The Effect of Race Representation on Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The achievement gap is still prevalent in that racial minority students, particularly Black students, tend to have lower grade point averages and test scores than their White peers. The current study examined the impact of race representation in children’s literature on 4th grade students’ reading comprehension and reading preference as a way to support those impacted by the academic achievement gap. The effect of the race of a character on reading comprehension was measured through an experimental group design. A total of 110 4th grade students read two MAZE comprehension passages with pictures of characters of different races and selected words that best fit throughout the story. Black students performed significantly better on the stories with a character that matched their race, but White students did not perform notably differently on the stories with a character that matched their race. There were no significant findings regarding whether students were more likely to prefer the stories with race-matched characters. The limitations, implications, and directions for future research are addressed.