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Review
. 2022 Jun;21(2):es2.
doi: 10.1187/cbe.21-05-0130.

Reframing Educational Outcomes: Moving beyond Achievement Gaps

Sarita Y Shukla  1 , Elli J Theobald  2 , Joel K Abraham  3 , Rebecca M Price  4
Affiliations
Review

Reframing Educational Outcomes: Moving beyond Achievement Gaps

Sarita Y Shukla et al. CBE Life Sci Educ. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

The term "achievement gap" has a negative and racialized history, and using the term reinforces a deficit mindset that is ingrained in U.S. educational systems. In this essay, we review the literature that demonstrates why "achievement gap" reflects deficit thinking. We explain why biology education researchers should avoid using the phrase and also caution that changing vocabulary alone will not suffice. Instead, we suggest that researchers explicitly apply frameworks that are supportive, name racially systemic inequities and embrace student identity. We review four such frameworks-opportunity gaps, educational debt, community cultural wealth, and ethics of care-and reinterpret salient examples from biology education research as an example of each framework. Although not exhaustive, these descriptions form a starting place for biology education researchers to explicitly name systems-level and asset-based frameworks as they work to end educational inequities.

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Figures

FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1.
Research frameworks highlighted in the essay. The column in gray summarizes deficit-based frameworks that focus on achievement gaps. The middle column (in gold) includes examples of systems-based frameworks that acknowledge that student learning is associated with society-wide habits. The rightmost columns (in peach) include examples of asset-based models that associate student learning with students’ strengths. The columns are not mutually exclusive, in that studies can draw from multiple frameworks simultaneously or sequentially.
FIGURE 2.
FIGURE 2.
A selection of potential data sources that could inform researchers about within- and between-group differences in educational outcomes. This list does not encompass the full range of possible data sources, nor does it imply a hierarchy to the data. Instead, it reflects some of the diversity of quantitative and qualitative data that are directly linked to student outcomes and that are used under multiple research frameworks.
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