...the effects of the intervention became self-reinforcing.

June 25, 2017 8:42 AM

What if one series of writing assignments during one year of school could significantly improve the chances of students of color succeeding academically and attending a selective college?

Ars Technica reports on a study that revisits two cohorts of students who were given assignments in their first year of middle school: write about your core values and why they're important; and as a control, a neutral topic. The black students have now applied for college, and the numbers are promising.

posted by Huck500 (11 comments total)

There's one member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions that needs to get right on this...
posted by Huck500 at 8:44 AM on June 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

My only worry about this is the same as my worry about any low-cost intervention (SSRIs for depression being the one that springs to mind first). That is, that the (currently) relatively limited supporting data are taken by politicians and other policymakers for total proof that this is "the answer", who then use that as a justification for cutting back on other, more costly, interventions.

This may well be an excellent intervention, the theory is pretty plausible, and the numbers certainly look promising, but I'd like to see significant replication before anyone starts making policy recommendations in a complex and highly politicised area. Politicians, especially those with no experience of education, are very prone to deciding that they have found the one true way to teach, and I don't trust them not to misuse data which could be misinterpreted to suggest that improving equality of outcomes is simple.
posted by howfar at 9:41 AM on June 25, 2017 [19 favorites]

Awesome. This seems similar to research from 2010, in which getting physics undergraduates to write short essays helped to close the gender gap in performance in that class:

the researchers asked a randomly selected group of the students to write about their personally important values, such as friends and family, for 15 minutes. [...] The writing exercise helped reduce the difference between male and female academic performance in the 15-week physics class. [...] According to Miyake, “These results tell us that writing self-affirming essays improved the affirmed women’s exam performances by alleviating their anxiety related to being seen in light of negative stereotypes about women in science.”

posted by metaBugs at 9:54 AM on June 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

That's such a great comment and so exactly true, I wish I could favorite it on an infinite loop, howfar. Also, not exactly eponysterical, but epony-something-or-other.
posted by saulgoodman at 10:49 AM on June 25, 2017

At first I was heartened by the finding but I can see it turning into something terrible.
First, I imagine that if this effect holds, it's because the students gain a sense of confidence which drives them to put effort into their studies. The confidence is the antecedent but it's the effort that delivers the results. The terrible thing that could happen is that educators grab on to the confidence thing as if that is all that is needed. It would become nothing more than the teenage version of "The Secret".
posted by storybored at 11:23 AM on June 25, 2017

Is the full text available somehow?

I see the chart graphic and it's making me want to know more specifics, like: How many students were in the study? And is it true that among white students, the affirmations group had _less_ academic success?
posted by amtho at 12:46 PM on June 25, 2017

Here's the full text.
posted by Huck500 at 1:24 PM on June 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I'm sure someone will manage to come along and prevent it for the greater good.
posted by Omnomnom at 2:04 PM on June 25, 2017

Are the actual exercises that they used written up somewhere? I would love to try this with my middle schoolers next year.
posted by chaiminda at 4:21 PM on June 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Well, I think it's fundamentally problematic to imply that a writing assignment can let white America off the hook for more than a century of institutionalized racism, systemitized violence, and expropriation of wealth from communities of color. We need massive social restructuring, not an essay question, to solve our problems.
posted by latkes at 7:13 PM on June 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Are the actual exercises that they used written up somewhere? I would love to try this with my middle schoolers next year.

This activity handout may help. It appears to be adapted for university students. You may wish to tailor or simplify it for younger students.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 5:42 AM on June 26, 2017