? We didn't need teachers that set expectations high and then helped children achieve them? We didn't need parents who were interested and invested in their childrens' academic success? We didn't need the understanding that cultural differences may call for differences in the presentation and impact the reception and integration of materials??
Wow...such a simple solution for a complex problem. Wonder what'll happen to the community if Obama doesn't get re-elected??
*rolling my eyes*
NPR just interviewed the creators of the study, and the NYT story, and many others, ignored the details to focus on the Obama angle. The researchers tested college students first. They took girls and boys who had scored the same on entry level math exams (very difficult) and retested them after their first year of college (when research showed that test scores for the girls were markedly lower than for the boys).
After the initial test, they found that women scored lower than men by quite a bit.
They then retested a new group, but before the test they had the researcher announce, "Many women score lower than men on these kinds of tests. However, we've found that men and women score the same on THIS test."
Then then gave everyone the same test again, and women scored the same as men.
They decided to retest with minorities. They gave a group of mixed black and white participants an IQ exam, and found a disparity in scores. Blacks tested lower. Then they gave a group the same test, but told everyone, "This measures problem solving ability only. It is not a measure of native intelligence."
This time (and in repeated tests) blacks and whites scored the same.
Then Obama became popular, and researchers tied their study to Obama. That's the only part that's been reported on a lot.
The researchers said there are many different ways to interpret their findings.
1) It didn't matter if test subjects believed the stereotypes about their sex or race.
2) The critical effect occurs when the test gets difficult. Researchers said the performance gap shows up on the tough questions, but not the easy ones.
3) Researchers suspect, but can't prove, that something like this happens: The test subject has a hard time with a hard question, and begins to think, "Is this the stereotype? Is it harder for me? Can I not handle this?" Even if the answer is no, the issue distracts from problem solving.
I KNOW for sure there will be no "Obama Effect" when it comes to marrying Black women and taking care of Black daughters.
@Fed Up observer. Who are you talking about? I am a Black daughter. My sisters are Black daughters. I know plenty of Black daughters who were being taken care of long before Barack Obama was event thought of.
Totally off topic.