摘要:
The racial inequity of literacy acquisition has been widely documented, with many studies showing that African American students consistently receive lower standardized test scores than students of other races. However, an examination of student test scores reveals that many African American students are indeed successful in scoring at or above national averages on standardized reading tests, as is the case with a charter school in southeastern North Carolina. The purpose of this qualitative, single-instrument case study is to discover the instructional beliefs, strategies, and practices of a school's administration, teachers, parents and students to gain insight that can inform future research and policy-making on the reading standardized tests, as well as the design of learning environments and related instructional practices. The theoretical lens for this study is Critical Race Theory, widely used by researchers to investigate structural and institutional racism and its effects. The researcher used the five tenets of Critical Race Theory to analyze qualitative data collected from the administration, teachers, students and parents. Critical Race Theory also helped the researcher understand the constraints the school within the school operated that enabled African American students to succeed on the Reading standardized tests. The five tenets are the permanence of racism, interest convergence, critique of liberalism, whiteness as property, and counter-storytelling. The specific research questions that guided this inquiry were as follows: (1) What beliefs do administrator(s), teachers, students, and parents at a charter school have about the learning experiences of African American students? (2) How do these beliefs influence the middle-school ELA teachers’ instructional strategies and practices? (3) What beliefs, strategies and practices have had the most impact on African American students’ achievement? Some of the findings are teachers’ beliefs influence student