Diverse Learning Communities Today (DLCT) is an e-newsletter that provides research summaries about community engagement, cultural competencies, and all communities of learners, including those distinguished by race/ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status, as well as students in special education and gifted and talented programs.

 

 

According to new research from the University of Chicago, female elementary school teachers who experience high anxiety about teaching math can actually hinder the math achievement of their female students. Male students are unaffected by this phenomenon. The authors of “Female Teachers’ Math Anxiety Affects Girls’ Math Achievement” studied 17 first- and second-grade teachers and their classes over a one-year period. They measured the teachers’ math anxiety levels and measured the students’ math achievement and gender ability beliefs during the first three months and last two months of the school year. The authors conclude that the students’ math achievement at the beginning of the school year was not affected by their teachers, but by the end of the school year, female students whose teachers had high math anxiety scored lower on math achievement exams and more willingly accepted the stereotype that boys are better than girls at math.

 

Southern Schools’ Non-White Majority
According to the Southern Education Foundation’s report A New Diverse Majority, more than half of public school students in the American South are now members of minority groups. The report’s authors argue that increased numbers of Latinos and other ethnic groups, high birth rates among minority families, and black residents’ return to the South have all contributed to this demographic shift. The report also notes that more than half of Southern public school students are low-income students, meaning they are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. For a region that is counting on well-educated workers to catalyze economic development, finding ways to sufficiently educate this diverse student population and lift low-income students out of poverty will be a challenge for the region’s policymakers and educators.

 

 

Stereotypes of Rural School Districts
“Why Rural Matters 2009,” the fifth in a series of biennial reports about rural education in the United States, concludes that state and federal programs designed to help underprivileged students in high-poverty, rural schools often rely on inaccurate stereotypes about the racial makeup of rural student populations. Published by The Rural School and Community Trust, the report found that minority students constitute 22.2 percent of the rural student population in the United States, and in four states (New Mexico, Alaska, Arizona, and California) minority students make up more than 50 percent of the rural student population. The study concludes that debunking the notion that rural students are primarily white can increase the success rate of programs aimed at helping rural students.

How to Successfully Teach English
A report released by the Council of the Great City Schools compares the practices used by school districts that have successfully improved English-language learners’ (ELL) achievement to practices used by school districts that have not found success in this area. “Succeeding with English Language Learners: Lessons Learned from the Great City Schools” uses four school districts in which ELLs have improved on state reading tests to identify what practices school districts can implement to improve this part of their curriculum. The report finds that school districts that provide oversight for ELL curricula and give instructors professional development opportunities in this area are more likely to achieve success.

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