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Suicide rates among Black youth have risen faster than any other racial/ethnic group in the past two decades. Black youth residing in rural areas are subject to systemic challenges such as minimal access to mental healthcare providers, generational poverty and oppressive social structures that lead to racial discrimination. Racial discrimination places rural Black youth at increased risk for anxiety, depression, and suicide. Protective factors have been found to mitigate the negative impact of racial discrimination on mental health, but there is limited research covering suicidality and Black youth. This scoping review explores what is known about the role of protective factors in moderating the association between racism/discrimination and suicide risk among Black youth in the United States. Findings were mixed regarding the influence of protective factors in moderating the effects of racial discrimination on suicide risk and more exploration among Black youth in impoverished rural areas is warranted.

Online racial discrimination (ORD) has been found to have deleterious effects on the psychological and academic outcomes of youth of color. Racial centrality (i.e., the extent to which one regards their racial group membership as important to their identity) may be a powerful buffer of these effects and has been identified as an important sociocultural asset for Black youth in particular. This study examined the relations among ORD, racial centrality, academic self-efficacy (ASE), and academic achievement among Black children and adolescents (ages 8-17). Results indicated that ORD and centrality increased with age, and the majority (76%) of youth reported at least one incident of ORD in the last year. Racial centrality moderated ORD's relationship with ASE but not with achievement; specifically, ORD and ASE were more strongly related at higher levels of centrality. Centrality was not significantly related to achievement; however, it was indirectly related to achievement via ASE. These findings underscore the importance of disrupting ORD as well as providing support for children and adolescents who experience it. This study also highlights racial centrality as an important mechanism for promoting academic achievement among Black youth.

This study investigated microaggressions Black children experienced in early childhood education during the pandemic. Using racial microaggressions as a framework, we sought to gain insights into these experiences through counter-narratives from parents of Black children. Parents provided unique insights into their children's experiences, giving voice to their daily realities in early learning contexts. This article focuses on how Black children are treated with second-class student status. Black children being positioned with second-class status was the most predominant theme from this work during the pandemic. This is noteworthy, as few studies have considered how the pandemic uniquely shaped Black children's educational realities.

The prevalence of mental health challenges continues to worsen among adolescents, with Black American adolescents experiencing rates of suicide attempts that are increasing faster than any other racial and ethnic groups. Research has found that the neighborhood environment impacts mental health through the type and level of stress that people experience generally. More is yet to be known, however, about the biological and psychological impacts of the neighborhood environment on stress among Black American adolescents. This study used a scoping review to explore the neighborhood environment's contribution to stress among Black American adolescent's, specifically. Seven bibliographic databases were used to identify relevant studies. Ten articles met eligibility criteria and were included in this review. Findings reveal that the biological stress response to neighborhood poverty and community violence has implications for mental and behavioral health functioning in adolescence. Implications for future research and interventions are discussed.

This phenomenological study used individual interviews with ten graduate students in school counseling and school psychology to understand their experiences in a University-Church service-learning partnership to support PreK-12th grade youth in response to COVID-19. Most graduate participants identified as White/Non-Hispanic, and all youth served identified as Black. Hence, the study's purpose was to examine participants' (a) general perceptions of the program and (b) perceptions of how the program contributed to their multicultural competence and social justice-orientation. Findings reflect two broad themes for research aim one: (a) adaptive and holistic direct intervention skill development and (b) presence and connection with marginalized youth. Four broad themes emerged relative to research aim two: (a) multicultural attitudes and beliefs development, (b) multicultural knowledge development, (c) multicultural skill development, and (d) advocacy and allyship relative to social justice practice. Recommendations for school mental health training programs are offered.

The authors investigated cultural resourcefulness among seven Black middle-class families who proactively collaborated to ensure their children's academic excellence in a highly racialized suburban community in southern California. Their children achieved high grades and successfully entered and completed higher education at elite U.S. institutions, despite pervasive experiences of racial discrimination in their K-12 years. Parents and their children were interviewed to determine how the parent group contributed to the success of these students. The authors describe three major pathways the families used to maximize and safeguard their children's education: (1) psychologically preparing children to excel in school, (2) reforming schools through collective advocacy to successfully educate Black students, and (3) engaging and empowering other Black parents with key resources and knowledge to help their children succeed. This research presents an exemplary model of self-initiated collective action to strengthen Black youths' and families' educational experiences, particularly when in the extreme racial minority. Implications for theory and practice are addressed.

This article examines children's literature written by African American teachers during the first part of the twentieth century. Drawing on theories of racialization, I analyze children's books written by two African American teachers: Helen Adele Whiting (1885-1959) and Jane Dabney Shackelford (1895-1979). I argue that their books represented more than an effort toward greater Black representation in schools; they also served as a contribution to a larger discourse on Blackness and identity that emerged during the "New Negro" movement. In this view, African American teachers were not mere passive recipients of an outside Black culture, but rather intellectual actors involved in the production of racial identity during the interwar period.

The purpose of this study was to describe community partners' (CPs) perceptions of an out-of-school swimming program (OSSP) for under­served children and youth. Participants were four CPs associated with the OSSP during three consecutive summers and parents of the children and youth who participated in the program. We employed a theoretical perspective derived from the literature on community-engaged scholarship and worked within the interpretive paradigm through a descriptive case study design. We collected data with five qualitative techniques. They were analyzed through analytic induction and constant comparison. Key findings were that CPs found the OSSP to be relevant, to have a high level of reciprocity, and to be resilient. The OSSP was shown to counter structural, institutional, personal, and cultural barriers that limited underserved children's and youth's access to and value of swimming. The research and assessment data generated during the OSSP led to little reflection or program improvement. Others aiming to design similar programs may benefit from examining the organizational structure and content of the OSSP.

The constant dehumanization of Black fathers and boys in the media, education, politics, pop culture, and society is traumatic. Deficit perspectives and a racialized political climate often negatively portray the moral, familial, and relational practices that Black fathers and boys engage in with their family members in their homes. Using humanizing research as a framework, we found how photo-elicitation interviews (PEIs) from two separate qualitative studies of a 39-year-old father and a 13-year-old boy helped to evoke deeper meaning and discussions of images of Black men and boys engaging in familial practices and reflecting on school-related events. We argue that humanizing images, especially of Black fathers and boys, can decolonize methodologies between the researcher and participant and provide a complex and unique understanding of Black fathers and boys in educational research. We offer suggestions for using PEI to influence research to build relationships and humanize participants' stories and lives.

This study utilized data from the Family Life Project (FLP) to examine Head Start children's school readiness skills at the end of preschool in comparison to two other care groups: home-based care and other center-based care. The FLP study enrolled a birth-cohort of 1,292 children born in two historically low-wealth, rural regions of the U.S., with oversampling of children from low-wealth families and African American families. Propensity score weighting adjusted for differences in baseline child and family characteristics between the Head Start participants and children in the two alternative care groups. Research Findings: The results indicated that the Head Start group had higher literacy skills at the end of preschool in comparison to the home-based care group ([beta] = 0.36), but no other reliable differences emerged between these groups in school readiness skills. No reliable differences emerged between the Head Start and other center-based care groups in school readiness skills. Practice and Policy: Implications for educational practice and policy were discussed in relation to Head Start programming in rural America, including potential targets for program improvement and strategies for program expansion.

The prison abolition movement has brought attention to the American carceral crisis, or better yet, the mass incarceration and disproportionate criminalization of Black people in America. It has also led to and fomented recent calls to defund prison systems, the police, and to remove police from schools. While discussions of prison abolition have been addressed in the carceral studies literature, they are seldom addressed in the education literature and particularly in early childhood education. Given the ways in which young Black children are and have been negatively impacted by issues of mass incarceration (e.g. absence of family members, school-prison nexus), the lack of attention to the American carceral crisis and teaching about prison abolition is beyond concerning and contributes to the stanchless anti-Black violence Black children face in early childhood classrooms. Drawing on Pro-Blackness, the imprisoned Black radical tradition, and abolitionist teaching, we introduce what we term "prison abolition literacies"--literacies practices that bring awareness to the injustices of the carceral state and encourage young children to become prison abolitionists--so that teachers can infuse prison abolition into the early childhood education curriculum.

The early years are a critical period for setting children up for school and life. For Black children who are exposed to adversities before and after birth, early childhood education (ECE) has been shown as one potentially strategy to mitigate against systemic inequities. However, evidence continues to show the negative impact of structural racism and system inequities in the lives of Black children. While Black children continue to thrive even in the face of biased experiences and unfairness, it is imperative that simultaneous attention focus on how to best support the well-being Black children and address systemic racism. This paper discusses ECE and its evidence and calls for policies and strategies that dismantle racism inherent in ECE by ensuring equitable funding, equity-centered monitoring, and equity-centered assessment of family engagement. To support Black children's health, development, and well-being, we must attend to policies that address equitable access, supports, experiences, and outcomes.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare word-initial and word-final consonant cluster productions in young children who speak African American English (AAE) and compare their productions to what we know about cluster productions in children who speak Mainstream American English (MAE), in order to minimize misdiagnosis of speech sound disorders. Method: Twenty-two children (ages 2;10-5;4 [years;months]) labeled pictures whose names contained at least one consonant cluster in word-initial and/or word-final position. Most two-element clusters of English were sampled, the majority in two or more words. The participants' responses were transcribed using a consensus transcription procedure. Each cluster attempt was analyzed for its similarity with MAE. Results: Percentage matching scores were significantly higher for word-initial than word-final clusters. Word-final clusters produced as singletons were significantly more common than word-final cluster substitutions. However, word-initial cluster substitutions were significantly more common than word-initial clusters produced as singletons. Word-initial cluster mismatches were consistent with markedness theory and the sonority sequencing principle (SSP). By contrast, word-final cluster mismatches were not consistent with the SSP, while the voicing generalization seen in adult speakers of AAE was evident. Conclusion: Culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment of phonological development in children who speak AAE requires an understanding of the contrastive and noncontrastive features exemplified in their consonant cluster productions.

Racial identity development in young children is influenced by interactions with teachers and curriculum in schools. This article, using the framework of critical race theory, critical literacy, and critical pedagogy, explores how three elementary-aged Black children view their own identity development. Specifically, observing how children interact with Movement-Oriented Civil Rights-Themed Children's Literature (MO-CRiTLit) in the context of a non-traditional summer literacy program, Freedom Schools, to influence their Black identity. Professional development and preservice teacher preparation are needed to support teachers as they navigate through learning about pedagogical practices that increase student engagement.

Couched within a larger critique of assessment practices and how they are used to stigmatize African American children, the authors examine teachers' instructional practices in response to demands of increasing test scores. Many mathematics teachers might be unaware of how these test-driven instructional practices can simultaneously reflect well-intentioned motivations and contribute to the oppression of their African American students. The authors further argue that the focus of assessing African American children via comparison to white children reveals underlying institutionally based racist assumptions about the competencies of African American students. Strategies are suggested for helping teachers resist test-driven instructional practices while promoting excellence and empowerment for African American students in mathematics. [Originally published in the inaugural December 2008 issue of the "Journal of Urban Mathematics Education" ("JUME").]

The contributions, participation, and exploitation of Black people within science and science education are devalued within the cannon of science teaching and learning. This in part is due to the Eurocentric nature of science and education. As a result, Black youth participate in science regularly; however, it is overlooked, not recognized, and/or misinterpreted within formal learning experiences. In this qualitative case study, the authors address this tension through the oral traditions of storytelling which historicize Black excellence in science while centering the voices and engagement of youth as scientists. This work is guided by critical race theory as a means of critiquing science education and its practices. While presenting a counter-narrative to mainstream science descriptions of Black youth, the authors posit the role of liberatory science education for Black learners.

Black children today fight to define their own futurity beyond the myth of low aspirations -- a dominant societal ideology which limits Black success to careers in professional sports and entertainment and blames Black families and communities for devaluing education. Informed by career aspiration research and qualitative methodologies, this study illuminates the career dreams and aspirations of Black children ages 8 to 14 years old enrolled in a summer reading program. Analyses of drawings and interviews from 12 focal children demonstrate how Black youth: 1) articulated career aspirations through Africentric values related to Black self-determination, collective uplift and personal interests; and 2) perceived familial and community support for career aspirations as nurturing relationships, specialized career knowledge, and academic support. The article concludes with a discussion of community-based and education-oriented strategies that honor and expand the career aspirations of Black children.

The identification of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during the first two years of life has become more promising; however, the probability of early ASD diagnoses does not always extend to African American children. This disparity has decreased the likelihood that African American children will benefit from early intervention services. This qualitative inquiry explored, via semi-structured interviews, the perceived factors that facilitate and impede early diagnoses and access to services among African American parents of young children with ASD. A constant comparative approach was employed and 15 themes related to diagnoses, services, and recommendations emerged (e.g., parent knowledge of ASD as a facilitator to diagnosis, "aggressive advocacy" as a barrier to accessing services, and parent education as a recommendation for addressing identified barriers). Parent advocacy and partnerships with professionals were overarching themes in this study. Implications for parent training related to knowledge of ASD, parent advocacy, and partnerships with professionals are discussed.

This essay examines the first detailed study of gifted African American youth: Lillian Steele Proctor's master's thesis from the late 1920s on Black children in Washington, DC. Unlike formative research on gifted children by educational psychologists, Proctor's investigation emphasized children's experiences at school, home, and community in determining their abilities, opportunities, and accomplishments. Proctor's work also anticipated African American intellectuals' critiques of racist claims about intelligence and giftedness that would flourish in the 1930s. In focusing on the nation's capital, her investigation drew from a municipality with a high proportion of African American residents that was segregated by law. Proctor pointed directly to systemic racism as both contributing to the relative invisibility of gifted African American youth and in thwarting opportunities to realize their intellectual potential. In an environment of racial subordination and segregation, these gifted children found themselves excluded from cultural resources and educational opportunities.

Children with autism and their families often face challenges accessing early intervention and related services. African American children face additional challenges due to disparities in diagnoses and access to services. These disparities present a great need for parent advocacy to combat culturally insensitive service delivery and strained parent-professional partnerships. In this sequential mixed methods study, we piloted a 6-week parent-training intervention (FACES) among African American parents of children with autism and evaluated participants' empowerment, advocacy, and partnerships pre- and postintervention. Results indicated that parents' advocacy, sense of empowerment, and community support were strengthened, following the FACES program. Participants also described the FACES intervention as socially valid. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to a growing body of work (re)imagining the future for Black girls by calling Western notions of time into question. At its core, this paper argues that all Black girls are imaginative beings and that it is essential that Black girlhood imagination as a mode of future-making praxis be considered an integral component in the pursuit of Black liberation. To do such the author engages Black feminist futurity Campt (2017) and Black Quantum Futurity Phillips (2015) to illuminate ways a reconceptualization of time provides us with an analytical tool to amplify Black girls' liberatory fantasies. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review was conducted to synthesize Black girls' freedom dreams (Kelley, 2002) across time in an effort to demonstrate that Black girls, despite their conditions, are experts in self-defining their dreams of the future. It also highlights methods that researchers use to elucidate the freedom dreams of Black girls years past. Findings: This paper underscores the urgency in applying future-oriented research practices in the attempt to create a new world for Black girls. It also demonstrates that Black girls have always been and always be, imaginative beings that engaged in future-making dreaming. Research limitations/implications: The author offers a conceptual framework for researchers committed to witnessing Black girl imaginations and in an effort to work in concert with Black girls to get them freer, faster. Originality/value: This paper makes the argument that studying the imaginations and freedom dreams of Black girls requires the employment of future-oriented theories that have a racial, gender and age-based analysis.

Drawing on translanguaging and raciolinguistics frameworks in an ethnographic case study, this article contextualizes how young Black American children engage in rich literacy practices to validate their cultural and linguistic identities in an elementary, two-way immersion bilingual program. Findings demonstrated that despite teachers' perceived flexible linguistic spaces, Black American students mediated their verbal dexterities while resisting hegemonic whiteness norms in bilingual programs to create space for linguistic flexibility. The authors share implications for bilingual teachers who teach African American children and call for bilingual educators to reimagine a transformative space that moves from translanguaging policies to explicitly valuing the unique linguistic repertoires of Black children.

Purpose: In this mixed-methods study, we address two aims. First, we examine the impact of language variation on the ratings of children's narrative language. Second, we identify participants' ideologies related to narrative language and language variation. Method: Forty adults listened to and rated six Black second-grade children on the quality of 12 narratives (six fictional, six personal). Adults then completed a quantitative survey and participated in a qualitative interview. Results: Findings indicated that adults rated students with less variation from mainstream American English (MAE) more highly than students with greater variation from MAE for fictional narratives, but not for personal narratives. Personal narratives tended to be evaluated more favorably by parents than teachers. Black raters tended to assign higher ratings of narrative quality than did White raters. Thematic analysis and conversation analysis of qualitative interviews supported quantitative findings and provided pertinent information about participants' beliefs. Conclusion: Taken together, quantitative and qualitative results point to a shared language ideology among adult raters of variation from MAE being more acceptable in informal contexts, such as telling a story of personal experience, and less acceptable in more formal contexts, such as narrating a fictional story prompted by a picture sequence.

This article examines the partnership between a teacher and teacher educator disrupting a colonized early childhood curriculum that fosters a dominance of whiteness by replacing it with the beauty and brilliance of Blackness. We explore the following research question: "What are the affordances of teaching from an Afrocentric stance in a first-grade classroom?" We employ Afrocentrism, which includes African cultural principles as the paradigm, and our theoretical lenses are Critical Race Theory and Black Critical Theory. Our Sankofa methodology revealed that African Diaspora literacies fostered (a) positive racial and gender identities, (b) community, and (c) positive linguistic identities in the work to help children to love themselves, their histories, and their peoples. We close with implications.

In these unprecedented times, educators need to infuse equity and justice into their discipline practices. Whether operating in-person or remotely, the schools that succeed this year will be the ones that put mental health at the center of all policies and practices, says Micere Keels, director of the Trauma Responsive Educational Practices Project at the University of Chicago.

This article offers examples of valiant efforts to develop meaningful instructional implications from learning styles scholarship. Additionally, an example is given of an advance in the public policy arena that merges the efforts of psychological scholars with that of lawmakers to apply their research to effect change for children. The "Brown" decision was a stellar example in which Lead Attorney Thurgood Marshall and his team were buffeted by the scholarship of Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark (1963, 1965). They provided empirical data that documented that the "separate but equal" doctrine of education was psychologically devastating to Negro children. It is recommended that contemporary public policy architects follow in their footsteps.

While the role of early maternal parenting practices in the development of executive functions (EFs) has received considerable attention in the literature, little is known about how specific parenting behaviours may be related to EFs within different racial groups. Therefore, the present study examines the joint impact of specific maternal parenting behaviours -- warmth and intrusiveness -- on EFs among African American children. The sample included 121 children and their mothers who participated in home and lab visits over the first five years of the child's life. As hypothesized, the interaction between warmth (i.e. positive regard) and intrusiveness predicted EFs. However, contrary to our hypothesis, the combination of high levels of warmth and high intrusiveness was associated with poorer EFs. This unexpected finding is discussed in the context of prior research.

Between 1993 and 2012, the suicide rates for African American children between the ages of five and eleven doubled whereas rates for Caucasian children in the same age group declined. Although suicide rates were higher among males, a significant increase in female suicides is causing alarm. The growing number of suicides among African American female children warrants a deeper investigation into the state of African American female fragility and the reasons why a small but growing subgroup of children views suicide as their only option for escape. The extant literature points to bullying as the underlying reason for the increase in suicide rates among African American female children. However, research has also suggested that the reasons for this increase in suicide may be better explained by relational aggression and a lack of understanding of cultural differences within this subgroup. Results of the study will provide valuable insights for social workers, educators, and parents, as well as knowledge upon which future training can be based to ensure that social workers who work with African American females in therapeutic and school settings are culturally competent. The results reinforce the necessity of educating social workers about the difference between relational aggression and bullying and how to respond appropriately when African American females exhibit maladaptive behaviors.

Three aspects of cognition (fluid intelligence, executive functioning, and crystallized intelligence) in pre-K were examined as predictors of math and reading achievement in kindergarten among an economically diverse sample of 198 African American children. From a variable-centered perspective, confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the three aspects of cognition can be distinguished. Subsequent regression analyses indicated that only executive functioning and crystallized intelligence predicted math and reading achievement in kindergarten. From a person-centered perspective, three profiles of cognition were identified: low fluid and crystallized intelligence with average executive functioning, average abilities in all three areas, and high abilities in all three areas, but particularly higher in executive functioning. Children with low fluid and crystallized intelligence during pre-K had the lowest math and reading skills in kindergarten, whereas children with the highest cognitive skills had the highest math and reading skills in kindergarten. Together, the variable-centered and person-centered results suggest that perhaps there should be increased focus on crystallized intelligence in early education programs, policies, and interventions in addition to a focus on executive functioning.