Gamification--the use of game mechanics in conventionally nongame activities--has received attention in the field of education. Games, however, are not reducible to the common mechanisms of gamification that target extrinsic motivation, and may also include elements such as role playing, world making, and collective storytelling. Here, the authors…

Andrea Faye Hart is a community journalist and teaching artist who experiments with citizen media to especially empower youth. She runs a civic media and a catharsis through media-making programs for Free Spirit Media, as well as a verse and investigative journalism program for Young Chicago Authors. In this article, as a teaching artist working…

In this article, the author talks about a summer program at the African American Adolescent Male Summer Literacy Institute which aims to improve literacy skills of black male teens. The African American Adolescent Male Summer Literacy Institute is now in its fourth year at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC). Alfred Tatum, director of the…

This study evaluated effects of "Positive Action," a school-based social-emotional and character development intervention, on indicators of positive youth development (PYD) among a sample of low-income, ethnic minority youth attending 14 urban schools. The study used a matched-pair, cluster-randomized controlled design at the school…

This study reports efforts to locate and survey participants in Project Northland Chicago (PNC), a longitudinal, group-randomized trial of an alcohol preventive intervention for racial/ethnic minority, urban, early-adolescents, 3-4 years following the end of the intervention. Data were collected annually among students from 6th-8th grade and then…

In this paper, we aim to contribute to ongoing work to uncover the ways in which settler colonialism is entrenched and reified in educational environments and explore lessons learned from an urban Indigenous land-based education project. In this project, we worked to re-center our perceptual habits in Indigenous cosmologies, or land-based…

This article describes the work of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy[R] (IMSA). Three "case stories" of students from IMSA illuminate some of the: (1) challenges and opportunities inherent in igniting science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent in urban youth and ensuring their success; (2) principles for…

Background: Extant literature contends that it can be difficult for White preservice teachers to develop culturally relevant curriculum for the diverse students whom they will encounter in classrooms. Though there is a significant body of research about culturally responsive pedagogy, teacher education programs have struggled with how to best…

Since 1976, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has relocated low-income children of color from public housing communities to less racially and economically isolated neighborhoods in an effort to improve their developmental opportunities. This article provides the first comprehensive evaluation summary of seven relocation…

Alcoholic beverage consumption among high school students has shifted from beer to liquor. The current longitudinal study examined the effects of beverage-specific alcohol use on drinking behaviors among urban youth. Data included 731 adolescents who participated in Project Northland Chicago and reported consuming alcohol in 7th grade. Logistic…

We draw on collective efficacy theory to extend a contextual model of early adolescent sexual behavior. Specifically, we hypothesize that neighborhood structural disadvantage--as measured by levels of concentrated poverty, residential instability, and aspects of immigrant concentration--and diminished collective efficacy have consequences for the…

Teaching in an urban setting is not usually easy and sometimes leads to frustration. Some teachers have to find new and creative ways to address the challenges and situations they encounter in certain schools and with certain groups of students. This article describes each of four "bailout" structures that the author came up with to make…

The authors investigated a comprehensive set of predictors of high school completion and years of completed education for youth in the Chicago Longitudinal Study, an ongoing investigation of over 1500 low-income, minority children who grew up on high-poverty neighborhoods. The study sample included 1286 youth for whom educational attainment could…

Much research and many policy initiatives to date have focused on access to postsecondary education. However, despite the fact that college attendance has increased considerably over the last three decades, the proportion of students who complete college has decreased. This lack of persistence and degree completion in college, especially among…

This study used self-report symptom inventories administered in school classrooms to examine relations among gender, psychological symptoms, stress, and coping in 1,200 low-income African American urban early adolescents. Girls reported more symptoms than boys, accounted for by higher internalizing symptoms. Boys reported more stress than girls,…