Self-affirmation writing as strategy for reducing achievement gaps

January 28, 2014

Students’ grade point average, motivation, academic engagement, and achievement goals appear to decline during middle school. African-American and Latino students appear to suffer even steeper performance declines than their Asian and White peers. Among the theories that have been advanced to explain the persistent inequalities is ‘stereotype threat.’ 

A number of interventions have been developed to mitigate the harm produced by stereotype threat. One promising intervention focuses on student self-affirmation through expressive writing. 

A recent study by Geoffrey Borman and colleagues found evidence of positive impacts of self-affirmation writing exercises on seventh graders’ GPA—about a 28 percent improvement over the annual achievement gain expected. The study also investigated the potential impacts of self-affirmation on standardized achievement tests. Although there was no evidence of an impact on students’ reading achievement, self-affirmation did improve achievement in language usage (i.e., writing) and in mathematics.

More about Borman’s research: http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/people/staff.php?sid=115