[On-line Class, 4/11] Boy Club Study - Data

I'm sure that most of you have been briefed on Nickie's and my research focus. If not, here it is:

Asian and White students often outperform Blacks and Latinos academically. Contributing factors include lack of resources, the school’s curriculum and the pervasive stereotype threat.Blacks and Latinos from urban areas often lack the resources available to affluent white students and, as a result, experience fewer learning opportunities. They often reside in poverty stricken neighborhoods and attend schools plagued by overcrowded classrooms, poor administration, and inexperienced teachers. This, in conjunction with lack of administrative support and the teacher training necessary to meet the special needs of this population, further widens the gap and reproduces a culture of missed opportunities.

Nickie does some work with academically talented fifth grade boys at the Boys Club. Nickie's population is African American/Latino and Asian/White. We're interested in finding out if whether or not their own perception of performance plays a role in their performance in school. Also, we're interested in both population's societal and parental pressures. Our method for data collection is the survey. At first we thought about administering a multiple choice type survey, possibly a likert scale. After much consideration (and consulting with Dr. Turner during consultation), we concluded that open-ended questions would provide a better, more accurate snapshot of our population's lives and beliefs. We narrowed it down to five:

1. How do you feel about school? Is school important to you? Do you find school enjoyable? Please explain.

2. In your opinion, what grades or scores show success?

3. How much time do you spend on homework?

4. What kind of grades make your parents happy? Why?

5. Please describe a time when you felt pressure in school.

We're sending these out to fifty students via e-mail and they will complete the survey at home. We hope to get participants in both populations and draw some conclusions based on race. My own biases and experience working with a large population of Chinese and Korean students predicts that their idea of academic excellence will be different when compared to the Black and Latino population. Speaking from my personal experience, and as a Puerto Rican individual, as a child, I would have responded that a B grade shows success (question #2). Nevertheless, my Korean and Chinese students deem B as not good enough and only aim for earning straight A's and A+'s. In fact, an A- is frowned upon among this population. They, typically, attribute this attitude to their parents' expectations. Generally, Chinese and Korean culture places great emphasis on academic performance and academic success. Academics trumps all in these households. Traditional Chinese and Korean parents emphasize discipline and the importance of academic progress.

As aforementioned, my personal beliefs and experience with these populations shape my assumptions in regards to what I think our data will look like. We might get something totally different. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. :-)