This article reports findings from a quasi-experimental study of the impact of a summer robotics program for urban middle-grade students. The study focuses on student engagement, measured by school attendance rate the year following the program. Program students, who were nearly all low-income minority students, were matched to comparison students…

This article reveals inequity as a longitudinal construction involving the cumulation of micro/macroaggressions for children who live in high-poverty communities and attend poorly funded schools. Drawing on critical race theory and empirical research that documents forms of micro/macroaggression, a longitudinal analysis is used to identify forms…

The present case study investigated the impact of a short-term summer literacy approach on writing performance and self-perception of writing for young adolescents of low-income families residing in urban housing projects. The approach offered intensive literacy engagement to offset summer achievement loss; assisted ethnic-minority, low…

This study explores how a genre-based approach to writing instruction influenced by both genre theory and systemic functional linguistics supported the academic writing development of English language learners (ELLs) transitioning to middle school. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as a tool for pedagogy and linguistic analysis, the…

The Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) Yearbook, Volume 34, includes papers presented at the annual conference, which have gone through a double peer review process. It also includes the Presidential Address and the keynote addresses given at the conference. For ALER's 55th annual meeting, the Association of Literacy…