In order for America to retain its superior position in a global economy it is imperative that all students receive educational opportunities that will prepare them for the future. Currently, African-American economically disadvantaged students in the United States perform lower on standardized tests than their grade and age-level peers. Educators must find ways to improve the performance of students in this group in order to maximize future opportunities. Through a mixed-methodology approach, the current study finds three school factors that may positively impact the performance of African-American economically disadvantaged students: high expectations, student-teacher relationships and teacher effectiveness. Quantitative and qualitative analysis provides perspectives from principals primarily from a large urban school district on the impact of these factors on student performance.

African American children experience risks due to heightened socio-environmental problems and responding to negative racial messages in their environments. Child Centered Play Therapy (CCPT) is one viable intervention for the development of social emotional competence among African American children to help mediate adverse conditions. I sought to explore the effects of CCPT on the social emotional competencies of African American children utilizing Social Emotional Assets and Resilience Scale-Parent & Teacher (SEARS-P; SEARS-T) reports. Thirty-seven African American participants with a mean age of 6.68 years were recruited from four suburban elementary schools in the southwest U.S. Twenty participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group receiving a mean of 13.3 CCPT sessions over 8 weeks, and 17 participants were assigned to the waitlist control group. Factorial ANOVA results indicated that parents reported statistically and practically significant improvement for children who participated in CCPT in overall social-emotional competencies. Follow-up analysis revealed statistical and practical improvement in children’s empathy, as well as practical improvement in self-regulation/responsibility and social competence. Teacher-reported results indicated practical but non-statistically significant improvement in overall social-emotional competencies for children who participated in CCPT, including statistical and practical improvement in children’s responsibility, as well as practical improvement in self-regulation, social competence, and empathy. Thus, CCPT showed promise as a culturally responsive treatment intervention to improve African American children’s social-emotional competencies

Screen-based educational media, as an extension of the schooling process whose history has mirrored brick and mortar institutions, have traditionally espoused narratives of Eurocentricity, shifting relatively recently to multicultural yet simultaneously raceless narratives. While many viewers have learned from and been inspired by these media, the enthusiastic response to the film Black Panther (2018), as demonstrated by financial earnings and sustained social media energy, revealed an intense yearning in the Black community for media positively centering the strengths and successes of Black lives. Launched from the sociocultural fervor for Black concordance in media, and extending concordance into the educational media landscape, this qualitative study sought to assess responses from African-American children, ages 3-8, to educational media concordant to them, and contextualize these responses in recognition of race socialization patterns within the home. Children’s responses to the media ranged from acknowledgment of skin color as well as hair texture and style, to full identification with and enthusiasm for animated protagonists. Caregivers responded positively to the samples while self- reporting varying degrees of race socialization. These responses demonstrated promising potential for identification with concordant educational media based on phenotypic resemblance, particularly for children approximately 8 years of age.

This study examined factors related to how the interactive behaviors of a group of Black kindergarten children, as demonstrated within the social organization of the classroom, may be related to reading readiness achievement outcomes. Cultural differences in language use, the demands for cooperation in mainstream schools, and established patterns of social interaction were examined as reasons for differential outcomes among blacks. Verbal and non-verbal forms of expression and social interactions, as displayed by students and teacher in the classroom, are related to whether students gain access to participation structures and, therefore, learning opportunities. In this ethnographic study participant observation was the method used to collect data. In the research classroom, linguistic form was not a factor in gaining access to participation strucures. This study suggests, however, that access to reading information was limited to competent students who complied with social and academic demands to gain access to participation structures operating in crucial lesson segments and, therefore, learning opportunities. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was to determine principals' attitudes toward the use of culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive leadership in predominately African American schools. Culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally responsive teaching, culturally responsive urban leadership, and ethnohumanist leadership are the study's theoretical underpinnings. The research question was as follows: To what extent, if any, do principals of predominately African American schools promote culturally relevant pedagogy and utilize culturally responsive leadership? The sample for this mixed methods study was secondary school principals and teachers in predominately African American schools. Seven principals and 43 teachers participated in the study. The research methods used were vignettes, interviews, surveys, content analysis, and document analysis. Vignettes containing 10 scenarios of principals performing culturally responsive leadership practices were distributed to principals who were asked to rate them with a Likert scale. In addition, principals were asked 13 open ended questions about culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive leadership in an interview. Teachers were asked to complete a 10 question on-line survey about their principals' leadership from a culturally responsive perspective. Reviews of school improvement plans, principals' messages, and mission and vision statements were also conducted. / The study found that (a) principals admitted that they had a limited knowledge of the concepts of culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive leadership, (b) principals theoretically viewed culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive leadership as useful tools in educating African American student populations as evidenced by their responses to the vignettes, (c) principals had a general understanding of African American culture and exhibited sensitivity to the cultural needs of African American students, (d) stressed the managing of difficult students or the diffusing of problematic situations as a benefit of having teachers trained in culturally relevant pedagogy and (e) principals in the study did not actively encourage teachers to utilize culturally relevant pedagogy as a means to improve the academic achievement of African American students. / by Tressey Weaver. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

School readiness incorporates children's academic abilities and their ability to self-regulate in the classroom. Prior research shows that sleep is related to children's development of these skills, although the mechanisms through which sleep affects school readiness are not well understood. Research also indicates that economically disadvantaged children and children of color may have poorer academic and regulatory skills at school entry and may sleep less and sleep less well on a regular basis. The current study explores the role of sleep quantity and quality in young children's development of two skills critical for school success: self-regulation and academic abilities. This study intentionally focuses on a predominantly African-American, economically disadvantaged population, who may be at risk for greater sleep-related difficulties and lower school-related skills at kindergarten entry. It was hypothesized that a) young children with higher quantity and quality of sleep would show greater development of academic skills and self-regulation across one calendar year, b) the role of sleep in the development of these abilities would be relatively stronger among kindergarteners than among 1st graders, and c) the role of sleep quality and quantity in young children's development of academic abilities would be partially explained by the relation between sleep and self-regulation. Results provide mixed support for the hypotheses, indicating that sleep quality and quantity relate differentially to different school-related skills among kindergarteners and 1st graders. This study contributes research to help explain how and why sleep affects young children and may offer insights for caregivers and educators working to help children develop school-related skills.

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Conceptions of community violence that circulate in American society are shaped by, and shape, the way that public health violence intervention programs are designed and implemented. As a conceptual point of departure for public health programming, community violence focuses on acutely violent events, where homicide and/or hospitalization are the potential outcomes. The violence experienced by poor people living in marginal neighborhoods is chronic and does not resemble this conception of violence on which public health intervention programs are based. The violence that is most pressing to these intended service recipients is driven by their immersion in poverty. As a result of this lack of conceptual correspondence, intervention programs are unable to achieve the intended goal of violence reduction. / Drawing on and adding to the literature from the anthropology of violence and the anthropology of public health, this thesis explores public health conceptions of community and domestic violence intervention as contrasted with the experience of structural violence for the individuals for whom intervention services are designed. The research that underwrites this project was conducted in an inner-city public hospital and focused on a clinically-driven, community-based youth violence intervention program. / Clinical and community violence intervention programs bring three groups together: clinical practitioners, community workers and youth service recipients. This study explores the heterogeneity of the world views of members of these groups and exposes the power imbalances inherent to clinical and community collaborations. The power differentials exist between the clinical, community and youth factions, as well as within each faction. This work shows how this unequal distribution of power---between and among these sub-groups---mirrors themes in American society and comes to influence internal program adjustment and negotiation. The process observed highlights how power politics, as well as incongruent perspectives on violence, play out initially in the implementation process and secondarily in the lives of the youth who were program participants. / This work, which has theoretical and practical implications for scholars working in the areas of poverty, violence, public health interventionism or adolescent programming, concludes with a summary of alternative strategies to approach violence prevention programming.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2009. / Additional advisors: Aaron Kuntz, Aaron Moyana, Andrew McKnight, William Boyd Rogan. Description based on contents viewed June 5, 2009; title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-228).