Editing Goal setting (section)

=== Closing achievement gaps based on gender and ethnicity ===
Goal setting interventions have shown promising and scalable results in terms of closing persistent gender (ongoing male underperformance) and ethnicity achievement gaps in the areas of academic achievement and increased retention rates. In one study persistent male underperformance in tertiary education was almost entirely closed to achieve parity with females after one year of the intervention. Similar albeit slower positive impacts in closing the ethnicity achievement gap by the second year of the same goal setting intervention were reported. These findings suggest that a goal setting intervention early in students' academic careers can significantly and substantially reduce gender and ethnic minority inequalities in academic achievement at least at the tertiary level.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Schippers|first1=Michaéla C.|last2=Scheepers|first2=Ad W. A.|last3=Peterson|first3=Jordan B.|date=2015-06-09|title=A scalable goal-setting intervention closes both the gender and ethnic minority achievement gap|journal=Palgrave Communications|language=en|volume=1|issue=1|pages=1–12|doi=10.1057/palcomms.2015.14|issn=2055-1045|doi-access=free}}</ref> More work remains to be done to see if similar conclusions can be drawn at the level of secondary education.