Effects of Follow Through on School Fearfulness Among Black Children

Attending school is a punitive experience for many children, especially those from ethnic minority groups.1 The schools often fail to meet the educational needs of these children, and their fear of failure in the classroom increases at successive grade levels. High levels of school fearfulness have been identified among black children as early as grade two.2 According to Katz,3 anxiety over anticipated failure in classroom evaluation situations severely inhibits the academic performance of black children. A child's level of school fearfulness reflects the amount of threat that he perceives in the school environment. Children who fail frequently in test or evaluation situations are likely to become more anxious when they are requested to perform in the classroom. The anxiety in test situations tends to generalize to other school activities. It is not surprising that many pupils develop avoidant attitudes and behaviors to escape the unpleasant experiences associated with school attendance. Reducing the level of school fearfulness among poor children in kindergarten and the first three grades is a major objective of the national Follow Through Program. Follow Through provides a comprehensive range of instructional, psychological, and social services for poor children and their families in 170 cooperating

Developmental psychology · Mathematics education · Sociology · Demography · Early Childhood Education and Development · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology · Youth Substance Use and School Attendance

• The role of psychologists in the national Follow Through project

  W Ray Rhine•American Psychologist•1983

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