If those values are not congruent with the learning styles and needs of minority students, then there is a greater likelihood that minority students may not be able to achieve at the same level of the majority group. Many factors contribute to differences in student effort, expectations, and persistence. Research indicates there is a substantial gap between the performance of white, middle class students as compared to that of minority and low-income students. Family beliefs, attitudes, and values towards learning have an impact on student achievement. The education of diverse students is impacted by the level of education teachers possess in language, multicultural, and poverty issues.
Teachers come with many culturally driven values that shape the instruction in the classroom.
If those values are not congruent with the learning styles and needs of minority students, then there is a greater likelihood that minority students may not be able to achieve at the same level of the majority group. Teachers have bias towards students based on income, behavior, race, gender, language, and parent education level. In fact, we have constructed an educational system so full of inequities that it actually exacerbates the challenges of race and poverty, rather than ameliorates them. Simply put, we take students who have less to begin with and give them less in school, too. There are numerous, research-based strategies that have been shown to improve student achievement.