Measures and References: Stereotype Threat

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Measures

Numerous measures exist to gain a full picture of a student's learning strengths and challenges. Following are examples of measures used to assess this Learner Factor. These measures should be administered and interpreted by experienced professionals.

Reading Diagnostic Comparisons: Stereotype threat is typically measured by comparing a group of students vulnerable to Stereotype Threat, who take a reading test and are told the test is diagnostic of their reading abilities, to a group of students who are also vulnerable to Stereotype Threat and are told the test is non-diagnostic. If students in the "non-threat" group perform better than the students in the "threat" group this is evidence that Stereotype Threat has negatively influenced performance.

References

Aronson, J., Lustina, M.J., Good, C., Keough, K., Steele, C.M., & Brown, J. (1999). When white men can't do math: necessary and sufficient factors in stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35(1), 29-46.

Beilock, S. L., Rydell, R. J., & McConnell, A. R. (2007). Stereotype threat and working memory: Mechanisms, alleviation, and spillover. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136(2), 256-276.

Hartley, B. L., & Sutton, R. M. (2013). A stereotype threat account of boys' academic underachievement. Child Development, 84(5), 1716-1733.

McKown, C., & Weinstein, R. S. (2003). The development and consequences of stereotype consciousness in middle childhood. Child Development, 74(2), 498-515

Pansu, P.; Regner, I.; Max, S.; Cole, P.; Nezlek, J.B.; & Huguet, P. (2016). A burden for the boys: Evidence of stereotype threat in boys' reading performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 65, 26-30.

Ramirez, G., Fries, L., Gunderson, E., Schaeffer, M. W., Maloney, E. A., Beilock, S. L., & Levine, S. C. (2019). Reading Anxiety: An early affective impediment to children's success in reading. Journal of Cognition and Development, 20(1), 15-34.

Schmader, T. (2010). Stereotype threat deconstructed. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(1), 14-18.

Smith, J.L., & White, P.H. (2001). Development of the domain identification measure: A tool for investigating stereotype threat effects. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 61(6), 1040-1057.

Steele, C. M., & Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797-811.

The Education Trust. (August, 2020). Social, emotional, and academic development through an equity lens. Washington, DC.

Wasserberg, M. J. (2014). Stereotype threat effects on African American children in an urban elementary school. The Journal of Experimental Education, 82(4), 502-517.