We discussed an article summarizing a study on the impact of faculty mindset on student achievement, with special attention to racial achievement gaps (link to article below). In this recent study, 150 STEM faculty across 13 departments at a large public university were surveyed (using a validated tool) to identify their beliefs regarding the fixedness of academic or intellectual ability. Course grades for 15,000 students who took courses with these instructors over seven terms were analyzed using a regression model to determine the presence and size of any effect of instructor mindset on student achievement. Students were separated into two categories, white/Asian and URM (underrepresented minorities including black, Hispanic, and native American). Faculty mindset predicted student achievement more than any other faculty characteristic (faculty race, age, experience, gender, tenure status), and was more pronounced for URM than for white/Asian students. The two figures included in this handout (Summary March 2019) are copied from the article and summarize these results, as well as the results of student evaluations for each course.
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