Need Achievement Theory

The achievement gap, as most educators know it, isn’t just something seen or experienced at a district level. This is something with national implications, which will be felt for generations to come if it is not addressed now. Yet many people ask “so what? Why do anything about it?” According to a report from The Center for American Progress, longstanding racial and ethnic gaps in education and other areas are growing in part due to income and wealth inequality. This suggests that decisions made today, will directly impact America’s economy tomorrow.

How should society handle the perceived differences between races when it comes to education? The goal of both researchers is to narrow the academic gap between white and black students. Both authors attribute the gap between the academic scores of black and white students from opposite sides of racial identity. As Dr. Beverly Daniels Tatum, President of Spelman College and clinical psychologist has written an article entitled “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” Her approach is from the perspective of the student and how they perceive their role and upper limits while maintaining their place in their peer group's expectations of their race. Dr. Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, has written an article entitled "The Facts about the Achievement Gap.” Her approach is from the perspective of how schools and society implicitly or explicitly cast students into achievement tracks based on their race. Both approach the same idea about racial identity, but they have different solutions, such as peer groups, the school board, and who is right about the solution.

Whether on the scale of a school district, a state, or the nation, achievement gaps exist. Wealth seems to be the deciding factor, with race coming in at a close second, but these do not (and should not) be deciding factors. The State of Texas has developed The P-16 Initiative which seeks to close theses performance gaps between the poor and wealthy. Our textbook reads: “The P-16 is an effort to work with stakeholders collaboratively to foster a more integrated education system, while addressing issues of college readiness standards, teacher education, and educational

In addition, this is also displays that the team is outcome oriented, meaning that their main focus is on the result of competitions (Horseman). Being outcome oriented is apart of the achievement goal theory. The achievement goal theory is how someone evaluates and perceives themselves in a sport (Horseman). It is normally broken up into two categories: outcome oriented and task-mastery oriented (Horseman). The difference is that one who is outcome oriented, mainly focuses on the result of competition and someone who is task-mastery oriented has their main focus on perfecting a skill and evaluating their own skill level. Benny in “The Sandlot” is an outstanding example of someone who is task-mastery oriented. Benny is constantly trying to perfect his skills in baseball and is highly motivated to learn from his mistakes in order to improve. During the movie, Benny was seen practicing his batting while the other players seemed to be losing interest because he had been practicing for so long.

Psst... What's the answer to number four?” High school students hear things such as this all too much.“We live in the Age of Comparison. Too often, we deem our own achievements worthless if they fall short of others' standards. Our best isn't good enough if it's not as good as someone else's best” Alexandra Robbins, The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids. It is this type of elitist thinking that compels so many young students to copy work from pers or “cheat”. It is my belief that all work requires original thoughts to complete it.

In 1965, Lyndon B Johnson signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in an attempt to achieve more equity among minority groups within the education system. Along with the numerous attempts to close the achievement gap came America’s first federally funded state assessments, created with the intention of holding the nation’s schools accountable for providing a quality education for every student. This legislation was revisited in 2001 by the Bush administration with the No Child Left Behind Act, which saw the achievement gap that still existed among ethnic minority groups, but also recognised a prominent gap within poverty- stricken communities. With this came state tests that were more difficult and more frequent in an attempt to further

The achievement gap is defined as the disparity between the performance groups of students, especially groups defined by gender, race/ethnicity, ability and socio-economic status. The achievement gap can be observed through a variety of measures including standardized test scores, grade point averages, drop out rates, college enrollment and completion rates. The Black-White achievement gap is a critical issue in modern society’s education system. Although data surrounding the issue clearly indicates that the racial performance gap exists in areas of standardized tests, graduation rates, dropout rates, and enrollment in continuing education, the causative reasons for the gap are ambiguous—therefore presenting a significant challenge in

Overachievers, by Alexandra Robbins, is an exposé about the lives of driven high school students at Walt Whitman High School in Maryland. Throughout the book Robbins central argument is that college admission expectations have made high school a very cut-throat environment, leading students who try to meet these expectations to have deteriorating mental and physical health.

When looking at Greg’s motivation we can look at some of the basic attribution categories that contain stability, locus of causality, and locus of control (Gould & Weinberg 63). We will have to look at his stable, unstable, internal, external, and what Greg can and cannot control. We know from practice that Greg is a very talented player, and we know he values all competition as a challenge no matter the skill level of the opposing team. He also possess a great work ethic that contributes to the positive view of this theory. Looking at what the negatives are of this theory he might not be use to the coaches quite yet, being far away from the teammates he grew up with. Now we switch to the final step in the process in motivating him to do better on the field and help us rise up the

Diane Ravitch advocates to “fix” schools and to coordinate with local to conclude the achievement gap between White American, African American and Hispanic American in The Fact About the Achievement Gap. First, to fix schools is a significant essential for decline achievement gap between different races. Although the reformer sustain that African American and Hispanic American should attend privately managed charter school or private or religion school instead of public school since reformers think that African American and Hispanic student do not have progress in the past decade, reformers ignore the increasing percentage of NAEP test, which test the students with the basic skills they need; however, instead of liberating from public schools,

Happy New Year! How are you? I just wanted to update you. I applied for jobs through Americorps and landing one in Pittsburgh with a Non-profit called Higher Achievement. We are an affiliate to a national program. Higher Achievement aims to help middle school scholars from the Hill District and Homewood areas, prepare for High School and for placement in advanced programs and or top tier schools. I was hired to help recruit mentors for the scholars and create programming for alumni of Higher Achievement. I told my supervisors about my interest in communications and they offered me the opportunity to be affiliate Brand Manager and of course I took it! I'm happy to be getting my foot in the door. I hope you're doing well and looking forward to

A widespread issue for Americans, the achievement gap is a significant inequality that young minorities face. Directly correlated with the societal injustices of poverty and racism, often resulting in limited opportunities and socioeconomic stagnation, the achievement gap encompasses the disparity in education performance of students by race and income. As the basic values of a democratic government include justice and liberty, it is imperative that a democracy and democratic citizens provide equal opportunity for all, especially in the realm of education.

Critical Issue 16 is, will school improvement efforts alone narrow the racial/ethnic achievement gap. Katie Haycock believes in adequate funding and that high standards will improve academic achievement (Paciorek). She thinks the only way to really close the gap is to fix the underperforming schools. Richard Rothstein believes the achievement gap will be narrowed when the outside groups collaborate, not just those functioning within the school. He wants to bring more people to the table to improve academic achievement (Paciorek).

I plan on working with my boyfriend’s job. He works at Union County College with the Project Achievement Initiative. They will be partnering up with the “Be the Change” group from Kean University. “Be the Change” is a nonprofit organization is geared towards helping different areas with community service and activism projects that help promote peace and non-violence in urban neighborhoods. They volunteer and donate every dollar or item collected to help many communities. Some of their activities include homelessness relief, creating peace gardens from abandoned lots, addressing urban food deserts utilizing vertical gardens to grow food, creating safe spaces for youth, young women empowerment programs and so much more. “Be the Change” is a community service and activism group made up of students from Kean University and other volunteers such as myself who are dedicated to serving the needs of local, state, national, and global community. They are pretty much a hands on organization and believe every little thing can help.

Throughout my academic career, it has always been my mission to perform at my best ability. I did this not only for myself, but also for my family and friends who put their faith in my capacity to achieve success. It was my family that raised me to be family-oriented and to give my spare time to those that may need my help. By applying for the Delta Epsilon Sigma Honor Society, I am continuing to strive for the highest level of excellence possible in academics and service to the community.