Purpose: To report preliminary comparisons of developing structural and dialectal characteristics associated with fictional and personal narratives in school-age African American children. Method: Forty-three children, Grades 2-5, generated a fictional narrative and a personal narrative in response to a wordless-book elicitation task and a…

This study examined the nature of science (NOS) views of lower elementary grade level students, including their views of scientists. Participants were 23 third-grade African American students from two Midwest urban settings. A multiple instrument approach using an open-ended questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, a modified version of the…

Policy research highlights educational disparity between Blacks and Whites, thereby, emphasizing the need to determine malleable ecological factors that support the positive development and learning of Black children during the early schooling years. The purpose of this study was to examine whether change in home environment and neighborhood were…

This study investigated the effectiveness of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) for addressing externalizing behavior concerns in African American children at home and school in a low-socioeconomic status (SES), urban setting. A small-n, multiple-baseline design was employed across participants. Three of the six caregivers were unable to…

This article presents a content analysis of nine transitional chapter books featuring African American females. Transitional chapter books are geared toward transitional readers--children in grades 2 through 4 who have outgrown predictable books and other types of easy readers but are not ready for more complex novels. The purpose of this study is…

Previous studies have found that different trajectories of conflicted relationships with teachers predicted academic underachievement. However, little is known about what places children at risk of atypical conflict trajectories. This follow-up study examines whether African American ethnicity, IQ, and socioeconomic status (SES) are unique…

Relations between changes in children's cognitive performance and changes in sleep problems were examined over a 3-year period, and family socioeconomic status, child race/ethnicity, and gender were assessed as moderators of these associations. Participants were 250 second- and third-grade (8-9 years old at Time 1) boys and girls. At each…

The present study investigated possible ethnic contributions to overly positive self-perceptions in middle childhood. The goals of this study were threefold. First, the present study sought to replicate the intriguing findings reported by Zakriski and Coie that African American children overestimate their acceptance, and European American children…

We focused on young, low-income, African American children in first- to third-grade classrooms where they experienced varied forms of interactive, participatory, and dialogic pedagogy in the context of yearlong, integrated science-literacy instruction. Using conversations that started around children's own science journals, which were an important…

Seventy-two first-, third-, and fifth-grade Black children heard stories about Black and White students engaged in computer, physical education, social studies, and spelling tasks at school. Children were asked to evaluate the ability, effort, experience of task difficulty, and likelihood of task success for the story characters. Findings…

Disproportionate representation of minority students in special education programs is a continuing issue of concern. A social emotional curriculum, the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS), was implemented in a classwide and curricular-integrated format with initial effects evaluated for 3 third-grade African American children…

This report addresses the following four questions by reporting on the impacts of Head Start on children and families during the children's preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade years: (1) What difference does Head Start make to key outcomes of development and learning (and in particular, the multiple domains of school readiness) for low-income…

Relations between children's sleep and cognitive functioning were examined over 2 years, and race and socioeconomic status were assessed as moderators of effects. Third-grade African American and European American children (N = 166; M = 8.72 years) participated at Time 1 and again 2 years later (N = 132). At both Time 1 and Time 2, sleep was…

This study continues a line of empirical work examining the extent to which incorporating movement into learning conditions enhances performance for African American students. To date, few studies have examined different types of movement opportunity. As such, five qualitatively different movement conditions were tested in an urban sample of 100…

This study examined the effect of changes in racial identity, cross-race friendships, same-race friendships, and classroom racial composition on changes in race-related social cognition from 3rd to 5th grade for 73 African American children. The goal of the study was to determine the extent to which preadolescent racial identity and social context…