"Are You Catching Up?" Examining How Social Capital and Friendship Mediated the Identities of "Struggling" Readers in a High-Stakes Testing Environment

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Interrogating Race, Policy, and Dis/ability in Global Contexts

Abstract

Schools, especially when high-stakes testing is relevant, define what it means to be a successful reader. In an effort to meet accountability standards schools aggressively engage in sorting and labeling practices that disproportionally impacting students of color (Artiles, Harry, Reschly, & Chinn, 2002; Au, 2007, 2008; Triplett, 2007). Students occupying marginal intersections along the axes of race and disability live “double-bind identities” (Artiles, 2011, p. 437), making them particularly vulnerable. High-stakes testing “triple binds,” or further constrains identities of working-class students of color (Au, 2009, p. 66). This paper examines experiences of students marginalized along lines of race and disability by exploring how both friendship and mediated identity construction for such students in a high-stakes testing environment.

Author

• Michiko Hikida, The Ohio State University - Columbus