Race and Achievement Disparities in Public Schools: Educator Perceptions, Beliefs, and Interventions

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to determine ifeducator training specifically focused on the correlation of race and achievementdisparities was effective in eliminating achievement disparities and whether or not thistype of training affected belief systems and enacted change in curriculum andinstructional practices. Purposive sampling was used to select participants in this studyand data was collected using interviews. The interview responses were coded based oneach research question and then tagged with participant demographics to determinetrends in responses. The findings in this research study are a microcosm of a larger groupand should not be extrapolated as a representation of the larger body to which theparticipants belong. The researcher found that the training developed an awareness inparticipants of their own racial biases and instilled and awakened a need to take action toeliminate race-based achievement disparities in public schools. However, theeffectiveness of the training in changing belief systems about race and studentachievement was dependent on the participants’ years of experience, race, the amount ofresearch participants did on their own, and the number of trainings attended. Thefindings suggested that attendance to one training in isolation resulted in only small-scalechanges in the curriculum and instructional approaches of individual educators asopposed to large-scale district-wide changes for those participants who attended multipletrainings.