<p> Mental health screeners need to demonstrate measurement equivalence across the populations of their intended use in order to improve the fairness in the identification of students in need of social, emotional, and behavioral supports. This study examined measurement invariance on three mental screeners across five racial and ethnic groups. The <i>Elementary Social Behavior Assessment</i> measures academic enablers associated with the latent construct of teachability (ESBA). The <i>Student Risk Screening Scale </i> assesses externalizing problems (SRSS) and the <i>Student Internalizing Behavior Screener</i> measures internalizing problems (SIBS). Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses tested for measurement invariance from the sample of African American (18%), Asian American/Pacific Islander (13%), Latino Hispanic (25%), European American (31%), and multiracial (11%) groups of students in elementary schools. Only the ESBA required respecification to establish an adequate baseline model. The ESBA, SRSS, and SIBS demonstrated metric invariance with ordinal ratings of <i>never, occasionally, sometimes</i>, and <i> frequently</i> in addition to scalar invariance with the thresholds between the ordinal ratings. Thus, the total scores from the ESBA, SRSS, and SIBS generalize across racial and ethnic groups and the student&rsquo;s race or ethnicity is less likely to mask their true level of need for social, emotional, and behavioral supports. The results indicate that the ESBA, SRSS, and SIBS may help teachers to identify racially and ethnically students who need intervention, to customize the interventions, and to evaluate students&rsquo; response to intervention. Schools using these mental health screeners may reduce disproportionality in discipline and special education.</p><p>

Limited attention has been given to Black teachers' attitudes toward school-based diversity initiatives. This study focuses on African American educators' responses to strategies to promote academic achievement and anti-racist education in predominantly White schools. Their perceptions are offered about racism's educational ramifications for African American students and families. This inquiry has significance for in-service staff development and pre-service teacher trainers because it illustrates a setting where educators of different races explicitly address racism and factors of student achievement. This study examines African American educators' experiences in an extended professional development course funded by a multi-district consortium created to support Black student achievement. The study focused on Black perceptions of curriculum investigating racial identity development theory, White privilege and the influence of racism in classroom practices. The methodology included ethnographic data, in-depth interviews and analysis of documents from a 52 hour, year long course. The analysis examines Black educators' attitudes on what facilitates or obstructs schools' capacity to provide equitable and anti-racist education. This study finds that Black educators want staff development that provides comprehensive and reflective approaches to address racism. This type of experience is supported by a curriculum that explicitly addresses White privilege, racial identity theory, and social dynamics that perpetuate racism. To carry out this experience instructors need to be experienced in facilitating anti-racist training and indicators of individual and institutional commitment to anti-racist staff development goals must be recognized. This research recommends staff development planners and facilitators working in predominantly White settings recognize distinctive professional conflicts African American educators experience and the significance of having a critical mass of Black participants present in the training experience. It further recommends support for on-going communication for Black and other racial minority members via affinity groups. Finally, this study supports organizational analysis that informs strategic interventions promoting student achievement and active anti-racist programming. From inception to conclusion this study asserts the need to solicit the perceptions of African American and other educators of color regarding institutional commitment to inclusion and educational equity.

Higher education institutions have a responsibility to educate all. Yet, significant proportions of blacks are not being successfully reached. This, coupled with changing demographics, is forcing educators to be concerned about the future. Under-representation exists in faculty and administrative ranks as well as with students. The hostile climate for black students on predominantly white campuses has been cited as a major concern and barrier to success. Black student alienation has been attributed to a number of variables, but the root of the problem is often traced to the campus climate. It is clear that the environment has a substantial impact on a student's level of satisfaction and can make a difference in whether a student leaves or persists. As the shapers of the climate and the experts on students, student affairs administrators play a key role in campus climate. With this major responsibility, one must ask how much of an understanding of black students' problems and experiences do these administrators have? Through the process of in-depth interviewing, the study examined the perception and the level of understanding of student affairs administrators of the campus climate for black students at Easton College, a predominantly white institution. Administrators are grouped into three groups for comparative purposes: those who are knowledgeable about black students, those who know little about black students, and those who are black. It also includes the perceptions of black students who attend the college. Results of the study indicate that the climate at Easton College is hostile and unwelcoming to its black students. While all the administrators are aware of the hostile climate, the level of knowledge and specificity differed among the three groups. Easton College is doing little to create a learning environment that promotes appreciation. Social and cultural isolation is prevalent. Care and support is limited because of insufficient knowledge and inadequate exposure to black culture. To improve the climate for black students, a number of recommendations are made.

Racial tension still motivates strife and violence in the metropolitan Detroit area. This study sought to determine the effectiveness of a collaborative partnership on the attitudes of a group of diverse learners regarding multicultural relations. The purpose of this research study was to investigate whether participation in the Cultural Awareness Consortium (CAC) improved the multicultural relations of diverse high school students. The 2 theoretical frameworks guiding this study were Allport's intergroup contact theory and intercultural competence theory originating from International Education and International Studies. The research questions addressed whether attending the CAC for 4 months, the treatment, changed students' attitudes on multicultural relations, and whether a student's gender or ethnicity was a predictor of changes in these attitudes. This study used a single group, pre-experimental design with data collection from 2 administrations of the Student Multicultural Relations Survey. Fifty-four students completed the survey, which yielded 4 multicultural relations scales (dependent variables), 8 single-item attitudinal variables on multicultural issues, and 2 demographic variables (independent variables). Inferential analysis included t tests and multiple regression. Key results indicated that students' attitudes on multicultural relations had changed significantly; in addition, students talked to and mixed with students from different cultural backgrounds with greater frequency after the treatment. Educational institutions providing experiences like the CAC can make a positive impact on students' attitudes on multicultural relations. This impact can lead to positive social change as students increase their acceptance of others and take those attitudes and values with them into the workforce after they graduate, serving as role models of acceptance for their peers.

This work is a qualitative inquiry into the lives and experiences of nine African American women faculty during various stages of the tenure process. This study finds that African American women faculty face challenges in the academy particularly as they relate to the unwritten rules and the institutional politics surrounding tenure. This work is weaved in African American feminist thought with the literatures on academic tenure and minority and women faculty experiences in the academy.

This dissertation investigates the role of familial racial socialization and formal education in black college students' racial ideologies. I argue that the ascendance of claims that America has become a colorblind, post-racial society necessitates a scholarly consideration of the sources that promote and sustain these empirically unsubstantiated notions. The mass media, through its coverage of highly visible examples of successful people of color, accomplishes some of this work. However, I contend that familial racial socialization and the high school U.S. history course, through its coverage of African American history, are two additional sources of racial messages that assist in promoting colorblindness and post-racialism. While researchers have identified parents as an important source of racial socialization, my interviews revealed that other family members, such as grandparents, siblings, and aunts, also played a significant role in students' racial socialization. Further, while students' racial socialization existed along a continuum of acknowledgment of contemporary racial oppression, the substance of what their parents and family members conveyed to them was generally of one of two types, critical or colorblind. Approximately half of the students in my sample received colorblind racial socialization, an important finding that contrasts with much of the literature on racial socialization. Additionally, high school U.S. history, through its coverage of African American history, interacted with students' familial racial socialization to help shape their racial ideologies beyond high school. Once these students matriculated at college they did not necessarily reproduce the racial ideologies into which they were socialized. Rather, depending on the nature of their racial socialization from family and the high school U.S. history course, I found that students were more or less likely to diverge ideologically from the racial interpretive framework developed prior to and during high school. The primary factor that motivated this process was whether students chose to take college coursework that exposed them to more critical interpretations of race and racism. A secondary factor was the substance of the racial ideologies of those in their peer group.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which minority students in the Peralta Community College District in California, specifically, Merritt College have succeeded in gaining access to Merritt College and whether Merritt is providing needed remedial and other pertinent services/programs, necessary for the success of minority students enrolled in the institution. Merritt College in the Peralta Community College District was selected for this study because the Peralta District has a reputation for providing quality education along with innovative programs. A survey was designed in an attempt to ascertain students' perceptions of the importance and satisfaction with remedial and supportive services/programs that were available at Merritt College. The Statistical Package for the Social Science Computer Program was used to calculate FREQUENCIES, CROSSTABS and CHI SQUARES. The findings indicate that the majority of students felt open admission was very important or important in assisting students in accomplishing their goals. The findings also revealed that students felt that supportive services were important in community colleges. It was also indicated that students felt that it was important to have minority representation on the faculty and staff. The findings revealed that students were satisfied with the supportive services/programs and related work experience or internship programs at Merritt College.

The racial and gender composition of elementary school teachers does not match those of the students and this may be contributing to an inequity of achievement scores between African American and European American students. This ex post facto causal comparative study compared three levels of elementary school diversity personnel staffing on Grade 4 African American student Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores and differences between male African American scores and female African American scores in a suburban Atlanta county. Nine intentionally selected elementary schools were chosen representing 3 racial diversity personnel staffing levels including 39% to 50%, 25% to 27%, and 1% to 3% African American staffing. The analysis of covariance or ANCOVA and the analysis of variance or ANOVA served as the data analysis tool for both hypotheses. The results of the analysis indicated that when SES was used as the covariate, the students in the schools with a 39% to 50% African American staffing performed better than the 1% to 3% African American staffing on the Reading test while the funded Title 1 schools with 25% to 27% African American staffing had the highest reading scores. Efforts to close the student African American and European American achievement gap may be facilitated by addressing the SES issue as well as closing racial gap between teachers and students. This may support positive social change for all stakeholders of public education.