A Focus on Mastery in the Assessment Process Favors Low-Socioeconomic-Status Students' Educational Attainment at University

• In Event: 46.085 - Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 46.085-9 - Educational Attainment and the Social Class Divide: Sociopsychological Barriers to Equality and Justice

Abstract

Objectives
The present research examines whether a focus on mastery in the assessment process would be particularly beneficial for low socio-economic status (SES) students’ academic achievement and, consequently, would have the potential to support low-SES students’ educational attainment as compared to their high-SES counterparts.

Theoretical framework
According to past research (Dornbusch, Glasgow, & Lin, 1996: Darnon, Dompnier, Delmas, Pulfrey, & Butera, 2009), University has two functions: a selection function, where the aim is to compare students and orient them toward different positions in society, and an educational function, where the aim is to improve students’ skills and knowledge. The selection function should favor high-SES students’ educational attainment (Bourdieu, Passeron, & Nice, 1990), whereas the educational function should also support that of low-SES students. However, empirical evidence is lacking. In the present research, we aimed at providing such evidence by focusing on assessment practices at University. Specifically, because current assessment practices focus usually more on the selection than on the educational function, their characteristics fit better with norms and values shared by high-status groups (Stephens, Fryberg, Markus, Johnson, & Covarrubias, 2012). If instead assessment is perceived as mastery-oriented, that is, intended to promote learning as opposed to selecting students, low-SES students may perform as well as their high-SES counterparts.

Methods
In two field studies and a randomized field experiment, relying on correlational and experimental designs, we tested whether a focus on the mastery component of assessment led low-SES students to perform as well as high-SES students. All studies were conducted in real classrooms, with psychology undergraduates. Parental occupations were collected and students were categorized as low or high-SES in accordance with an official SES coding scheme.

Materials
In study 1, students’ grades at a mastery-oriented continuous exam and a selection-oriented final exam were collected. In study 2, students’ mastery goals were measured. In study 3, the purpose of assessment (mastery vs. selection-oriented) was manipulated.

Results
Study 1 showed that low-SES students performed as well as high-SES students on the mastery-oriented continuous exam, but not on the final exam. Study 2 showed that higher levels of mastery goal endorsement led low-SES students to perform as well as high-SES students. Study 3 experimentally demonstrated that a mastery-oriented assessment allowed low-SES students to perform as well as their high-SES counterparts, whereas the latter performed better on the selection-oriented exam.

Significance
Empirical data now support the idea that low-SES students can perform as well as high-SES students if they are led to understand assessment as part of the learning process. This research thus provides a theoretical framework to understand the differential effects of assessment practices on the educational attainment of low-SES students, and contributes to pave the way toward the development of novel interventions to favor low-SES students’ success at University.

Authors

• Annique Smeding, Savoie Mont Blanc University

• Celine Darnon, Clermont University