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Researchers find that school context moderates the benefits of self-affirmation for Black and Hispanic students’ grades, with partial support among standardized achievement outcomes. Self-affirmation reduced the very large racial achievement gap in overall grade point average by 12.5 percent in high-threat school contexts and had no effect in low-threat contexts. These self-affirmation activities have the potential to help close some of the largest racial/ethnic achievement gaps, though only in specific school contexts.
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Racial composition correlates with academic achievement and demographic characteristics in predictable ways. Schools with fewer Black and Hispanic students are higher achieving in terms of both standardized tests and grades.
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The researchers found no effects of self-affirmation overall and no difference in this effect between the two school contexts. , Controlling for all other variables, Asian and White students also receive somewhat lower grades in high-potential-threat schools, but this disparity is not statistically significant.
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There are positive estimates for all subjects in high-threat schools; all estimates are consistent with an effect of a fifth of a standard deviation.
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They find no effects of self-affirmation for Asian and White students in either school context.
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On the whole, the GPA results clearly support theoretical prediction of an interaction between school context and self-affirmation benefits while the standardized achievement results provide only partial support.