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Educational disparities are deeply entrenched in U.S. society. Our research focused on a move toward equity and investment in one Midwestern charter school via the implementation of the African American Student Network. Participants were 15 male and 15 female students in Grades 9 to 12 who participated in the network for one semester. Qualitative analysis of focus group interviews revealed that students in the network experienced safety, support, empowerment, affirmation, and connectedness. Quantitative analysis revealed that pre- and post-test grade point averages (GPAs), disciplinary referrals, and attendance trended in promising directions although there were no statistically significant differences.

In this article, the author uses a "humanizing research" framework to analyze longitudinal data collected over the course of 10 years during a multi-sited ethnography of youth poets in a poetry collective called Power Writing. Using qualitative interviews to understand the role that literacy continues to play in the lives of Power Writing alumni, the author demonstrates how Power Writing continues to influence youth poets' views on education as they continue their lives as college students, workers, parents, and partners.

This article draws on an ethnographic study of a media program serving Hmong immigrant youth to illuminate perspectives and practices of teaching and learning that draw on Hmong culture's emphasis on family and collectivism. Our explication is guided by the following question: How do a Hmong adult youth program advisor and Hmong youth connect as "family" in an educative relationship? It reveals insight for understanding the ways in which low-income, immigrant youth may be supported within educational contexts imbued by an intimacy and reciprocity that revalues the social and cultural dimensions of their lives. The article significantly advances research on the ways in which educators who share with youth the same racialized identity, neighborhood, and community construct learning environments.

Black male adolescents face unique barriers in schools that may contribute to racial disparities in educational outcomes. Their social-cognitive strengths, however, influence their confidence to be academically successful despite these barriers. This study explored whether racial academic stereotypes and racial centrality were associated with and predicted school efficacy among 103 urban Black male adolescents. Findings indicated that racial centrality had the strongest relationship with and was the strongest predictor of school efficacy. Youth mentoring programs and educators who work with urban Black male adolescents play a key role in promoting and shaping their efficacious beliefs toward their academic success.

While after-school programs are plentiful, they are often developed arbitrarily with little attention given to theoretical underpinnings that may inform program interventions. In this article, after-school programs are situated in resilience theory as protective factors, which encourage resilience among young Black males and other urban youth. The resilience literature is explored, granting attention to varying resilience models and contextualizing resilience in young Black males. Several risk factors such as poverty, violence exposure, and academic difficulty, which often plague these young men, are also examined. Finally, after-school programs are introduced as resources for Black males and other urban youth.

Although mentoring programs can produce positive outcomes for youth, more research is needed that offers an account of how Black and Latino male mentors and mentees experience mentoring. This phenomenological study highlights the voices of a mentor and 14 Black and Latino males who are part of the Umoja Network for Young Men (UMOJA) an all-male, in-school mentoring program at an alternative high school that serves overage, under-credited students. We extend the concept of culturally responsive caring by examining notions of reciprocal love and an ethos of care that characterize the mentor's and mentees' discussions of their mentoring experiences.

Collaboration (GDMC), an informal education program in 3D computer modeling and 2D interactive game design serving primarily African American youth aged 7 to 19 years in the Washington, D.C. metro area, transformed from a program designed and taught by adults to one designed and taught by youth. In Year 1, 8% of youth participants held a leadership role; by Year 4, 30% of youth participants did. Moreover, the nature of these roles transformed, with youth increasingly taking on responsibilities formerly held by adults. In this qualitative study, the authors describe and seek to understand this role shifting. Through the extensive collection and analysis of field observations over 4 years, the authors describe qualitative shifts in the agency involved in these roles--moving from a conception of youth as student to assistant to youth as designer and implementer of instruction. The authors analyze changes in youth agency that accompanied their implementation of the "studio mentorship model" where classrooms were transformed from traditional teacher-led classes to studios with a 1:3 ratio of peer mentors to students. The authors describe how, following this shift, youth initiated new instructional roles leading to the creation of a mentor-instructor pipeline. The authors pose the GDMC program as an example to discuss how culturally relevant computing practice emerges from a programmatic goal of viewing youth as assets and actively seeking ways to support youth's initiatives and agency in digital technology education. The authors argue for the value of this asset building in technology education as a way to encourage youth from traditionally underserved groups to become technology leaders and innovators.

In urban secondary schools where underpreparation and dropping out are real world concerns, students understand that their relationships with teachers affect their learning. Using descriptive coding and thematic analysis of focus group data, we explore adolescents' perceptions of the "bridges" that foster and the "barriers" that inhibit supportive relationships with teachers, and the boundary expectations that function as both. The characteristics of supportive student-teacher relationships identified by youth participants suggest a number of teacher practices capable of meeting adolescents' developmental needs and, as such, are likely to positively influence adolescents' developmental and academic trajectories.

The current work presents exploratory research findings concerning African American students' attitudes toward online learning. The Online Tutoring Attitudes Scale (OTAS; Graff, 2003) was administered to 124 African American students in a positive youth development program. Findings suggest that African American students' attitudes toward computers are inconsistent with their attitudes toward online learning. African American students reported positive attitudes toward computers; however, their attitudes reflected anxiety, lack of confidence, and little use for online learning experiences. Implications of this research are relevant to educational interventions, academic achievement, and technological advancement with respect to underrepresented populations. (Contains 1 table.)

This article explores how incarcerated young men talked about the future. I use theories of cultural capital and methods informed by critical discourse analysis to analyze interviews with 15 young men and a series of essays about the future written by 10 different young men. It suggests new directions for analysis and programmatic use of "future talk" by and for incarcerated or similarly marginalized young people, specifically moving beyond well-established binaries of "making it" or "not making it," which characterize research into marginalized young people's aspirations, to focus instead on quieter but readily apparent future talk about "giving back" and "help[ing] others." (Contains 9 notes.)

Discusses the disparity in academic achievement between African American males and males and females from other ethnic groups, recommending after school programs to provide services for addressing and decreasing these disparities. Notes policy issues affecting the targeted population, presents four programs that have successfully improved academic achievement among minority students, and highlights additional ways that after-school programs can develop males' talents above and beyond academic achievement. (Contains references.) (SM)