Education Commons^™

The Effects Of Mobile Devices & Maker Projects On Middle School African American Students’ Stem Knowledge Base & Interest, Allen L. Savage Sr.

Dissertations

The nature of future employment is rooted in the sciences, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Educating the current and future workers will require the inclusion of STEM education, especially in the K-12 classrooms. African Americans run the risk of being left behind in future STEM jobs due to their poor STEM representation throughout institutional education. In general, African American students have a poor attitude towards and poor academic performance in STEM. This research was explored using ubiquitous smartphones and a unique form of student-centered learning called maker education to increase the attitude and STEM knowledge of African American middle schoolers. …

White And African American Elementary Aged Student Perspectives Of School Climate And The Relationship To Academic Achievement, Jeremy Spoor, Rachel Turney

Dissertations

The achievement gap between White and African American students on the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) is an educational phenomenon that has been around for generations and yet to be fully understood or eliminated. This study investigated the difference in school climate perceptions between African American and Caucasian (sic) students on a district climate survey and the possible connections to the achievement gap on the MAP tests. The 2015-2016 student perceived school climate survey data from a mid-sized Midwestern urban school district was disaggregated and analyzed to identify specific differences in perception of school climate among the study groups.

MAP test …