By Carol Bernate, NAIS Research Associate
Are independent schools supporting all students equally well? Are all students able to participate fully?
Using the results of the 2018 HSSSE, NAIS identified key differences in the high school experience among students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Students of Color Spend Less Free Time on School Activities
Research suggests that participation in extracurricular activities may increase students' sense of engagement and attachment to their school, thereby decreasing the likelihood of school dropout. The National Center for Education Statistics points out that if participation in extracurricular activities can improve educational outcomes, then the availability of these activities to students of all backgrounds becomes an important question of equity.The results of the 2018 HSSSE highlight a discrepancy in extracurricular participation among different groups of students. While 56 percent of white HSSSE participants report spending four or more hours participating in school-sponsored activities during a typical week, only 45 percent of Hispanic participants report spending as much time engaged in these activities. This number is 55 percent among multiracial and African American students and 52 percent among Asian American students.
Students of Color Report Lower Levels of Belonging, Support, and Institutional Trust
One possible explanation for lower extracurricular participation and lower feelings of belonging among minority groups is that these students don’t feel supported by their school community and don’t feel that the rules in the school are consistently enforced. Though students of all backgrounds report feeling high levels of support from teachers at school, the results from the 2018 HSSSE indicate that students of different backgrounds have different experiences of support from other adults at school. For example, there was a nine-percentage-point difference among the group that reported feeling the highest level of support from administrators at school (African American students, 79 percent) and those who reported the lowest level (Hispanic students, 70 percent).Students of different backgrounds also report varying views of the fairness of discipline at their schools. Seventy-three percent of Asian American students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “This school’s rules are fair.” This number was 70 percent among Hispanic students, 66 percent for multiracial students, and 68 percent for white and African American students. Consistent enforcement of disciplinary practices appears to be related to perceptions of fairness. Groups who agreed that the rules at their school are fair also believe that rules are applied and enforced consistently at higher rates than other groups (67 percent among Asian American students and 61 percent among Hispanic students). Multiracial and African American students are the least likely to believe that the rules are fair and fairly enforced at their schools. Sixty-eight percent of African American students and 66 percent of multiracial students feel that the rules at their schools are fair. Fifty-eight percent of both groups feel that the rules are applied and enforced consistently.
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Causes and Implications of Engagement Differences
Trusting relationships are a cornerstone of an engaged school community, but student perceptions of racial bias undermines this goal. Research conducted by David Yeager at the University of Texas in Austin found that students belonging to racial minority groups reported feeling that the education system was biased against them. These feelings are not unfounded—the racial discrepancy in school discipline has been well-documented. The level of trust students feel toward their institution affects not only student outcomes but also their well-being. Yeager found that perceptions of unfair treatment, even when a student was not being directly punished, contributed to lower levels of institutional trust in the education system, which ultimately had important implications for student outcomes because students who lost trust in education were less likely to attend a four-year college.
What Schools Can Do
Inclusion in education is not only a moral imperative, it has the power to lift up entire communities. Ensuring that all students feel welcome and fully able to participate at school is one of the crucial responsibilities for which teachers and administrators must answer the call. An important first step to creating inclusive spaces is careful assessment of personal and institutional bias. These biases have the potential to affect even the most well-meaning people, but spending even a small amount of time assessing personal bias can improve decision-making.The practice of empathy is another powerful tool schools can use to reduce the negative effects of unconscious bias on student engagement. The practice of perspective taking—putting oneself in another person’s shoes—has been shown to reduce “automatic” (unconscious) racial bias and improve real-world interactions between people of different races. Empathetic Discipline, an intervention whereby teachers read articles by students and teachers about the things that contribute to student misbehavior, has been shown to increase engagement of nonwhite students by reducing instances of unfair discipline.
Registration for the Fall 2019 High School Survey of Student Engagement (HSSSE) and Middle Grades Survey of Student Engagement (MGSSE) is currently open. The Fall 2019 surveys will be administered until December 6.