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Crioni Love Cuenca

Professor Jamie Dyra

English 1A

10 May 2017

“Asians Are So Smart”: How Stereotypes Threaten the Achievement Gap

In the 2004 Brian Robins film ​The Perfect Score​, salutatorian Anna Ross explains to

Desmond Rhodes, a black American basketball superstar who also happens to have the minimum

GPA, the concept of stereotype vulnerability in terms of standardized testing—that “some

students do badly on the SAT because they know they’re expected to.” As the movie progresses,

Rhodes reveals that his participation in the theft of the SAT answers is due to the racism of the

exam. Kyle, the protagonist of the film, elaborates on this idea, affirming “Who created the test?

Rich white guys. Who scores the highest? Middle-class Asian girls who watch less than an hour

of TV a day. They can’t drive, but they can take the shit out of the SAT.” While this scene may

have been included simply for comedic effect, we cannot disregard the reality of this

achievement gap and the critical role that stereotypes play in widening it.

As a middle-class Asian girl absent of a driver’s license, I can attest to desiring to fit into

the typical Asian mold that Robins’s film brings forth, and I immediately felt obligated to

investigate the impact of stereotypes on the general population of students. But before we can

examine the methods through which stereotypes expand the gap, it is important that we

understand the nature of this controversial conflict.

The achievement gap, as defined by the University of Pennsylvania, is “the persistent

disparity in academic achievement between minority and disadvantaged students and their white
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counterparts.” The search for a solution to the gap has become a cornerstone in education

reforms such as No Child Left Behind. The conversation, however, surrounds the numerous

factors that correlate with the widening of the gap, but don’t necessarily cause it. Nevertheless,

the stereotype threat, otherwise known as stereotype vulnerability, proves to be a significant

contributor to the issue by signaling in students a risk of conforming to or a fear of being judged

and limited due to a negative stereotype attributed to them (Steele). With this in mind, we can

address how the threat ​specifically​ affects students and ultimately stretches the achievement gap.

To begin, we must recognize that the stereotypes themselves are birthed and developed

by the people. In an attempt to grant ourselves an easy understanding of the world, we tend to

organize it in terms of clearly separated and constraining social categories that generate rules for

interpreting others. This natural inclination then cultivates expectations and beliefs that

subconsciously predict our behavior regarding the group associated with the stereotype. We

begin to process our actions through a filter governed by bias, and in which the valuable

complexity of the actions’ recipient is distorted to conform to our predetermined frame (SIRS

Government Reporter). However, it is obvious that the impact of the stereotype does not end

with the perception of the onlooker.

When stereotypes affect the response of individuals to minority groups, the performance

of that minority group is inevitably shaped. This is because interactions in general prove as

means of learning how others evaluate us, providing the bases for the standards we set; thus,

when someone is particularly discriminating, we can reasonably assume that the person receiving

the discrimination will alter themselves in such a way that conforms to the ideal character of

someone that’s not worthy of prejudice. So if a teacher, for instance, regarded two students of
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initially equal capacity through a lens of false expectations, the varying encouragement and

treatment of the teacher towards the students are prone to heighten the ability of one and

decrease that of the other. In a study by the American Psychologist Association (APA), the

aforementioned concept is confirmed when an all-white group of applicants was interviewed

using two distinct styles. It notes that those who received the less friendly interviewing style

performed worse during the interview than those who received the friendly style. Charles Horton

Cooley titles this theory as the “looking-glass self”: assuming that one’s self-image is derived

from their interpersonal relations, it theorizes that when others’ views of us are negative, we will

internalize them and acquire a form of self-hatred (Steele).

In the same manner, the sense of discrimination that accompanies stereotypes has come

to drive its victims into devaluing their social identities or, in other words, their sense of

community with their minority group. An APA analysis of Hispanic students entering an Ivy

League university even records those who experienced stereotypes to have felt their Hispanic

identity being threatened and to have shown a decrease in self-esteem by the end of that year.

And, as proven by Margaret Zoller Booth’s 2013 comparative study of adolescent students in

England and the United States, a high self-esteem—specifically that regarding relationships,

which stereotypes significantly diversify—is associated with educational achievement. In the

context of this research, then, it is reasonable to conclude that the differing behaviors birthed

from stereotypes influence minority students to perform below their actual capacity, therefore

exacerbating the respective social group’s state of achievement.

In addition to transforming the relationships of social groups, stereotypes also tend to

bring forth stressors that likewise deteriorate student performance. The term “stereotype threat”
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itself defines the raised doubt and anxiety that are derived from negative stereotypes, which,

when coupled with perceived discrimination, summarize the two most common sources of stress

for both African American and Latino students (Anderson). Steele even clarifies that from these

two sources comes the challenge of double devaluation faced by these students, for not only are

they vulnerable to the general judgement that anyone might confront for lacking a particular

skill, but also to the specific perception that they are conforming to a deeper stereotype. From

this self-consciousness to a sudden decrease in motivation and persistence, the effects of

stereotype-induced stress vary to some degree, though they collectively stretch the gap at hand.

How so?

Looking at the life of 15-year old Zion Agostini, journalist Melinda Anderson sums up

his daily encounters as a “minefield of racial profiling.” Due to the stereotypes associated with

his dark skin color, Agostini has more than often received extra treatment from observing

officers during his journeys to school. It’s no doubt then that the strain of these interactions have

taken a toll on his schoolwork, once again forcing a marginalized student to underperform.

Physiologically speaking, race-based stressors such as that experienced by Agostini signal the

body to release more cortisol, the primary stress hormone, during the day, which in turn impairs

the concentration, energy, memory, and overall learning ability of the stereotyped.

Unfortunately, the impact of discrimination on cortisol levels has also been proven to accumulate

over time, affecting the educational growth of ​generations​ of minority groups (Deardorff).

In an attempt to reduce this stereotype-induced stress, students may in fact belittle the

importance of education or simply admit that poor performance is a self-characteristic associated

with their social group. The awareness of what psychologists Jennifer Crocker and Brenda Major
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have named “attributional ambiguity” may tear the motivation of the marginalized into apathetic

pieces that are ultimately patched up by a misinterpreting society. Sadly, some will lower their

expectations to conform to the standards of bystanders, believing that their fulfillment of these

will translate into a greater sense of satisfaction (Steele) when all it truly affects is the

ever-growing achievement gap.

The predicament of stereotypes as self-characteristic, on the other hand, populates

domains that commonly allege one’s inferiority, often by suggesting stereotyped performance as

a measure of intellectual ability. In 1995, Stanford psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua

Aronson demonstrate the reality of this situation by testing a group of African Americans and

white Americans of equal ability to a “standardized” cognitive test, thus eliciting the negative

stereotype that blacks are naturally inferior in academic performance than whites. As a result of

exposing African Americans beforehand to this judgment, the group carried out less than what

they were capable. However, when the treatment was controlled—that is, when the researchers

stressed that the task didn’t measure levels of intellectual ability—improvement was evident.

Through this research, we can clearly identify the achievement gap that is ushered by the

stereotype threat and a mere standardized test.

Finally, we must also realize that it is not long before stereotypes completely progress

into self-fulfilling prophecies that will permanently widen the educational divide. This concept

of a self-fulfilling prophecy—something that is initially untrue becoming true—is a reality that

seems to accompany the fragility of minorities as a whole—from skilled African American boys

to middle-class Asian girls. For example, when developmental psychologists asked 144 children

aged 5 to 7 years questions regarding intelligence, girls favored their own gender at a greater
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extent in terms of school achievement, whereas boys favored their own gender at a greater extent

in terms of brilliance. While these findings rely on the opinions of younger subjects, it somehow

accounts for the rationale behind why, for a century, girls have attained better school grades in

all subject areas but are rare among top scorers on standardized math and science tests (Miller).

In Kaplan’s analysis, she even harnesses the “positive stereotype,” revealing that “students who

were subject to irrationally high expectations usually rose to meet them.” The theory of the

“looking-glass self” was now exploited in order to adjust oneself (specifically, Asians and Asian

Americans) into the notions of a “smart” student. Thus, we do not have to look further than these

realities, forged by stereotypes and eventual self-fulfilling prophecies, to witness the bias of

achievement.

By examining the impacts of stereotypes on the achievement gap, we are reminded of

both the consequential presence of stereotypes and the unattended call for an educational reform.

Through alterations of onlookers’ behaviors, a decrease in self-esteem and motivation, a

skyrocket of stress, allegations of inferiority, and developments of self-fulfilling prophecies,

stereotypes prove as significant contributors to a vital issue in our nation’s academic

achievement. Though, perhaps, we will never fully achieve this impartiality—with our skin tone

memory bias birthing subconscious white-favoring stereotypes (Knapton)—efforts towards

dissolving the stereotype threat should nonetheless be pursued, for only when we address this

societal situation—when we acknowledge that a sex chromosome or a melanin amount doesn’t

indicate intelligence—can steps towards physical school improvements be successfully taken.

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Works Cited

American Psychological Association. ​Stereotype Threat Widens Achievement Gap​. American

Psychological Association, 15 July 2006, apa.org/research/action/stereotype.aspx.

Anderson, Melinda D. “How the Stress of Racism Affects Learning.” ​The Atlantic​, Atlantic

Media Company, 11 Oct. 2016,

theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/10/how-the-stress-of-racism-affects-learning/503

567/.

Booth, Margaret Zoller, and Jean M. Gerard. “Self-Esteem and Academic Achievement: a

Comparative Study of Adolescent Students in England and the United States.” ​National

Center for Biotechnology Information​, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Sept. 2011,

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3779915/.

Deardorff, Julie. “Discrimination During Adolescence Has Lasting Effect on Body.”

Northwestern Now​, Northwestern University, 9 Sept. 2015,

news.northwestern.edu/stories/2015/09/discriminationduring-adolescence-has-lasting-eff

ect-on-body.

Kaplan, Sarah. “The ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ of stereotyping Asian American students.”

Washingtonpost.com​, 28 Aug. 2015. ​Student Resources in Context​,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A426976743/SUIC?u=atwa68743&xid=bf71ddda.

Knapton, Sarah. “Educated black men remembered as ‘whiter’; People have a ‘skin tone memory

bias’ which makes an educated black man become ‘more white’ in the mind’s eye which

may perpetuate racial stereotypes, researchers warn.” ​Telegraph Online​, 14 Jan. 2014.
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Student Resources in Context​,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A355553633/SUIC?u=atwa68743&xid=2359079f.

Miller, David. “Stereotypes can Hold Boys Back in School, Too.” ​University Wire​, 01 Feb,

2017, pp. n/a, ​SIRS Issues Researcher​, sks.sirs.com.

Porter, Andy. “Rethinking the Achievement Gap.” ​Penn GSE Newsroom​, Penn GSE, Jan. 2015,

gse.upenn.edu/news/rethinking-achievement-gap.

“Social Influence and Social Cognition.” ​BASIC BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE RESEARCH FOR

MENTAL HEALTH: A NATIONAL INVESTMENT​, 01 Jan, 1995, pp. 69-79, ​SIRS

Government Reporter​, sks.sirs.com.

Steele, Claude M. “Thin ice: ‘stereotype threat’ and black college students.” ​The Atlantic​, Aug.

1999, pp. 44-7,50-4. ​Student Resources in Context​,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A30296502/SUIC?u=atwa68743&xid=30e3b550.