The term used in qualitative research to address the issue of ...

[dejastew]

The term used in qualitative research to address the issue of consistency in the data is
 
  a. Generalizability. c. dependability.
  b. credibility. d. confirmability.

Question 2

Describe the nature of the achievement gap that exists between white and minority students and the four factors mentioned in the textbook that appear to contribute to this gap.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[meltdown117]

Answer to Question 1

C

Answer to Question 2

There are differences in both high school graduation rates and achievement levels. Approximately 75 of whites graduate from high school, while just over 50 of African American, Latino/Latina, and American Indian students do. Most white students outscore most minority students in the three groups just mentioned on standardized tests of reading, writing, mathematics, and science. This difference has even been

found when white and African American students from relatively affluent middle-SES families have been compared.
The textbook describes four general classes of factors that appear to play a role in the
achievement gap. Those factors are health and living conditions; family environment; students motivations, beliefs, and attitudes; and the classroom environment.
Health and living conditions: Many lower-SES children are at risk for educational problems because of inadequate prenatal and postnatal health care. Inadequate prenatal health care often leads to premature births and birth defects. During childhood low-SES children frequently receive inadequate medical and dental care and suffer from more untreated illnesses than their middle-SES peers. In addition, they experience a higher incidence of lead poisoning, which often results in lower standardized test scores and deficits in attention. Housing conditions tend to be crowded because of relatively small apartments, and a quiet place in which to study is often nonexistent. Parental supervision tends to be inconsistent or absent. Daily life can be additionally stressful because of the threat of street crime. About 25 percent of African American and Latino/Latina children have the added challenge each year of adapting to new peers, instructional methods, and curricula when they change schools because their parents have changed residences.
Family environment: Lower-SES students are more likely than middle-class students to come from one-parent families. This factor has been linked with lower academic achievement, although the results of research in this area are inconclusive. White and Asian American middle-class parents tend to have higher expectations and provide more support for
academic achievement than low-SES parents. Middle-SES children are exposed to a wider variety of experiences through parental tutoring and everyday interactions. Middle-SES children are also given more educational toys, have more access to computers and the Internet, and travel more than low-SES children. Because white middle-SES parents speak more than three times as many words to their children as do low-SES minority parents, the typical white middle-SES child begins school with a vocabulary about four times as large as that of a typical low-SES minority child.
Students' motivations, beliefs, and attitudes: Lower-SES children often lack motivation because they have a lower need for achievement than middle-class students. Need for achievement is a characteristic that influences an individual's willingness to invest time and effort into the achievement of a goal. This inhibits their ability to acquire the academic skills that are necessary for them to succeed in school. Lower-SES adolescents, particularly African American males, place a low value on academic achievement (the so-called aversion to acting white). Many believe they can get a good job without a high school diploma. The reasons why minority low-SES males place a lower value on academic achievement than white middle-SES males or minority low-SES females are not yet understood. Female
minority students on the other hand, be they in the primary, elementary, or middle school grades, are more likely to admire, respect, and want to be like their high achieving female classmates.
Classroom environment: Minority low-SES students do not learn as well as other students in classrooms where it appears as if the teacher does not care about or try to support them. By contrast, students perform better and have a more positive attitude toward learning in classes where teachers have high but realistic expectations, use a mastery approach to learning, do not accept low-quality work, align instruction with state learning standards, use formative evaluation, and support students' learning efforts with such techniques as scaffolded instruction.

[dejastew]

Thank you

[meltdown117]

No problem