Local schools implement social norming project

An achievement gap between minority and non-minority students at local schools has prompted Mayor Brad Cole, along with area ministers, to start a project they said could help boost minority test scores. Steve Sabens, superintendent at Carbondale Community High School, said the school has been researching test scores from the past couple of years and determined minority students, primarily blacks, typically score below the state average. Sabens said this is a problem affecting schools across the county.

"We've got a gap there between what the expected levels of performance should be and what our students are performing," Sabens said. "I think we reflect pretty much what is occurring on a nationwide level." To combat this, Sabens gathered with Cole and local ministers for lunch late last week to start a "social norming" project. Part of the project includes the ministers stressing the importance of academics to their predominately black congregations. The Rev. Norman Greer from the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church said this project is necessary because of a perception among black students that it is OK to get poor grades.

"Many of the students who receive the poor test scores and poor grades are actually corporate learners," Greer said. "There are students who believe it is cool to not really be concerned about academic excellence. The social norming opportunity allows this perception to be altered." The goal of the project is to change the mindset of students so they are more comfortable at school and can learn with more ease. Cole said one way to do this is to make the curriculum more relevant to black students by using examples with which they can identify. If the students are in an environment that is familiar to them, Cole said they will be more likely to want to learn.

"We address issues in the black community and try to apply that to their learning," Cole said. "We're tying to address that and change the attitude." Sabens said he thinks the social norming project is a great idea because it goes outside the walls of the school and impacts the students in their personal lives. He said having black clergy interact with students is something rarely seen among schools. Meetings with the clergy, like the one they had in February, are something he plans to do every month.

"This is something that is a little bit unique," Sabens said. "It's not an academic kind of exercise that we're performing. It's outside of the normal kind of thing you would expect a school district to do." Though the project has just begun, Greer said he is already receiving positive feedback. He has been working with some of the members of his congregation and said he thinks things are moving in the right direction. "The congregation has responded very well," Greer said. "If people think positive, then they will behave in positive ways."