Education Commons^™

Examination Of School Value-Added Growth By Student Population, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Josh B. Mcgee, Charlene A. Reid

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we assess the relationship between Arkansas’ school-level value-added content growth scores for student racial and programmatic groups. We find that on average, African American students receive lower growth scores than other student groups, and that African American elementary students demonstrated large drops in growth since COVID

Charter School Closing Inequities: Do Automatic Closure Laws Target Black Charter Entrepreneurs And Black Students?, Ian Kingbury, Martha Bradley-Dorsey, Robert Maranto

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

Charter schools can have their charters rescinded if they fail to meet performance metrics, which are often specified in the charter. In some states, however, charters must meet inflexible, standardized performance standards to survive. Through the lens of public choice theory, we hypothesize that charters that were established by African Americans and those which serve more African American students are more likely to close, and that state-imposed standardized closure rules exacerbate these inequities. Analyses using charter petitions (n=925) and National Center for Education Statistics data since 2010 (n=5,548), tend to confirm hypotheses: The percentage of African American students and having …

Policy Storms At The Central Office: Conflicting Narratives Of Racial Equity And Segregation At School Committee Meetings, Serena M. Wilcox

Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation Faculty Publications

This article reports findings from a multiyear critical ethnography that examined race talk dilemmas of school leaders at the central office at a small urban school district to understand why racialized educational policies and practices still persist against African American students. This study takes a structural approach to investigating the impact that race talk has on educational policymaking at the local district level. The guiding research question in this paper examines how we can understand educational reform and policy implementation and the unintended consequences of those interventions through the local from a historical context.

A Causal Comparative Analysis Of The Academic Self-Efficacy Of Black Male High School Students Taught By A Black Or White Male Teacher., Joseph Jones Jr.

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation

The airm of this study was to determine if there was a difference in the academic-self efficacy among Black male students taught by a Black Male teacher compared to the academic self-efficacy of Black male students that are taught by a Whilte male teacher. Academically, Black male students lag behind their peers in academic achievement indicators such as grade point average, standardized test scores, and high school graduation rates (Schottt Report, 2015). Existing literature regarding Black male academic achievement focuses on exploring the academic achievement gap that exists, but little to no research investigates how to close that gap. Using …

Comparing Academic Performance Data Of Students In Single-Gender Classroom: Which Gender Benefits The Most, African-American Males Or African-American Females?, Daris F. Gore

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if single-gender settings have a statistically significant effect on African-American male and/or African-American female academic achievement on English assessment from sixth through eighth grade. Social science statistics were used to determine if a statistically significant difference occurred in the performance of African-American males and/or female students in single-gender classrooms compared to African-American male and female students in coed classrooms. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to assess if differences exist on a dependent variable (student achievement) by independent variables (instructional setting and gender). A statistically significant difference occurred among …

“That’S Why I Say Stay In School”: Black Mothers’ Parental Involvement, Cultural Wealth, And Exclusion In Their Son’S Schooling, Quaylan Allen, Kimberly A. White-Smith

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study examines parental involvement practices, the cultural wealth, and school experiences of poor and working-class mothers of Black boys. Drawing upon data from an ethnographic study, we examine qualitative interviews with four Black mothers. Using critical race theory and cultural wealth frameworks, we explore the mothers’ approaches to supporting their sons’ education. We also describe how the mothers and their sons experienced exclusion from the school, and how this exclusion limited the mothers’ involvement. We highlight their agency in making use of particular forms of cultural wealth in responding to the school’s failure of their sons.

The Merits Of Universal Scholarships: Benefit-Cost Evidence From The Kalamazoo Promise, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Marta Lachowska

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

As higher education costs rise, many communities have begun to adopt their own financial aid strategy: place-based scholarships for students graduating from the local school district. In this paper, we examine the benefits and costs of the Kalamazoo Promise, one of the more universal and more generous place-based scholarships. Building upon estimates of the program's heterogeneous effects on degree attainment, scholarship cost data, and projections of future earnings by education, we examine the Promise’s benefit-cost ratios for students differentiated by income, race, and gender. Although the average rate of return of the program is 11 percent, rates of return vary …

The Merits Of Universal Scholarships: Benefit-Cost Evidence From The Kalamazoo Promise, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Marta Lachowska

Timothy J. Bartik

As higher education costs rise, many communities have begun to adopt their own financial aid strategy: place-based scholarships for students graduating from the local school district. In this paper, we examine the benefits and costs of the Kalamazoo Promise, one of the more universal and more generous place-based scholarships. Building upon estimates of the program's heterogeneous effects on degree attainment, scholarship cost data, and projections of future earnings by education, we examine the Promise’s benefit-cost ratios for students differentiated by income, race, and gender. Although the average rate of return of the program is 11 percent, rates of return vary …

The Merits Of Universal Scholarships: Benefit-Cost Evidence From The Kalamazoo Promise, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Marta Lachowska

Marta Lachowska

As higher education costs rise, many communities have begun to adopt their own financial aid strategy: place-based scholarships for students graduating from the local school district. In this paper, we examine the benefits and costs of the Kalamazoo Promise, one of the more universal and more generous place-based scholarships. Building upon estimates of the program's heterogeneous effects on degree attainment, scholarship cost data, and projections of future earnings by education, we examine the Promise’s benefit-cost ratios for students differentiated by income, race, and gender. Although the average rate of return of the program is 11 percent, rates of return vary …

The Merits Of Universal Scholarships: Benefit-Cost Evidence From The Kalamazoo Promise, Timothy J. Bartik, Brad J. Hershbein, Marta Lachowska

Brad J. Hershbein

As higher education costs rise, many communities have begun to adopt their own financial aid strategy: place-based scholarships for students graduating from the local school district. In this paper, we examine the benefits and costs of the Kalamazoo Promise, one of the more universal and more generous place-based scholarships. Building upon estimates of the program's heterogeneous effects on degree attainment, scholarship cost data, and projections of future earnings by education, we examine the Promise’s benefit-cost ratios for students differentiated by income, race, and gender. Although the average rate of return of the program is 11 percent, rates of return vary …

Teacher Expectations Of Students In A Predominantly African American School District, Durand Duron Payton

Dissertations

Wong and Wong (2004) reported teachers‟ perceptions could become a self-fulfilling prophecy when addressing the students. According to Haycock (2001) once teachers‟ perceptions had developed, even if they were inaccurate, teachers would begin to act as if their beliefs were factual. By acting as though the beliefs were real, teachers could essentially cause their perceptions to materialize into the expectations of students. The purpose of this study is to explore teachers‟ expectations of students in a predominantly African American school district. Ferguson (1998) had considered the behaviors in which teachers' perceptions of the students‟ impact their expectations towards the students. …

Persistence Among African-American Males In The Honors College, Johnell Roxann Anderson Goins

Dissertations

Retaining African American students, specifically African American males, is an issue that plagues the American higher education system. Research shows that African American male students are the lowest represented group in the gifted studies programs (Ford, 2010). Lockie and Burke (1999); Chen and DeJardins (2010) and Bell (2010a) found that barriers to African American male retention in higher education include but are not limited to the following: financial assistance, the battle of the two-self concept, lack of mentoring/advising, low expectations from faculty, and alienation. In an effort to remove these barriers, institutions have implemented retention strategies such as more faculty …

An Examination Of The Correlation Between The Seven Critical Leadership Functions And Middle School African-American And Hispanic Student Achievement, Shannon A. Flounnory

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study examined possible correlations between each of the seven critical leadership functions and achievement in the areas of mathematics for eighth grade African-American and Hispanic students. The 117 participants included school leaders and students from 12 of the 19 middle schools in a metropolitan school district in the southeastern region of the United States. Principals from the middle schools in the district distributed the Critical Leadership Functions Questionnaire to members of their leadership team (e.g., assistant principals, school counselors, department chairs, etc.). CRCT scores measured student achievement. The researcher conducted a correlation study, using Pearson’s multivariable correlation data …

The Impact Of Teacher Demographics On The Overrepresentation Of African American Males In Special Education In A Coastal School District, Myrick Lamon Nicks

Dissertations

African American students make up 17% of the public school population nationwide. Ironically, 41% percent of students in special education are African American (Kunjufu, 2005). The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of teacher demographics on the overrepresentation of African American males in special education in a coastal school district. Furthermore, this study examined the perception of teachers at different grade levels to see if there was a difference between elementary and secondary teachers’ perceptions. According to the literature, African American males are overrepresented in special education placement throughout the United States’ public school systems. Therefore this …

Why Makik Can "Do" Math: Race And Status In Integrated Classrooms, Jacqueline Leonard, Scott Jackson Dantley

Trotter Review

This case study reports on the small group interactions and achievements of Malik, an African American sixth grader, who attended a Maryland elementary school in 1997. Student achievement was measured by the Maryland Functional Mathematics Test (MFMT-I), which was given on a pre/post basis. Students' scores on the MFMT-I were analyzed using the ANOVA. The analysis revealed a significant difference (F = 3-330, p < .05) between the scores of Caucasian (M = 342.12) and African American students (M = 323-56). However, Malik's MFMT-I score rose from 293 to 353. A passing score is 340. This study examines Malik's interactions to ascertain what factors influenced his achievement. The findings are that Malik had a positive attitude about mathematics and a strong command of mathematical and scientific language. Recommendations are that teachers become cultural brokers to help all children learn the "language" of mathematics and encourage all students to become self-advocates to overcome negative social dynamics in small groups.

Predicting Academic Success Of Entering Freshmen At An Urban University Through The Assessment Of Oral And Written Language Competency, Karen D. Cobbs

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

In Moores and Klas' (1989) definitive study on college student retention, postsecondary administrators ranked the maintenance of student enrollment second in importance on a list of twenty critical issues facing higher education. Of particular relevance to college administrators has been the retention and graduation of African-American college students (D. B. Hawkins, 1994; Western Reserve, 1991).

Researchers, in considering the overall problem of student attrition, particularly, among African-Americans, have explored such questions as these: Which students are dropping out (Sherman, Giles and Green, 1994; Robinson, 1992)? Why do they discontinue their studies (Austin, 1982; Bohr et al., 1995; Kraft, 1992; Tinto, …