Closing the gap: Relationships between the perceived use of instructional practices and the academic success of African American students

As the stakes become higher due to the accountability measures enacted by No Child Left Behind (NCLB), it is essential now more than ever to provide evidence for instructional strategies and educational practices that are effective in narrowing the academic achievement gap between African Americans and their European American counterparts. By focusing on strategies and practices that have been shown to positively impact the academic success of African Americans, policymakers and those involved in education can create environments and conditions in which African American students can attain high academic achievement and ultimately close the gap. Hence, there were three main questions that drove the study: (a) Is there a relationship between the academic success of African American students and the student's perceived use of technology as a learning tool in the classroom? (b) Is there a relationship between the academic success of African American students and the perceived use of the formative assessment process in the classroom? (c) Is there a relationship between the academic success of African American students and teacher self-reported use of higher order thinking skills (HOTS) and processes in the classroom? The study utilized a post-positivism philosophy and was a non-experimental, quantitative study that examined the Strategic Action Plans (SAPs) and the School Improvement Plan Surveys of a large, suburban school district in the southern United States. The district's publically available records were examined and analyzed using a multiple regression analysis in order to determine if there were significant relationships between the perceived use of various instructional practices and the academic success of African American students. The results of the study indicated that students' perceived use of technology was the greatest predictor for determining the percentage of African American students who met or exceeded standards on the Grade 5 and Grade 8 Criterion Referenced Competency Test and the Georgia High School Graduation Test in mathematics and English language arts.