Creating Conditions That Promote Student Achievement

Last Saturday, Wade Boykin, professor of psychology at Howard University, presented a special feature on "Creating Conditions that Promote Student Achievement," calling for an evidence-based approach to school improvement. He drew a distinction between transactional and technocratic reform, with the latter representing structural efforts such as school uniforms and new forms of scheduling and the former focusing on interpersonal relationships in the classroom. Boykin believes that more focus is needed on reform that is transactional, with the emphasis on how students and teachers interact.

One of the most compelling arguments Boykin made in favor of the importance of interpersonal relationships in the classroom related to an experiment he and a colleague conducted. European American students he studied performed best working independently for a reward, while the African American students performed best working together with no extrinsic reward. This experiment shows how crucial context is to student achievement.

What do you make of the results of this experiment? How you can you structure your school or classroom to provide a variety of contexts for achievement?