Resettled youth often face many challenges while enrolled in schools, such as expectations to quickly assimilate and acquire English language and literacy skills or being positioned in deficit-oriented ways. In this article, we use qualitative methods to seek to understand how resettled youth positioned themselves as authors and use their writing…

Many researchers have debated potential differences between male and female students' mathematical performance. One important factor that can impact performance is perception of the content. The purpose of the study is to investigate factors that impact high-ability male and female students' perspectives of mathematics. Participants (n = 12;…

The unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges including a need for new curricula, pedagogy, and more accessible forms of professional development (PD). A gap in research exists regarding professional development of educators. This qualitative study used data collected from two surveys, a focus group, and a…

Background & context: Inspired by the nature-cultures of belonging from Black hair care, we conducted a design experiment to bridge computer science (CS) education, urban gardening, and cosmetology in a culturally responsive computing (CRC) library program. Objective: The design was oriented around a small-scale aquaponics system to grow mint…

The United States faces challenges in retaining students of color (SoC), women, and nonbinary individuals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). This study explores the impact of a residential bridge program on STEM persistence for these groups. Participants, who were all women or nonbinary individuals and were 56% SoC and 30%…

Background: STEM participation is often associated with the disenfranchisement of historically marginalized individuals. Disrupting these standing injustices to establish "rightful presence" with equitable opportunity, access, and cultural standing to shape and pursue STEM endeavors in ways that are inclusive of individuals' identities…

The COVID-19 pandemic, along with historical inequities, resulted in a widening of the achievement gap between underserved populations and more advantaged students. In response to this issue, California took action by allocating additional funds to public school districts for out-of-school-time services through the Expanded Learning Opportunities…

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a virtual mentored research program, the National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP), affects sense of belonging among underserved students in science fields. Examining the effects of virtual research programs can contribute to the body of research on ways to instill sense of belonging…

The Center for Gifted Education (Center) at William & Mary has provided diverse enrichment programs for high-ability students since 1988. With an aspiration to serve financially disadvantaged students, the Center developed and hosted a summer residential enrichment program in STEM areas. Camp Launch, for low-income, high-ability middle school…

Benefits of summer bridge and early arrival experiences include the academic and social integration of incoming first-year students into their chosen institutions. The unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic created opportunities to re-imagine delivery of activities and engagement of incoming first-year students in summer bridge and early…

Shortage of highly-skilled STEM workers, lack of critical technical skills, and persistence of underrepresentation are key problems for our nation's future. The Arkansas Summer Research Institute (ASRI) incorporates novel approaches to broaden participation in STEM, research, and data analytics, especially among URM students (over 50% of ASRI…

Cultural humility is a framework for engaging in self-reflection, self-critique, and reflective practice to cultivate respectful relationships and understand power and privilege. Using duoethnography, we applied cultural humility to our youth work at summer camp and in a social skills group for Autistic youth. Our integrative analysis shows how…

College retention is a topic of concern for many leaders of post-secondary institutions. This study explores the multifaceted elements of a summer bridge program aimed at bolstering college retention for minority first-generation students through a combination of mentorship, academic support, and community-building initiatives. The purpose of the…

This study explored the affective outcomes students perceived from participating in a summer program and the program components that contributed to participants' perceived affective development. Participants were 55 middle school students (29 girls) with intellectual gifts who participated in a 4-day-long residential program conducted in a western…

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) is an educational framework that illustrates how to foster educational excellence through a focus on cultural competence, critical consciousness, and academic success, which aims to empower students by making education more applicable and responsive to their lived experiences (Ladson-Billings, 1995). This study…