Darity Jr., A. W. (2008). International encyclopedia of the social sciences 2nd edition. Underachievers (pp. 483-485) Detroit, Michigan. Macmillan Reference, USA.
Darity Jr.’s chapter on Underachievers offers insight on the nature and causes of underachievement. This chapter defines underachievement as someone performing lower than they capable of performing. The measures that are commonly used to assess a person who is considered an underachiever is the IQ test where their score is lower than the average person their age, through academic tests scores and teachers observations that may sometimes be biased. This chapter outlines the causes of underachievement to be
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The research findings concluded that improving classroom by following specific programs and strategies, is an important approach that can be utilized in aiding with male underachievement. The authors of this article are from the University of Otago in New Zealand and works in the Christchurch Health and Development Study department. As teachers and researchers, the study conducted is not biased and is valid showing what the results say on male underachievement and approaches that have been tested to aid in aiding with male underachievement. This article critically assesses the causes of male underachievement which can be used in my paper to show that males underperform.
Watson, A., Kehler, M., Martino, W. (2010) The problem of boys’ literacy underachievement: raising some questions. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 53 (5), 356-361.
In this journal article, the area that has been reported that girls outperform boys is in literacy. The cause of male underachievement in literacy is not based upon
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The factors stated by this article that contribute to male underachievement are socio-economic factors, educational factors, family structure, ethnicity and personal characteristics. An individual’s health, learning capabilities, motivation, self-esteem, the level of their parents involvement, the curriculum being taught and the structure of the classroom are other factors that contribute to male underachievement. Underachievement is seen just as other sources as having the school play an important role in underachievement. The policy and practices of schools affect achievement for students based on the factors previously listed. The authors of this book are both members of the Centre for Educational Research at the London School of Economics and have many years conducting research and their findings have been reviewed before the book can be published which makes their points valid and reliable. Some of the factors that contribute to underachievement that this book
“Conquering the Freshman Fear of Failure” an article written by David L Kirp is a piece that illustrates the link between fear and doing bad in school. David Kirp writes about the psychological result of giving students an environment where they will set themselves up for failure. He tries to promote the scientific study where it mentions that intellect and genetics have very little correlation. Kirp believes when you put students in a discouraging environment and plant failure in their minds, nothing can be achieved. He grabs his audience’s attention by channelling into their sympathy and bringing credibility to his argument.
Mike Rose details the faults of the education system in a piece concerning his own personal experiences. His high school education was radically changed when his school swapped his test scores with the scores of a student with the same last name. The system depended upon test scores to determine the path of classes that individual students must take, and due to the weak performance reflected in Mike Rose’s alleged scores, he was placed on the vocational path. Unfortunately, the vocational path was implied to be the lowest tier of classes in the school - so despite Rose’s natural intelligence, he was placed within remedial classes due to the IQ within his file.
Response to “I Just Wanna Be Average" by Mike Rose Had Rose and her mother been educated enough, they could have a voice to raise concerns about Rose’s marks. The author seems to suggest that the teachers were responsible for his underperformance. The author feels that parental and teacher responsibility on his part could have helped understanding what discipline is before going to college. However, it is also possible that he did not try hard enough to be disciplined. Nonetheless, Rose is right that environment plays a bigger role in what an individual eventually becomes in adult life (Munns et all, 2013).
While Mrs. Moran is considering the socioeconomic status of Tyrel’s family, she should also be considering how gender, language differences, and family dynamics affect Tyrel. M. Baruth and L. Manning suggests that African American males tend to need an alternative education to address individual needs (2013). Taking time to know the individual student and his needs should be a major priority. Language differences may also create a barrier in Tyrel’s education. If parents are non-readers or undereducated, then the meaning of many words he may hear in a learning environment will differ dramatically from the words he is exposed to at home.
In Why Johnny Won't Read by Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky, they state, ¨From 1992 to 2002, the gender gap in reading by young adults widened considerably. In overall book reading, young women slipped from 63 percent to 59 percent, while young men plummeted from 55 percent to 43 percent.¨ This shows that although girls did decrease by a slight percent, boys were still below them. It shows that boys have a disadvantage when it comes to education because they may be concentrated in other things such as sports for example that they don't portray the same amount of concentration that they have on the sport onto their education status. In addition, in Mind Over Muscle by David Brooks, he states ¨In high school, girls get higher grades in every subject, usually by about a quarter of a point, and have a higher median class rank.
Men had unrealistic expectations about earning power; thinking they could get a decent job without education. Analysts pointed out an anti-intellectual male culture and college officials were seen
The overall percentage of the boys in the academic classes are decreasing as the female success rates are increasing. Teachers and others in higher positions are slowly forgetting about the existence of boys
The increasing numbers of students enrolling at the school with LBOTE will increase the need for an explicit and systematic phonological awareness and phonics program, taught simultaneously (Fellows & Oakley, 2014, p. 226). While reciprocal reading technique will allow the teacher to spend more time with struggling readers, the Reading Recovery initiative provides students with strategies using multiple cues to discern errors while simultaneously constructing meaning (Chapman & Tunmer, 2016), and increasing motivation (Bates, D'Agostino, Linda, & Xu, 2016). As research indicates that boys are less motivated to read as compared to girls (Munson-Warnken, 2017), the school librarian must maintain consciousness regarding the higher ratio of girls to boys at ENPS, and ensure the shelves in the library reflects books holding wide appeal to both sexes, rather than gendered and stereotypical ‘boy books’ that sets the sexes as
A recent study released by Pearson that questioned over 400,000 students in grades 6-12 shows that only “48% of students think their teachers care about them…and only 45% of students think teachers care if they are absent from school” (Hare, 2015). This shocking statistic demonstrates what American students think about their teachers. Most students are under the impression that their teachers don’t care about them. When teachers don’t care about their students and allow them to fail, many students with unrealized potential give up on education. Mike Rose’s “I Just Wanna Be Average” describes his journey through high school on the vocational track after the results of his “tests got confused with those of another student named Rose” (Rose, 1989, p. 2).
Facing with such negative factors, African American male students are always dealing with low graduation and retention rates. But many researchers have realized the challenges and draw attention on the specific resources for Black male students and their academic achievements. Toldson (2008) published a report on academic success for Black students called Breaking Barriers. He states that since most studies focus on the factors that cause the failure of African American students, it is essential to summarize those factors that contribute to their academic success, such as personal and emotional factors, family factors, social and environmental factors, and school factors (Toldson, 2008). The total sample of the study is 5,779 school-age African
In Mike Rose’s essay “I Just Wanna Be Average” he explains how students as well as teachers struggle throughout the school day. Teachers have the ability to make students want to learn or shut off the brain completely. They constantly say that “education helps people get somewhere in life and every class everyone need to take for granted” but most teacher do not help the student get there. Rose is right how teachers can fail students just how they act in the classroom and if teachers want to help people be successful they need to act it. Mike Rose’s unqualified teachers set him up for failure.
Recently, New Zeal-land has released a latest report on the gap between the levels of literacy and numeracy of boys and girls. Generally speaking, boys do a more decent job on mathematics than girls do, but girls do better on the literacy than boys. At the same time, there shows a sign that these two sexes are not taking a good command of both subjects day by day, at least not reaching the national standards. In addition, the nationalities will make a difference in terms of the grades of students. From my point of view, there is no doubt that the men and women has their own advantages due to the gender difference.
Outliers, written by Malcolm Gladwell, is an informational book regarding the intricacies of success and how it comes to fruition in individuals. Outliers has served to teach students the means of being successful and the importance of seizing opportunities as they come. Personally, Outliers has changed my views of success in numerous ways. Before reading said book, I had always assumed people who were naturally talented or had specific privileges were the only ones who could get far. However, Gladwell’s writing has informed me that anyone, if they are prepared to work hard, can reach their goals.
Several studies have been done to identify problems that affects student’s academic performance. The students’ academic performance depends on a number of socio-economic factors like students’ presence of trained teacher in school, teacher-student ratio, attendance in the class, sex of the student, family income, mother’s and father’s education, , and distance of schools (Amitava Raychaudhuri,