My AOL Black Voices/Black Spin editor shot me this eye-opening article he found over at Cognitive Daily. I think you all should know about it. The report details a study which demonstrated that black students who participated in fifteen minute affirmations prior to taking tests, narrowed the "achievement gap" on test results versus their white student counterparts.

At every performance level, this chart (adjusted for covariates) shows that black students who completed the 15-minute affirmation exercise got better grades than students who did not (control). Interestingly, there was no similar effect for white students, suggesting that the effect of the exercise may have been to remove the handicapping of those students due to racial stereotyping. Even this short intervention asking students to reflect on their personal values appears to cause a significant effect. Source

I am not surprised. I think efforts like KIPP Academy show that if you take even the worst performing students, set high expectations for them and support these students in meeting their goals, they will succeed. The power of mindset cannot be overstated when it comes to achieving personal success. Far too many young black students, fall prey to the "you ain’t nothin’ and you always gonna be nothin’" chorus that too often engulfs them. I have heard this exact phrase said to children: sometimes by parents, sometimes by teachers. And I know that If you expect to fail, you will fail. But if we adults will teach young people to connect with their inherent value, bestowed unto them by God alone, then that will be at least one tool they will have to build their own success.

Of course affirmations cannot take the place of hard work, discipline and persistence.

70 percent of African American students benefited from the intervention. The chances of this effect occurring due solely to chance are less than 1 in 5,000. But why would the effect of such a short exercise be so dramatic? The authors speculate that the benefits are cumulative: when students faced challenges shortly after they participated in the exercise, those who had reflected on their values performed slightly better. This gave them the confidence they needed to do better the next time a challenge was faced. Each successive success prepared students to face future challenges; in the end, this all added up to better performance. [ ]

Does this study demonstrate that only small interventions are necessary to solve the racial disparity in educational achievement? No. Many black students are in districts that receive less funding than white students, or have parents with less education than white students. For these kids, much more is required than a quick exercise. And these results don’t appear to be as effective for the lowest-performing students in this group. But when other factors are equal, it may not take much to eliminate entirely the effects of racial stereotyping for many children. Source

READ MORE: A fifteen minute exercise may overcome a lifetime of racial stereotyping
READ MORE: The Negative impact of positive stereotypes